It’s taken about 15 years, but the New Orleans Saints finally broke Bill Barnwell. ESPN’s leading salary cap alarmist shared his take on which teams should be looking to move up in the 2023 NFL draft and which squads would be better served by trading down, and he actually sided with the Saints’ always-aggressive approach in advocating for an ascent atop the all-encompassing draft board.
That’s right: Barnwell says the Saints should trade up, not down. We’ll let him explain himself:
The Saints should be trading down to add cost-controlled players for a roster that is old, expensive and lacking depth. That’s not their style, though. They have a well-established habit of trading up in the first few rounds of the draft for the players they want. Those moves have delivered star running back Alvin Kamara and wideout Chris Olave, but they have also instead landed on edge rusher Marcus Davenport and linebacker Zack Baun.
After losing a large chunk of its defensive line over the offseason, New Orleans could move up a few spots to try to target someone such as tackle Calijah Kancey (Pitt). Both Kiper and draft analyst Jordan Reid have the Cowboys opting for defensive linemen at No. 26, so the Saints could try to get ahead of Dallas to land their preferred option.
Barnwell has been one of the most vocal critics of New Orleans’ team-building strategies over the years, so it’s awful sweet to see him picking up what they’re putting down. Even if he had to grouch and grumble about it first.
Look, I’ll be the first to agree that the smart play is for the Saints to trade down, get more picks, and reload the roster with low-cost talent on rookie contracts. There’s a good reason that their best-ever draft class in 2017 featured six picks in the top three rounds.
But as Barnwell conceded, that’s just now how the Saints roll. They want to trust their evaluations and get in position to pick the best talent possible. Sometimes that means making an ill-advised trade. But if they can make a move and add a blue-chip defensive tackle to complete the unit’s offseason overhaul, it might be worth it. Kancey specifically just might be too unique a prospect to get Mickey Loomis to pick up the phone.
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