The Saints’ affinity for Ohio State productions continued Thursday night in the 2022 NFL Draft.
New Orleans traded the Washington captains for a move to No. 11 and her case over the Buckeyes receiver Chris Olaf.
Washington received the Saints’ 16th, 98th and 120th picks in the 2022 NFL Draft for the 11th overall pick.
Olaf joins his teammate Garrett Wilson As the second star for Ohio State to hear his name on the first night of the draft, he only had to wait just minutes to follow his teammate on the Las Vegas stage and make the Buckeyes selection back-to-back. Olaf dominated during his training at the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine, excelling in testing and dazzling spectators with his field training, capping an excellent college career that began as a junior playmaker at the Buckeyes and continued into his final season in Columbus.
The All-Big Ten selection for the first team twice set a career record for receiving touchdowns during his time with the Buckeyes, and finding the end zone through the air 35 times between 2018-2021. He saved his best in the end, ending his career 13 times receiving relegation in 2021, leading the Big Ten and earning second-team All-American honors.
The biggest blow to Olaf is his size. As NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah noted recently, Olaf stands medium height and carries a light frame, but he uses that to create a space with excellent speed and streamlines through his roads, which Jeremiah described as “surgical.”
Home hitter Olaf will be looking to do so with the Saints. He will have to get to know quarterback James Winston, but should fit in well with a receiving team that also includes Michael ThomasAnd Marquis Callaway And Tre’Quan Smith. Thomas, a former classmate of Buckeye, had a feeling he would welcome another Ohio producer to the Big Easy.