The tight end room is one of the New Orleans Saints ' most improved rooms headed into the 2023 season. After re-signing Juwan Johnson and effectively exchanging now-Denver Bronco Adam Trautman for former Las Vegas Radiers tight end Foster Moreau, the position's outlook has changed drastically. Now, the Saints not only have a shot at a top-flight duo at the position, they may end up with a trio of viable options thanks to 2022 undrafted free agent (UDFA) Lucas Krull.
A lot has, rightfully, been made of the Moreau addition. It is one of the better feel-good stories seen around the NFL in some time, the signing massively improves the team's talent at tight end and delivers New Orleans a versatile attack in-line and elsewhere. But the Saints are never ones to settle at any position. As identified by continually building on strengths, the. team may get another boost from an in-house candidate. If nothing else, he has the support of head coach Dennis Allen who shared his excitement about the big-bodied tight end during his post-practice press conference last week.
“Yeah look, I’m excited about Lucas,” Allen said. “I think he’s a young guy that showed some promise last year. He’s got pretty good vertical speed down the field. Really good in terms of one-cut route running, seams and things of that nature. We’re excited about him.”
The 6-foot-6, 253-pound tight end was brought in from the Pittsburgh Panthers as a UDFA rookie last season. During the 2022 year, he saw only one game of action wherein he took 10 total snaps on offense. It was the Week 13 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Krull spent half of his 10 snaps as a blocker, which is the element of his game that, if developed, can earn him some expanded opportunities in 2023.
“The big thing for him is,” Allen began as he moved into Krull’s improvement areas. “Can he line up on the end of the line of scrimmage and can he block the C-gap and block the D-gap? We’re probably not finding that out during these days. We’ll have a lot of opportunity to find that out in training camp.”
If Krull knocks his next steps out of the park throughout training camp later this summer, New Orleans will have an interesting and versatile approach to its tight ends room. The advantage to having flexible players like Johnson and Moreau comes from the team's ability to be unpredictable.
The Saints delivered a healthy serving of 12 personnel (position grouping including one running back and two tight ends) in 2022. That might have come from necessity with so many injuries at wide receiver, but New Orleans could keep the trend going either way this season. 12 personnel is usually a run-heavy personnel deployment, but the Saints love to throw from it. Moreau and Johnson are both steady blockers and fantastic pass-catchers.
Adding an improved blocking approach from Krull, knowing he already has the pass-catching prowess, could make the Saints entirely unappreciable while insured at the position in case of injury. Big No. 87 is going to be hard to miss on the field one way or another this summer. But now, all eyes should be trained on him and his position group throughout camp. If the Saints find success they can rely on at tight end, which they have actively searched for since the 2015 trade that sent star Jimmy Graham to the Seattle Seahawks, it could be a game-changer for them and new quarterback Derek Carr.
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