Who would you take at #9 in this scenario

St. Widge said
That's a valid point of view, but I personally think that this Saints team needs to take the player that is the most likely to be the best player long term. I get that we are trying to be competitive, but I think we all know that we are at best looking at competing for the NFC South this year with a 9 or 10 win team. So, we really need to be looking at the long term and who is going to be the best player in 2 or 3 years. I'm not sure who that is, but I'm very leery of taking a guy who is a long term injury risk given how much injuries have hurt this team recently.

And, honestly, if we are going with who is going to be the best starter short term, that answer is probably Campbell even if he's only a Guard. And, I don't think any of us want to take a Guard at #9 and, frankly, I think even a good to very good ILB is only slightly better value than an OG at #9.

The other option if you want a starter, for the short and long term, would be the best available Safety. Which again isn't great value.

And, that's the problem. If this scenario plays out, there aren't any great options and trading down if probably the best of bad options. Just have to hope someone really wants to move up to take Dart or on of the OL or Edges.

Safety makes a lot of sense. That can be Mathieu’s replacement in ‘26 or at some point during the 2025 season. Taking a Safety can allow Mathieu to be used more at multiple positions as a safety, nickel, and passing down ILB to take advantage of his ball hawk skills. I think a Safety pick would be considered an experienced day 1 starter prospect succeeding an aging star vet.

Looking at the Saints’ last 5 1st round picks, they’ve usually drafted a starter experienced at their position/position group to be the top player at a glaring hole. Fuaga never played LT but he was the most talented Saints OT enough to move to LT while it was only the opposite OT position. Bresee was a DT drafted to be the top DT/DL. Penning started mostly LT at UNI and drafted to be Armstead’s LT successor. Olave was OSU’s WR3 in targets but drafted because of his WR1 ceiling which he eventually became with the Saints as a rookie. Payton Turner was a developmental DE pick who they hoped could develop into a starter long term while we had a win now roster with Sean Payton as HC.

Based on their recent draft history, they’ve added immediate starters with their 1st round picks to fill a hole, rather than on basis of competing short term.
It seems best to get a day 1 starter with a high pick because their long term outlook to be a productive starter is more apparent. I think the Saints have to be very careful with drafting developmental players that high at #9 to not repeat another Turner or Davenport. They don’t want to spend multiple years hoping their development at a new position is going to pan out any year now during the rookie contract. They would have to keep drafting players at their position while they wait for the developmental 1st rounder to breakout or because they showed that they’ll never be a long term starter and became a wasted top 10 pick.