Only 75 days remain before the New Orleans Saints open their 2026 regular season, and the trip to Detroit is already locked in. On Sunday, Sept. 13, the Saints will head on the road to face the Lions, with third-year offensive tackle Taliese Fuaga wearing No. 75 as the team’s Player of the Day.
Fuaga has checked the boxes that come with being a first-round pick. New Orleans sees him as part of a strong tackle pairing alongside second-year blocker Kelvin Banks Jr., giving the Saints a promising set of edge protectors up front. At 24 years old, the Tacoma, Wash. native has quickly become one of the most important young pieces on the roster.
The Saints took Fuaga 14th overall in the 2024 draft after a standout run at Oregon State. A product of Mount Tacoma High School, he stayed close to home for college and worked his way from a limited role into one of the best linemen in the country.
He played sparingly in his first two seasons, appearing in 14 games as a backup, then won the starting right tackle job in 2022 and earned 2nd Team All-Pac-12 honors. By 2024, he had taken his game to another level, finishing his college career with first-team All-Pac-12 and All-American recognition.
New Orleans needed tackle help badly entering that draft, and Fuaga was the answer at No. 14.
He was the fourth tackle selected and one of eight to go in the first round. The Saints plugged him in right away, but there was a catch: after playing right tackle in college, he was moved to the left side in the NFL.
Fuaga handled the switch without blinking. In 2024, he was one of the few real bright spots on the Saints offense, flashing All-Pro upside in both the run game and pass protection.
He started all 17 games at left tackle and played 98% of the offensive snaps. His 1,134 snaps were topped only by Trevor Penning’s 1,146 and Alontae Taylor’s 1,185 across the entire team.
The next season brought another adjustment after the Saints used a first-round pick on Kelvin Banks in 2025 and moved Fuaga back to right tackle. That’s his more natural spot, but the year still came with complications.
Injuries nagged him throughout the season, and he also had to deal with the challenge of learning a second position change in as many years. Even so, he missed four games and half of a fifth, yet still logged 814 offensive snaps, or 96% of the total, while keeping his level of play high.
Now healthy and settling into the same position for a second straight offseason, Fuaga looks poised for another strong year. The Saints still see the traits of an All-Pro lineman, and he remains one of the key young building blocks on offense.
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Now the battle gets more complicated, because Kilty is trying to carve out a place on an offensive line the Saints spent the offseason trying to strengthen. He brings a solid college rsum from North Dakota and Kansas State, but camp is where that background has to turn into proof, and for Kilty the next few weeks will go a long way toward showing whether he can stick when the competition tightens. [Read more 🡒]