Saints sign DL Kristjan Sokoli to play on the offensive line

The New Orleans Saints are signing Kristjan Sokoli, according to his agent. Brett Tessler of Tessler Sports tweeted out the news on Tuesday afternoon, stating that his Sokoli is being brought in to be a part of the offensive line.

Sokoli is an interesting player, as he was a defensive lineman in college at Buffalo, and was converted to center by Seahawks offensive line coach Tom Cable after being selected as the team’s 214th overall pick in the 6th Round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He became the league’s first Albanian-born player to play in the NFL, but only appeared in one game in Week 16 for Seattle.

Sokoli would wind up on the Colts practice squad less than a month after being released by the Seahawks, but as a defensive end. He’d spend the bulk of the NFL seasons there (Week 4-15), and was then promoted to the active roster only to be inactive for the team’s final two games. He was released in mid-June.

This isn’t the first defensive player the Saints have swapped to the offensive line, as Drew Iddings was signed in May to make a swap to offensive guard, but was later released. Kaleb Eulls had a similar path in 2016 after playing 5 games for the team in 2015 on the defensive line. We’ll just have to see what, if anything, happens for a player who tested off the charts on the SPARQ Rating System.