Report: Saints to lose 2021 draft pick in Kwon Alexander trade

The New Orleans Saints are projected to forfeit their fifth-round 2021 draft pick after trading for San Francisco 49ers LB Kwon Alexander.

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It’s awful that the New Orleans Saints lost linebacker Kwon Alexander for the rest of the year with an Achilles injury, both for what it means for his career and the absence the team must now fill in his place on the eve of the playoffs. And it appears that the Saints are also losing a conditional fifth-round draft pick they swapped with the San Francisco 49ers to acquire Alexander sooner rather than later.

The draft pick’s conditions were reliant on play time, though it was never specified which exact benchmarks were in mind once New Orleans and San Francisco reached an agreement. But Alexander started for the Saints almost immediately after the trade, making it likely he met those goals.

Additionally, Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports reported that “it’s a virtual certainty” Alexander met those play time incentives for New Orleans, which will trigger the pick’s loss in 2021 as opposed to 2022. Alexander appeared in seven games, totaling 350 snaps on defense (73.8% of 474 possible snaps) with the Saints in that span.

So let’s assume the Saints will be without their fifth-round pick in 2021. Here’s a status update on each of their upcoming selections in the upcoming draft:

  • Round 1
  • Round 2
  • Round 3 (projected compensatory for Teddy Bridgewater)
  • Round 4
  • Round 6 (projected compensatory for A.J. Klein)

The Saints also traded their initial third- and sixth-round picks in 2021 to help acquire 2020 rookies Zack Baun and Tommy Stevens, but the NFL rescinded their seventh rounder for COVID-19 protocol violations. Reports earlier this year suggested New Orleans could also lose their projected sixth-round compensatory pick for purposefully signing Jameis Winston after the cutoff date, but that’s far from certain.

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