Saints on a long list of teams to meet with Miami OT Markel Bell

One of the things New Orleans Saints fans can count on year-in and year-out is their willingness to look into the trenches and select a few core pieces for their offensive and defensive line in the draft. A team that has built through the trenches for many years, the Saints continue to do their due diligence, looking into various prospects at positions of need along the lines.

A name that has come up on this topic is Miami offensive tackle Markel Bell, who, in an interview with Justin Melo of OnSI, noted that he has met with the New Orleans Saints ahead of his pro day. While the Saints have both tackle spots set for now with Taliese Fuaga and Kelvin Banks Jr., the option for either Bell or one of their tackles to move to guard is there, as right guard is certainly still a need.

What makes this intriguing is that Bell played exclusively on the left side of the line at Miami, putting up 1,572 snaps at left tackle, 2 at left guard, and 3 as an in-line tight end, with none elsewhere. 2025 was a standout season for him, though, as across the regular season and postseason, he put up a whopping 1,034 snaps, not allowing a single sack, giving up only 15 pressures, and remaining effective in that regard.

The one major concern in these two seasons at Miami has been penalties, as he ended up with 11 total, seven of which came in 2025, relatively spread out across the season. That can be expected when playing such a huge total of snaps in one year, and can be worked out with time and good coaching.

It will be fascinating to see if the Saints are willing to select him, given the positional fit not being exceptional, and whether or not they could figure that all out by shifting around the offensive line once again, as they do rather often.

This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Saints looking into Miami offensive tackle Markel Bell pre-draft