Ever since the New Orleans Saints and Philadelphia Eagles agreed to swap picks in the 2022 NFL draft, the NFL world has pondered whether the Saints will stand pat at Nos. 16 and 19 or move up for a specific player. A lot of believers of the latter assume that move would be for a quarterback, but moving into the top ten picks for a starting left tackle to replace the recently-departed Terron Armstead wouldn’t be a shock either. However many, including myself, believe the Saints should stay put with their two picks, let the board fall to them and walk away with two top-tier players at premium positions.
But what if things go an unexpected direction, as they often do in the NFL draft? What if New Orleans can make the leap for a highly coveted player and top tier tackles and wideouts fly off the board leaving only one ideal selection at No. 16 with mostly undesirable options left at No. 19? Saints general manager Mickey Loomis told Peter King of NBC Sports that trading down is certainly a possibility for the team.
“One of the things we did talk about is that, in (Loomis’) mind, he said, ‘We absolutely are not done,’” King recalled from their conversation on The Peter King Podcast, “And Loomis’ point was ‘You never know if there’s going to be a team that, as one of our picks approaches, is going to be desperate to move up.”
King then said that Loomis used a falling quarterback as an example. “Let’s say one of the quarterbacks is there that somebody really wants. And who knows? They may trade up and we may be able to get a bounty for it.”
With that in mind, one should consider trading back a real possibility for New Orleans, a team that hasn’t done so since the 2007 season. If the team is invested in improving at left tackle and wide receiver at Nos. 16 and 19, taking advantage of a falling quarterback makes a ton of sense if those other positions go quickly. Here are four trade-down scenarios for the Saints in this year’s NFL draft: