Well this is interesting. Could the New Orleans Saints trade up and into the 2024 NFL draft’s top-10? ESPN’s Matt Miller, Jordan Reid, and Field Yates collaborated on a mock draft for the first 10 selections, with the draft order determined by ESPN’s Football Power Index. That left the Saints on the outside looking in, but Yates cautioned against writing them off as a player early in the 2024 draft.
When discussing wild-card teams that could make a move and trade into the top 10 picks, Yates said that Saints general manager Mickey Loomis “has perhaps the strongest belief of anyone in the league that if you have a guy you want, you do what it takes to get that player. He’s unafraid of the audacious, and trading up classifies as that. Keep an eye on New Orleans.”
That’s obviously true. Just look at his history. Loomis has greenlit first-round trades in recent years to go get players like wide receiver Chris Olave and Trevor Penning (in 2022) and Marcus Davenport (2018). He’s traded Saints players away to get additional first-round draft picks, spending them on right tackle Ryan Ramczyk (2017), linebacker Stephone Anthony (2015). His history of early-round trading goes back further: running back Mark Ingram II (2011), defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis (2008), and defensive lineman Johnathan Sullivan (2003).
And as you can see from that list of names, his hit rate is about 37.5%. Olave appears to be on the right track, Ramczyk has been a great player, and Ingram left the Saints as the franchise’s leading rusher in every major category. But Penning can’t get on the field, Davenport and Anthony were busts, Ellis washed out of the NFL after playing out his rookie contract, and the less said of Sullivan’s miserable run with the team, the better.
So, yeah, Loomis could absolutely call in another bold trade next April. He’s done it before. If Derek Carr continues to look like a lemon and a promising rookie quarterback like Jayden Daniels or Michael Penix Jr. is unlikely to get out of the top-10, maybe the Saints would make a move. But it’s worth asking whether that’s the right move for this Saints team. With an aging roster and few draft picks to work with in the early rounds, they need to hit on every selection possible, and that might mean a more patient approach is the better course of action.
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