ESPN’s Bill Barnwell put together a well-reasoned argument for why the Jaguars should trade for Marshon Lattimore. But the Saints shouldn’t accept this deal:
Speculation about Marshon Lattimore being traded is going to be a recurring theme for this New Orleans Saints offseason. While the Saints did restructure their contract with Lattimore in a unique way to make him easier to trade, they haven’t been shopping him around or given him permission to seek a trade. If the right deal presents itself, they’d be open to it, but that hasn’t happened yet.
And this suggestion from ESPN’s Bill Barnwell should get laughed off the phone. Barnwell came up with a list of trades and free agent signings he’d like to see happen around the NFL this summer, but his trade idea sending Marshon Lattimore to the Jacksonville Jaguars shouldn’t be taken seriously. It’s a horrible return of value for a repeat Pro Bowler in the peak of his athletic career.
We’ll let Barnwell explain himself: “In a division in which the Texans and Titans have made major wide receiver investments this offseason, adding a veteran option across from Tyson Campbell makes sense for the Jags, who have extra picks in Rounds 3 and 4 of the 2025 draft after trading down with the Vikings last month. Sending a fourth-rounder to the Saints would clear up a financial and positional logjam for New Orleans and land an immediate plug-and-play starter at a position of need for Jacksonville.”
It’s true that the Jaguars could be a good fit. They lack high-end candidates to start opposite Campbell, and several coaches Lattimore knows well are on staff in Jacksonville including defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen and defensive backs coach Kris Richard. But only getting back a fourth rounder for Lattimore would be wildly disappointing for New Orleans.
We’ve talked before about how the trade market for cornerbacks is depressed; players who are younger, healthier, and more productive than Lattimore are only being traded for mid-round picks. But that doesn’t mean the Saints should accept it and just settle for a bad pick because they feel like they have to trade Lattimore. If the best they can get for him is, as Barnwell suggests, a fourth-round choice in 2025 (which currently slots in at either No. 107 or 114 overall) the Saints should get over whatever tension sits between them and Lattimore and refuse to trade him. He’s more important to their success than the 114th pick in next year’s draft.
Maybe they end up settling for less. Mickey Loomis has gotten outplayed in a couple of trades recently by spending too much to get Trevor Penning in the 2022 draft while not getting enough back in moving C.J. Gardner-Johnson later that summer. Depending on which trade value charts you prefer, he may have overspent to move up for Kool-Aid McKinstry this year. But even if McKinstry is sitting behind Lattimore on the depth chart, they still shouldn’t trade him just for the sake of it.
Teams need four corners on game days (if not more). Right now, the Saints have them in Lattimore, McKinstry, Paulson Adebo, and Alontae Taylor. If this sort of trade offer is the best they’ll get for Lattimore over the summer, they’ll do better to keep him and figure out who their best corners are out of that group.
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