BREAKING: Kellen Moore REVEALED The Biggest Saints FLOP Draft 2020
METAIRIE, La. — In a candid and revealing press conference following the team’s offseason workouts, New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore has finally addressed the elephant in the room regarding the franchise’s 2020 NFL Draft class — a group he now openly labels as the biggest “missed opportunity” of the last decade.
Speaking with unusual bluntness, Moore detailed how the failures of that specific draft have created a lingering “talent gap” that the organization is still trying to dig itself out of four years later. While General Manager Mickey Loomis has been transparent about the team’s current rebuilding phase, Moore’s admission regarding the 2020 class is the most damning public assessment yet from the Saints’ leadership.
“This was supposed to be the foundation class as we transitioned out of the Drew Brees era, and frankly, it just didn’t hit,” Moore told reporters. “When you whiff on a class, it sets you back years. We are still feeling the effects of 2020.”
Here is the full breakdown of why Moore considers this class the ultimate “flop,” how the front office’s aggressive moves backfired, and where the Saints go from here.
The Hype vs. The Reality
To understand why Moore is so critical, one must recall the atmosphere surrounding the 2020 NFL Draft. The Saints were coming off a 13-3 season. They had a roster loaded with veterans like Drew Brees, Alvin Kamara, and Michael Thomas. The pandemic was just beginning, but New Orleans was in “win-now” mode .
The Saints drafted four players: Cesar Ruiz (Round 1), Zack Baun (Round 3), Adam Trautman (Round 3), and Tommy Stevens (Round 7) . At the time, pundits praised the “value” of the picks. ESPN gave them high marks for landing players they had rated in their top 40 .
But on Thursday, Moore laid out the brutal math: Zero Pro Bowls. Zero long-term starters retained after their rookie deals. Zero impact.
“We went into that draft thinking we were setting up the future,” Moore said. “But the truth is, we came out with a backup center, a situational special-teamer, a tight end who didn’t last, and a quarterback who never played a snap here.”
The Unpacking of the ‘Flop’
Moore didn’t just criticize the players—he criticized the strategy that led to the selections, specifically pointing to the Saints’ refusal to address the wide receiver position despite a historic class.
1. The Costly Miss on Cesar Ruiz (Pick 24)
The selection of Michigan offensive lineman Cesar Ruiz was met with confusion on draft night, and Moore admits that confusion was warranted . While the Saints needed to get younger on the offensive line, Moore feels the team misevaluated the urgency of other positions.
“At 24, we needed an impact player. A difference maker,” Moore stated. “We took a center when we already had a Pro Bowl center on the roster.”
Indeed, the Saints had just traded up for Erik McCoy in 2019, who quickly became a star. Ruiz was moved to guard, where he has been serviceable but never dominant. He allowed pressure consistently and struggled in pass protection .
The real sting, however, is the “What If?” game. Moore acknowledged that the Saints front office completely bypassed the wide receiver gold mine of 2020.
“We are looking at the board now… Tee Higgins, Michael Pittman, even later Chase Claypool,” Moore listed. “We needed to get younger at receiver [with Michael Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders aging]. We took a guard who, four years later, is just a guy.”
Ruiz remains on the roster, but he has never justified a first-round price tag, forcing the Saints to continue investing high picks into the offensive line instead of skill positions.
2. The Zack Baun ‘Tweener’ Trap (Pick 74)
Perhaps the most frustrating pick in Moore’s eyes is linebacker Zack Baun. Labeled a “steal” because he fell out of the first round due to medical concerns, Baun was supposed to be a versatile edge rusher/off-ball linebacker .
Instead, he became a classic “tweener” who was too small to play defensive end and too slow in coverage to play linebacker.
“Zack is a great guy, a hard worker,” Moore said cautiously. “But the role we drafted him for didn’t exist in our defense the way we thought it did. We tried to fit a square peg in a round hole.”
Baun never carved out a defensive role in New Orleans, playing less than 20% of defensive snaps in most seasons. He eventually signed with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2024 as a special teams ace . Moore noted that the Saints actively traded up for Baun, giving up assets to acquire a player who contributed almost nothing on defense for four years.
“That capital could have been used to move up for a receiver like Antonio Gibson or a lineman who could actually start,” Moore reflected.
3. The Costly Trade for Adam Trautman (Pick 105)
Moore saved his harshest criticism for the Adam Trautman selection. To be fair, Trautman was a small-school darling from Dayton who dominated the FCS level .
However, the Saints made a catastrophic miscalculation. To get Trautman, New Orleans traded ALL of their remaining picks in the 2020 draft (the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th rounders) to move up .
“Four players for one,” Moore said, shaking his head. “You trade the entire back end of your draft for a tight end… that tight end has to be a star. Adam wasn’t a star. He wasn’t even a long-term starter.”
Trautman recorded just 641 receiving yards over three seasons in New Orleans . He struggled with drops, couldn’t get separation, and was eventually traded to the Denver Broncos for a pittance. Meanwhile, the depth and special teams units suffered for years because the Saints had zero picks on Day 3.
“We lost four swings of the bat for one single,” Moore said. “That is how you lose roster depth.”
4. The Taysom Hill Clone That Wasn’t
Finally, the Saints used a seventh-round pick on quarterback Tommy Stevens . The idea was to clone Taysom Hill—a big, athletic quarterback who could play tight end or running back.
Stevens never played a down for the Saints.
“Taysom is a unicorn. You can’t just draft a big quarterback and expect him to do what Taysom does,” Moore stated. “The Stevens pick was a reach for a ‘gadget’ player that we didn’t need.”
Stevens was cut before the season started and bounced around practice squads . The seventh-round pick itself isn’t the tragedy, but Moore noted it was symbolic of the “gimmicky” approach that distracted from fundamental roster building.
The Ripple Effect: How 2020 Broke the Roster
Kellen Moore was hired specifically to clean up the offensive mess left by previous regimes. He argues that the failure of the 2020 class put the Saints in a perennial “catch-up” mode that eventually led to the disaster of the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
“When you miss on a draft, you have to spend money in free agency to fill the holes,” Moore explained. “We had to sign free agents to replace the production we didn’t get. We had to trade picks to move up for other guys.”
Statistics back up Moore’s frustrations. Of the four players drafted, only Ruiz remains on the team, and he is considered a potential cap casualty. The Saints received zero compensatory picks for the others because they were either cut or signed for minimal contracts elsewhere.
Furthermore, the need to replace Baun and Trautman forced the Saints to spend a second-round pick on a linebacker (Pete Werner) and trade for a tight end (Juwan Johnson), depleting resources that could have been used on the offensive line or defensive line .
Where Do the Saints Go From Here?
Moore finished his statement by looking forward, but with a clear warning to the front office: “We cannot afford another draft like 2020.”
The Saints have since changed their scouting philosophy under Moore, moving away from “small school projects” and “tweeners” in favor of players with verified production at Power 5 schools.
“I need starters. I need dogs,” Moore said. “I don’t care about the ‘steal of the draft’ label. I care about the guy who can block his man for four quarters. We learned our lesson the hard way.”
For Saints fans who have watched the team drift into mediocrity, Moore’s admission is a rare form of catharsis: the coach admitting that the emperor had no clothes—and that the 2020 draft left the cupboard bare
