Taliese Fuaga (born April 5, 2002) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

for the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

Oregon State Beavers The Oregon State Beavers are the athletic teams that represent Oregon State University, located in Corvallis, Oregon. The Beavers compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I ( Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for c ...

, receiving All-American honors in 2023. Fuaga was selected by the Saints in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft.

High school career

Fuaga attended

Mount Tahoma High School Mount Tahoma High School is a high school in Tacoma, Washington. It opened in 1961 and is a part of the Tacoma Public Schools. The school's mascot is the Thunderbird as a ative Americansymbolism for power, protection, and strength. History Moun ...

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

. He played offensive and defensive line in high school. He was selected to play in the 2020 Polynesian Bowl. Fuaga committed to

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

to play college football, turning down similar offers from

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

College career

Fuaga played in 14 games as a backup his first years at Oregon State in 2020 and 2021. He started all 13 games in 2022 and returned as a starter in 2023, where he was named a first-team All-American.

Professional career

Fuaga was selected by the

with the 14th overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft.

References

External links

New Orleans Saints bioOregon State Beavers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuaga, Taliese Living people Players of American football from Tacoma, Washington American football offensive tackles All-American college football players Oregon State Beavers football players American sportspeople of Samoan descent New Orleans Saints players 2002 births