Things are about to look a whole lot different in New Orleans for the Saints. By all accounts, quarterback Drew Brees appears to be headed for retirement. Star wide receiver Michael Thomas may have fractured his relationship with the team beyond repair. Not to mention the fact the team is currently squarely in the ninth circle of salary cap hell. The 2021 NFL Draft can provide some relief, but not without some major work. This Saints mock draft tries to work some magic, with not a whole lot to go on initially.
Looking towards the 2021 season, the Saints appear to be heading into the season without a starting quarterback. They’re also, in all likelihood, going to enter the season with a massive hole at wide receiver. To make matters worse, they’re sitting at around $100 million over the salary cap. The cherry on top? They currently only have five selections in the 2021 NFL Draft with which to plug the holes.
It’s a daunting task, for sure. But one that can yield some surprising results. To be clear, with the state the Saints are currently in, it’s likely to be a multi-year process to clean up the mess. However, with some wheeling-and-dealing, they can make the most of a bad situation with some savvy draft-day deals.
Saints make a trade!
Before we get to the players, let’s take a look at how we got to the picks we did: In our first draft-day trade, we have the Saints trading their first-round pick, along with a third, to the Los Angeles Chargers for two seconds (47 and 58), and a third (pick 77). Then we flipped pick 58, along with a 2022 7th, to Kansas City for another second (pick 64) and a fourth (pick 130).
Finally, we flipped the third-round pick we got from Los Angeles, along with a 2022 6th-round pick, to move down one spot with the Minnesota Vikings, picking up a fifth-round pick (pick 157) in the process. All picks and trades come courtesy of the Mock Draft Simulator at Pro Football Network. All salary cap figures come courtesy of Spotrac. Now, with that out of the way, let’s look at who the Saints got in this mock draft.