Saints select Texas offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. with their first-round pick at 9th overall

METAIRIE, La. (AP) — The New Orleans Saints selected Texas offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. with the No. 9 overall pick in the NFL draft Thursday night.

Banks joined New Orleans one day after general manager Mickey Loomis said the Saints would not be picking up a fifth-year option on right tackle Trevor Penning, a 2022 late first-rounder who now enters his final season under contract.

The 6-foot-5, 315-pound Banks, who won the 2024 Outland Trophy as the top lineman in college football, will be expected to compete right away for a starting role — if not at tackle then possibly at guard.

Parse.ly - related stories

GM Loomis: Saints lacking ‘clarity’ on QB Derek Carr’s ‘shoulder issue’

 

Saints’ Kellen Moore enters his first NFL draft as a head coach seeking good fits for new schemes

 

Scot Loeffler leaving Bowling Green to become quarterbacks coach for the Philadelphia Eagles

 

“I’ll play whatever, man,” Banks said, noting that he would expect to be comfortable on either side of the line despite playing left tackle for the Longhorns.

“If I’m (one of) the best five (linemen) on the field and I get an opportunity to go out there and start and to earn that right, then I’m going to play wherever they put me.”

This is the second year in a row the Saints have used their first-round choice on an offensive tackle after taking Taliese Fuaga, who started at left tackle as a rookie last season. The Saints also have used their top draft pick on an offensive lineman four times since 2019, when they selected center Erik McCoy early in the second round.

“This is a trenches game. The game is won up front in a lot of ways,” Saints first-year coach Kellen Moore said after the first round ended late Thursday night. “We’re building a strength in that offensive line.”

New Orleans selected interior lineman Cesar Ruiz in the first round in 2020. Penning was New Orleans’ second of two first-round picks in 2022.

But Banks is the first player to be chosen by the Saints under Moore, who is coming off a Super Bowl championship with Philadelphia as the Eagles’ offensive coordinator.

Banks met Moore at the NFL combine in February and found him to be “a great guy.”

“He kind of lets his players be who they are,” Banks said. “He wants to understand you, wants to understand where you come from and things like that. So, definitely a good meeting with him at the combine.”

Banks described himself as a smart, physical, and fast-thinking player with quick feet who can play “in any scheme or any type of offense.”

He also demonstrated toughness and a commitment to his team when he played through an ankle injury in last season’s College Football Playoff, helping the Longhorns advance to the semifinals.

“I was able to battle through the pain and kind of just tough it out for my team, just because I knew how much I meant as a cornerstone lineman for them,” Banks said.

The Saints also entered the draft with one second-round selection (40th overall), two in the third round (71st and 93rd), two in the fourth (112th and 131st), one in the sixth and two in the seventh.

The second round begins Friday night, when the Saints will hope to draft some instant contributors as they try to bounce back from a 5-12 record, their worst since going 3-13 in 2005.

“We feel like we’re going to be able to help this team in a lot of ways with the guys that are still on that (draft) board,” Moore said.

New Orleans also is trying to end a four-year playoff drought that began after the retirement of record-setting quarterback Drew Brees.

“I went to UT when they were trying to turn that program around,” Banks noted. “The biggest thing for me is buying into the coach’s culture.

“I just do what I can and my part for the team — not try to worry about what somebody else is doing, but worry about what I can do to help the team win,” Banks added.

Banks has a baby boy named Khalil who wound up getting some air time when the Saints called Banks at his draft party in Houston to inform him that he was their pick. As the camera panned to Khalil, seated nearby on his mother’s lap, he spit up.

“The first thing I did was check (social media), and that’s all I saw,” Banks said with a laugh. “It was so hilarious.”

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl