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Well that was a dud. The 2020 NFL trade deadline passed by so quietly that it was hardly noticed, if you weren’t paying attention. Like most of the league, the New Orleans Saints filed their moves with the NFL office well ahead of the cutoff date, having worked out a trade for San Francisco 49ers linebacker Kwon Alexander.
So now we know exactly what sort of draft resources New Orleans will carry into 2021. Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reported that the Saints included a conditional fifth-round draft pick in their trade package for Alexander (along with backup linebacker Kiko Alonso, returning from a 2019 season-ending injury).
And the conditions for that pick are interesting: if Alexander meets enough play-time incentives, the Saints will send their 2021 fifth rounder to San Francisco. But if Alexander does not get on the field often enough, either due to his recent high-ankle sprain, simply taking longer to pick up the system, or some other factor, then the 49ers will have to wait until 2022 to receive New Orleans’ fifth-round pick.
It’s a little more complicated than your standard pick-swap conditions, but not ridiculously so. Certainly not as contrived as what the New Orleans Pelicans will be receiving from the Los Angeles Lakers over the next half-decade.
Anyway: here are all of the 2021 draft picks the Saints are scheduled to make after the Alexander trade, as well as their draft-day maneuvering in 2020 and with projected compensatory selections:
- Round 1 (own)
- Round 2 (own)
- Round 3 (compensatory for losing Teddy Bridgewater)
- Round 4 (own)
- Round 5 (conditional, could revert to 2022)
- Round 6 (compensatory for losing A.J. Klein)
- Round 7 (own)
To recap on a few of the picks traded earlier this year, the Saints swapped out their own third- and sixth-rounders in 2021 so they could move up the board in the 2020 draft. The rookies acquired in those moves were linebacker Zack Baun and quarterback-turned-tight end Tommy Stevens.
Additionally, the compensatory picks projected to New Orleans after Bridgewater and Klein signed with new teams in free agency are just that: projections. We won’t know for certain whether the NFL is awarding those selections until they are announced in the spring, so don’t get too attached to the idea of the Saints owning a selection in each round for once.
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