SmashMouth

Malcolm Roach grew up in a family that supported the New Orleans Saints, but don’t get it twisted, he did not choose to come here to fulfill some childhood fantasy of wearing the black and gold.

Roach, who grew up in Baton Rouge as the son of a football coach before playing collegiately at Texas, signed an undrafted rookie free agent contract with the Saints because they were the team that offered him the best shot at succeeding in the NFL.

“I just felt like it was the best-case scenario for me to go there,” Roach said.



It was a best-case scenario from one perspective, but to get to it he had to go through the “worst-case scenario” in which he went undrafted.

He said the Saints first reached out to gauge his interest sometime in the fourth round, which gave him the comfort of knowing he had a home for the start of his professional career if he wasn’t picked, but he was also hopeful to see his name flash across the screen on Day 3 of the draft.

But when it didn’t happen, Roach was prepared. He said he and his agent did the legwork about a week before the draft started to prepare for Plan B in the event he wasn’t drafted.

They went through schemes and depth charts and they looked at the money teams have paid out to undrafted players in recent seasons. Roach liked that the Saints have shown a willingness to not only keep undrafted players on their roster, but to offer them avenues to flourish.

He liked the way the Saints’ defensive philosophy seemed to suit his talent.

At 6-foot-3 and 290 pounds, Roach possesses the size the Saints like in their defensive ends, but he also brings some athleticism to the position. He played both defensive line and linebacker at Texas, where he finished his career with 22.5 tackles for loss and eight sacks in 47 games.

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