Nofziger nabs another Saints receiver, robot adds the spare

Christian Nofziger made eleven of his own picks this year, which sounds unremarkable until the archive reminds everyone that he autodrafted all fifteen in 2019, all fifteen in 2022 and all fourteen in 2023. Three machine picks is the second-lowest total of his career, and it is genuine progress. The machine repaid the trust by spending pick 149 on Isiah Pacheco, a running back who was listed on Injured Reserve the day of the draft and projects 79.0 points, and then pick 204 on Devaughn Vele, the Saints' second receiver, to sit directly behind the Saints' first receiver Nofziger had already taken at 21.

That first Saints receiver is the older story. Chris Olave went three spots ahead of the market, and Nofziger has been doing exactly this since Michael Thomas in 2017, then again in 2019, then again in 2022. The bill for it arrived one pick later: Trey McBride (201.0 points) went at 22 and Brock Bowers (196.2 points) went at 23, and Tua Many Concussions instead paid pick 85 for Travis Kelce and his 147.9 points, ninth of sixteen among this league's starting tight ends. Kelce is not a hole so much as a shrug, but he is the shrug that was available for free eleven picks earlier.

The finished roster projects 1540.3 points, twelfth of sixteen, and its defining feature is that nothing about it is actually broken. Nothing here finishes last. Almost nothing here finishes well. Jaxson Dart is thirteenth of sixteen at quarterback with 300.7 points in a year when the best in the league projects 370.0; Jaylen Waddle is the WR2 at 175.4 points, tenth of sixteen; the Lions defense is tenth, Tyler Loop is tenth. The two decent things are Quinshon Judkins, seventh of sixteen in the flex at 198.2 points, and Chase Brown, eighth of sixteen at 253.2. That is a lineup with no disaster to point at and no week where it wins on talent, which is a harder problem than a gaping hole, because a hole can be traded for.