Canal Street Chronicles
A wild trade right before New Orleans’ selection.
This past week, Pro Football & Sports Network (PFSN) held a mock draft with 32 different beat writers/content creators in which I had the honor of representing the New Orleans Saints. The selections were based on what would happen if we were the GM’s of our respective teams.
Going in, there was really no preferred player that I wanted to be available at the Saints’ selection. Saying this, there was a group of players that I hoped I had the opportunity to pick from when the Saints pick was up. In no particular order, this group was RB Ashton Jeanty, TE Tyler Warren, OL Will Campbell, WR Tetairoa McMillan, DB Jahdae Barron, and QB Shedeur Sanders. I had no favorite out of this group, but when it was my time to select, I knew I had to compare the prospects and see which would be the best selection. This is a similar situation to what many teams are going to go through in this year’s draft. Most of the picks in the first round can go in any direction because of the lack of top-end talent in the draft. It makes it much harder to predict where these prospects will be selected.
Before getting to who I picked, It is important to look at what happened before the Saints’ selection.
After the Browns pick, which could have changed things in the top-8, most of the selections were the expected ones. When the Panthers were up at 8, I expected them to go with Jalon Walker, but then I saw a trade happen I got worried. The trade was the Bengals sending Trey Hendrickson and 17 to the Panthers for 8 and a third-round pick. Going away from the draft, the Saints having to play Hendrickson twice a year now is a nightmare scenario. In regard to the draft, a team seeing the pick before them get traded back is worrisome and I was not sure where the Bengals were going to go. Luckily, they actually went with who the Panthers would have probably gone with, that being Jalon Walker. Now, the Saints pick was up.
In that original group of players, I wanted to be available at pick 9, I could have chosen from 4 prospects: Will Campbell, Tyler Warren, Tetairoa McMillan, and Jahdae Barron. Trading back was something I considered, but without many people interested, I was forced to stick and pick. For me, the selection was between Warren and Campbell, which is a very realistic decision the Saints will need to make. Warren would be an amazing...
