NFL draft season is Lyin’ Season, and it can be tough to parse fact from fiction — especially when a team like the Atlanta Falcons makes a widely-criticized pick and tries to cover themselves by spreading trade rumors to the media. Maybe that happened here, or maybe it didn’t. Maybe someone was just misinformed.
Either way, contrary to a prior report, it’s now been said that the New Orleans Saints did not try to trade up ahead of the Falcons to pick Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. Saints News Network’s John Hendrix shot down that report, quoting a source as saying “It never happened.”
That makes sense. Penix is one of the older prospects in this draft class and wouldn’t see the field for at least two years while the Saints ride out the rest of Derek Carr’s contract. Trading more assets to move up for him would be neglectful at best. It doesn’t help that the Saints have a lot of arms on the roster already between Carr, Jake Haener, Nathan Peterman, Kellen Mond, and flex-player Taysom Hill. There wouldn’t be enough reps in practice to go around.
Could the Saints add another quarterback later on? Maybe. They probably should. Peterman and Mond have both flamed out in other stops already. They’re here to help Carr and Haener pick up the playbook more than anything else. If the Saints have an opportunity to add a rookie quarterback who could seriously challenge Haener for the backup job (and maybe develop into something more), they should consider it. That just can’t come at the expense of more pressing team needs.
