If there’s ever been a year for Mickey Loomis to break his streak of NFL drafts without a trade down (dating back to 2007!), it’s this one: the New Orleans Saints are getting perilously older at multiple positions and they’re short on draft picks. Restocking the roster is going to be tough with just two picks in the top four rounds.
At the same time, the 2024 draft class is remarkably top-heavy. A historically small class of underclassmen declaring has winnowed the talent available in the later rounds, where the Saints expect to have most of their selections once compensatory draft picks are announced in a week or two. Some crafty maneuvering — moving down early on, packaging those later picks to move up in the middle rounds — could pay off in a big way.
But beyond Loomis continuing to snub trade offers and move down, there isn’t much historical precedent for trading out of the 14th pick. We went back and studied every draft class since 2004 to get an idea of what the Saints could ask for in a trade down in 2024: