Now this is a surprise. CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones listed the New Orleans Saints as one team to “watch out for” in a possible trade down in the second round of the 2023 NFL draft; New Orleans is scheduled to make its pick at No. 40 overall, barring a trade. The Saints will also make a third-round pick at No. 71 overall.
Teams trade down all the time. What’s surprising is that the Saints would do it. General manager Mickey Loomis has not moved back in the draft order since 2007, and he said this week that his reasoning for rarely trading down is because he believes it’s settling for a lesser talent than would be available at their current pick. Instead, Loomis has often traded up; we predicted two trades up in Rounds 2 and 3 in our updated mock draft.
