One of the few consistent bright spots for the offense of the New Orleans Saints in 2025 were their tackles. While the interior was an ineffective mess, their two young tackles each flashed signs of stardom. Kelvin Banks Jr., a first round choice last spring, slid right in at left tackle and played terrific. His year overshadowed the exploits of the other tackle, who was nearly as effective.
New Orleans also used their 2024 first round choice on a tackle, Taliese Fuaga of the Oregon State Beavers. Fuaga had played mostly right tackle in college, but was moved to left tackle for the Saints as a rookie and played well. With the arrival of Banks, Fuaga would be asked to move back to the right side of the New Orleans line.
Taliese Fuaga Year in Review
- Position: Right tackle
- Age: 23
- Height: 6-feet, 6 inches
- Weight: 324 pounds
- NFL experience: 2 years (with Saints)
- 2025 season: 13 games (13 starts)
Fuaga was an All-American and two-time All-Pac 12 selection at Oregon State at right tackle. There were still some concerns about him making a position change in his second season in the NFL. The way he responded was one of the underrated stories of the 2025 New Orleans season.
After starting every content as a rookie, Fuaga extended that streak two games into 2025. He’d miss his first career game in Week 3 and would deal with knee, back, and ankle injuries all season. These would cause him to miss four full games and clearly hamper him in others. Yet, Fuaga was the second best lineman on the team behind Banks and it wasn’t remotely close.
Despite the injuries, Fuaga played 814 offensive snaps, 96% of the team’s total in his 13 games played. He was flagged for only two holding penalties and was a tremendous force as a run blocker. His pass blocking was a little inconsistent at times because of somewhat limited mobility in some games. Still, Fuaga was viewed as a strength on the right side of the line.
Taliese Fuaga is one of the cornerstones of a rebuilding New Orleans offense that includes other young building blocks like Banks, Tyler Shough, and Chris Olave. Fuaga and Banks look like they could be a star formidable tandem of tackles for the next several years. If that turns out to be the case, using back-to-back first round choices at tackle would have certainly been worth it.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Saints 2025 Year in Review: Taliese Fuaga made successful switch to RT