Dave Ziegler joining the Saints as an advisor for Free Agency and the draft (Saints permanently hire Ziegler as Personnel Advisor)

33rd team did an analysis a few years ago, where they determined draft success by total AV from draft picks. They looked at the period from 2015-2021, and the Saints obviously ranked pretty well thanks to the 2016 and 2017 drafts.

I looked at the same numbers for the drafts from 2018-2022, here's what I came up with:

Total Approximate Value
The Saints have the lowest total approximate value from the draft, at 235. The Ravens lead with 636. The Raiders were 19th.

Approximate Value/Pick
Some teams have more picks than others, so how much value did teams get per pick? The Saints had fewer draft picks than every other team, so it stands to reason they would likely have the lowest total value.

On a per pick basis, the Saints were 26th, with 8.7/pick. The Raiders were 17th, with 10.1/pick.

Approximate Value - Adjusted for Draft Pick Value
Teams with higher picks should be getting better players on average, so how much value did teams get adjusting for the selections they had? Like 33rd Team, I used the Fitzgerald-Spielberger Draft Value Chart to determine the value of each pick, and used that to adjust the value from each pick.

The Saints remained toward the bottom, at 28th in total value compared given the draft selections we had. On a per pick basis, we did well, finishing 7th overall when adjusting for which picks we had.

The Conclusion
We drafted well given the selections we had, but have had limited "total success" due to a lack of draft capital. The average team had 40 picks over the period, the Saints only had 27. Given the age of our roster and the associated cap commitments, it may be worth it to stand pat and/or trade back this year to try and find more quality starters and depth players.