The Saints took Payton Turner in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft, and in the first two seasons of his career, Turner didn’t do much to justify that draft status. But Saints head coach Dennis Allen says he’s liking what he’s seeing from Turner now.
Turner had a sack and a forced fumble in Sunday night’s preseason game, and Allen said the way Turner played on the field has been consistent with everything he’s been doing in practice.
“That’s the stuff that we’ve seen him doing in training camp,” Allen said. “That’s why we drafted him where we did. I think he’s a kid that has had a lot of injury issues, which has forced him to miss a lot of time, and therefore he’s missed a ton of development. So it’s really been an unfair assessment of the player up to this point. But I do think he’s had a good camp and I do think he made some nice plays today.”
Turner never started a game in his first two NFL seasons and recorded just three sacks in the 13 games he played as a backup. But the talent is there, and if he can stay healthy this season, the Saints may finally see him making the contributions to their defense that they expected when they drafted him.
