Michigan football center Cesar Ruiz was the first Wolverine off the board in the 2020 NFL Draft, going No. 24 overall to the New Orleans Saints. Head coach Sean Payton admitted after nabbing his first round pick that Ruiz was a guy high on their list from day one.
Ruiz met with the Saints at the NFL Combine and impressed the coaching staff.
"One of the areas we wanted to do improve in this draft was an interior offensive lineman, and those are hard players to find later in their draft," Payton said during a conference call. "We had a real high grade on Cesar.. He was a guy that I would say, we had a lot of information on. He was extremely, extremely productive, a tough player at Michigan, played with great balance.
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"We feel like he's got guard flex, and we also feel like (Erik) McCoy has that same type of flexibility... there were two players, three players that we were really looking at staying put and there were a couple of guys we talked about trading up to get, but we felt pretty strong about letting the draft come to us, and we were fortunate to get one of the two guys that we had targeted."
McCoy was last year's pick and is similar in versatility to Ruiz. Payton said he'd let the players work it out in practice, noting there was room for both.
"We talk all the time about building with the right type of players, but also with your defense and your offensive line," he said. "We always want to draft to certain musts and needs, but certainly offensive line was one of those positions in particular inside. We have some flexibility, and I think the obvious question would be, hey, he's a center — you had a center last year. Obviously we think one of them is going to be a guard because we weren't drafting someone that high to come in and be a backup."
Fortunately for him, the draft unfolded exactly how they thought it would. A few players they liked fell, but not to them at No. 24, and they'd mocked the draft "six or seven times" to prepare for all scenarios.
"It fell exactly how we thought it would fall, and we knew we were choosing a real good football player," Payton said. "We weren't sure (but) we thought we had a good chance that he'd be at 24 when we picked. And look ... there are still some players with first round grades that will be heading into tomorrow's second round."
They got their guy, though, and they love their pick. They'd done plenty of homework, Payton said, to arrive at their decision.
"We had opportunities, number one at the combine. It went smooth, and the interaction ... it was combine, and then follow up phone calls," he said. "There are some people there (at Michigan) that we're close with. I worked with Juan Castillo at the Philadelphia Eagles, and I've known him a long time. Juan was one of the consultants there.
"If you put on the tape though, you kind of saw the makeup. Every once in a while you see makeup in a player when he's playing, and he was one of these guys."
One they expect to be a fixture in their lineup for years to come.
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