Tag: 7 rounds

Saints use picks from Sean Payton trade in new 7-round NFL mock draft

The Saints used picks from a potential Broncos-Sean Payton trade in our new 7-round NFL mock draft, adding running back Jahmyr Gibbs and safety JL Skinner:

The New Orleans Saints offseason is closing in on us, so we’ll be picking up our series of 2023 mock drafts most Mondays. We’ll mainly be using this as an excuse to scout emerging draft prospects while reflecting the latest Saints news and roster moves: signings, cuts, trades, restructures, and so on, as well as the looming Sean Payton trade (which is our gimmick in this first entry).

For reference, we’re using the projected final draft order from Tankathon, which does account for unannounced compensatory draft picks. Here’s seven rounds of Saints mock draft picks and a projected trade sending Payton to the Denver Broncos:

Full 7-round Saints mock draft: The pre-scouting combine edition

Full 7-round Saints mock draft: The pre-scouting combine edition, with trades

This year’s NFL scouting combine kicks off on Tuesday, so it’s a great time to get out in front of it and project what the New Orleans Saints may do in the 2022 NFL draft. So here’s my first seven-round mock draft of the offseason, where I’m going in a round-by-round simulation (The Draft Network’s tool is my preference) to see which opportunities the Saints could find on draft day. Let’s get to it.

Updated 7-round Saints mock draft before free agency, with comp picks

The New Orleans Saints started out by picking Northwestern cornerback prospect Greg Newsome in the latest 7-round 2021 NFL mock draft.

What will the Saints do in the 2021 NFL draft? That will be dictated by what happens in free agency, which is set to kick off in just a few days. The Saints have been preparing for this by making a series of salary cap cuts and restructured contracts, answering some questions while raising new ones and creating new holes to fill on the depth chart.

Here’s how they can get better. I’ve limited my pool of players to the draft prospects reported to have met with New Orleans already, which makes this more difficult but maybe more informative in reflecting how teams actually work during the draft. Still, it’s far from perfect, and at the end of the day nothing more than halfway-educated guesses. So don’t take it too seriously. Let’s begin:

7 round mock draft with comp picks, using only prospects the Saints have met with

Our latest 2021 NFL mock draft for the New Orleans Saints covers seven rounds and includes comp picks, but only prospects linked to them.

Reports are updating every day with news of meetings between the New Orleans Saints and 2021 NFL draft prospects (which we’re tracking here), but how much do these virtual interviews matter in the greater scheme of things? With no combine and fewer pro days than normal due to the continued coronavirus pandemic, it’s anyone’s guess as to how much those conversations will weigh into final evaluations.

But it’s an opportunity for a twist on another predraft exercise: a Saints mock draft, centered on their picks in each of the seven rounds. That’s tricky enough as it is given New Orleans’ lack of picks in rounds three, five, six, and seven, having traded some selections in past years and lost others in response to COVID-19 protocol violations. And while the Saints are projected to receive a couple of compensatory draft picks, those extra choices have not been announced by the NFL just yet.

So let’s take an already-complicated process and limit our choices to players the Saints have met with. New Orleans’ decision-makers work with a draft board of prospects that meet certain criteria after studying college game tape and meeting with players and their coaches, so this is kind of a realistic scenario (even if the Saints’ eventual draft board will have many, many more options than the 20-or so names we know they’re linked to). The Draft Network has created a valuable mock draft machine to simulate picks by every team, which I used to create this mock draft. Let’s get into it:

Saints land another mid-round steal in 7-round 2021 mock draft

The New Orleans Saints landed Florida QB Kyle Trask and Oklahoma State RB Chuba Hubbard in the latest seven round 2021 NFL mock draft.

We’re a long way off from the 2021 NFL Draft, but with bowl season set to begin soon it’s worth taking another look at which prospects could be on the New Orleans Saints’ radar in the spring. So it’s as good a time as any to run through another seven-round mock draft, courtesy of the Draft Network mock draft machine.

It’s kind of tough to project where they’ll stand. Salary cap casualties feel inevitable, and free agency should be a toss-up. Compensatory draft picks for 2021 won’t be announced until the offseason, and the Saints should receive two of them: a third rounder for losing quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and a sixth rounder for losing linebacker A.J. Klein. 

But the NFL is reportedly cracking down on teams that circumvent the comp picks policy, and could rescind that sixth-round pick because the Saints waited to sign quarterback Jameis Winston after the deadline. It figures that teams like the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens got away with this for decades only for the Saints to take the fall for it. While we won’t know for sure until next year, I’ll assume the Saints don’t receive that sixth rounder.