It’s bad enough that Bleacher Report suggested the New Orleans Saints trade Alvin Kamara without correctly reporting the mechanisms that would let it happen — they’ve since circled back and put even more bad trade ideas on the table, arguing the Saints should trade away two key playmakers in order to save a little money.
What’s funny is these are marketed as “Dream Trade Scenarios” for the Saints. We’re guessing that leadership in New Orleans isn’t eager to part ways with Paulson Adebo and Taysom Hill, but here’s Kristopher Knox making the case anyway:
Saints trade Paulson Adebo to the Jacksonville Jaguars
Let’s start with the first proposal. Knox acknowledges that the Saints would save just $1.3 million against the salary cap by trading Adebo (who is entering the last year of his rookie deal), but says “cashing in with a draft pick could be more enticing than allowing him to walk in 2025.”
As for what the Saints could get in return: Knox suggests that “Acquiring Adebo might cost Jacksonville as high as a Day 2 draft pick—he was a 2021 third-round selection—but it would be a big win for the Jaguars.”
Jacksonville is expected to get a compensatory third-round pick, but right now their only selection on the second day of the draft is at No. 48 in the second round. That would be a good asset to add to the Saints’ war chest, but their cornerbacks depth chart would take a massive hit.
Adebo is the heir-apparent to replace Marshon Lattimore if he is traded this offseason, which the Saints teed up by restructuring his contract earlier this year. Should Lattimore be moved, Adebo would step into the No. 1 spot with Alontae Taylor likely moving back to his natural position outside after being asked to cover the slot for the first time in his football career in 2023. That would give the Saints a pair of young, aggressive corners who can compete with the best receivers in the league.
Sure, there’s the hurdle of needing to extend Adebo next summer, but that isn’t as big a problem as salary cap alarmists would have you think. If Lattimore’s contract is off the books, there’s more than enough money to sign Adebo to an extension when the time comes.
Saints trade Taysom Hill to the Denver Broncos
This is a tricky situation — Hill’s past restructures make it harder to trade him before the 2024 draft than after it in June. And if the Saints want to maximize their cap savings they would have to keep Hill on the books with a $15.7 million cap hit during free agency in March, which means they would need to find other ways to reach cap compliance. They could save $10 million by waiting until the summer to trade him, which can be spent on signing their draft class, but it’s tough to wait that long while carrying such a heavy cap hit during the busiest phases of the NFL calendar.
And why the Broncos? Knox writes “Not only do the Broncos employ former Saints head coach Sean Payton, but they also recently hired longtime Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael as an offensive assistant. Both Payton and Carmichael seem to have an affinity for Hill, which is how he landed a four-year, $40 million deal in the first place.”
Payton has said before he would like to bring Hill with him to a new team, but the structure of Hill’s contract and Payton’s own problems in Denver make that unlikely. He needs to find a real quarterback to replace Russell Wilson before he can worry about drawing up plays for Hill in his spare time.
Combine those factors with the Broncos’ few draft assets — they own a pair of fifth-round picks and a seventh rounder that could be realistically traded for Hill — and this doesn’t look a credible trade scenario. Hill has been one of the Saints’ most consistent playmaker on offense in recent years. He isn’t going anywhere though the Saints will need to do something about his contract.
Is there a real "Dream Trade" for the Saints?
Unless they’re getting another team’s best players for a bag of peanuts, no: the Saints aren’t going to be left feeling great about any trades they might make this year. Mickey Loomis tends to buy too high and sell too low in dealing with other teams. So when the prospect of trading Marshon Lattimore came up late last season, fans grew worried.
Trading Lattimore — one of the best players on the team, a young Pro Bowler at one of the game’s most important positions — is concerning. That Loomis can’t be trusted to get great value on the return after being fleeced by the Philadelphia Eagles, among other teams, is another complication. Hopefully both sides can work out an arrangement that keeps Lattimore happy in New Orleans.
If not, what could they get for him? And who might be interested? Two-thirds of the NFL should be looking for upgrades at cornerback this offseason but one team stands apart: the Detroit Lions. Lattimore’s old position coach Aaron Glenn is Detroit’s defensive coordinator, and head coach Dan Campbell is someone he knows well. Detroit also has a glaring vulnerability at cornerback.
And the Lions also own a bevy of draft picks in 2025: their own selections in every round but the sixth as well as extra picks from the Eagles (in the fourth round) and New York Jets (in the seventh round). It’s easier on the Saints cap situation to wait until the summer to deal Lattimore, so trading him wouldn’t help the team this year. But if they can pry away Detroit’s first rounder and another pick in the fourth round, Loomis could view that as a win. But losing a high-end playmaker in his prime (without even improving this year’s draft picks) is far from perfect no matter how you slice it.
