The 2020 NFL Draft is almost here, and the New Orleans Saints will be on the clock before we know it. So it’s time to run through a final seven-round mock draft, doing our best to navigate the hundreds of selections and make trades when possible to end up with the best set of prospects.
We’ve been publishing a new entry in this series once a week, every week for the last month. You can compare different scenarios to each other in the links we’ve embedded below:
So let’s get to it. Here’s our final stab at seven rounds of Saints picks before the draft kicks off on April 23.
Round 1
There was a surplus of highly-graded options on our board, so we tried to trade down and recoup more picks. We had 10 available prospects graded as potential first-round values at this point, so we attempted to move down 10 spots, from No. 24 to No. 34. The Indianapolis Colts weren’t interested, however, so we ended up settling for a move down to No. 33 (owned by the Cincinnati Bengals). That trade swapped our pick at No. 24 for Nos. 33 and 107 in this year’s draft, and Cincinnati’s third-round pick in 2021.
Round 2
Top available prospects at No. 33:
- LB Patrick Queen, LSU
- WR Brandon Aiyuk, Arizona State
- DE Yetur Gross-Matos, Penn State
- WR Denzel Mims, Baylor
Queen was the clear-cut best of the bunch, and we didn’t want to bet on him not being available after another trade down. So he was the pick here. We might have been able to trade down again but one move down the board is unprecedented enough for the Saints, given their history.
With injuries hitting the linebacker corps so hard last year (starters Alex Anzalone and Kiko Alonso are returning from injured reserve, as is backup Kaden Elliss) and no starters signed beyond 2020 (Demario Davis’s contract is also up after this season), adding Queen now gives the Saints a much-needed injection of youth and long-term viability in the middle of the field.
The pick: LB Patrick Queen, LSU
A run on receivers in the middle of the second round (Mims, TCU’s Jalen Reagor, and Colorado’s Laviska Shenault Jr.) prompted us to try and trade back up, targeting either USC prospect Michael Pittman Jr. or Clemson wideout Tee Higgins. It took some haggling, but giving up our third- and fourth-round picks at Nos. 88 and 130, as well as next year’s second-round choice, got the deal done in a move all the way up to No. 44.
The Chicago Bears unexpectedly sniped us, picking Pittman one spot ahead of us. So we settled for Higgins. He has some of the same athletic limitations that Michael Thomas and DeAndre Hopkins showed coming out, as well as some of the same strengths like catching the ball when it’s thrown to him. Don’t overthink a subpar pro day workout. Higgins will bully nickel corners all season long in the lineup behind Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders while continuing to get stronger and improve his routes.
Remember: we still own the Bengals fourth-round pick at No. 107, as well as their third-round pick in 2021. We’re also anticipating a third-round compensatory pick after losing Teddy Bridgewater in free agency. That’s plenty of ammunition to work with.
The pick: WR Tee Higgins, Clemson
Round 3
We started considering another trade up into the middle of the round, maybe acquiring one of the Las Vegas Raiders’ back-to-back picks at Nos. 80 and 81. But with the Atlanta Falcons lurking with similar needs at No. 78, we tried to get ahead of them at No. 77 with the Denver Broncos pick. The cloud of players on our board at that spot included:
- DT Justin Madubuike, Texas A&M
- C/G Matt Hennessy, Temple
- QB Jalen Hurts, Oklahoma
- RB Cam Akers, Florida State
Unfortunately, the Broncos weren’t interested in our offer, and actually swapped with the Falcons to pick Madubuike. Defensive tackle isn’t an immediate need for the Saints but it could be a long-term issue if Sheldon Rankins can’t rebound from a series of lower-leg injuries, and Madubuike is someone the Saints have shown interest in this offseason.
But we kept trying. The New York Jets, picking at No. 79, turned us down and picked Hennessy. We haggled with the Raiders until they accepted a move down from No. 81 to No. 107 (the fourth-round pick we got earlier from the Bengals), giving up our third- and fourth-round picks in next year’s draft.
That’s a steep price to pay, but we’re still left with three picks in the first three rounds in 2021 (our own first-round pick, the Bengals third rounder, and a projected comp pick in the third round). And Hurts might be worth it. The improvement he’s shown as a passer each year in college combined with his athleticism and team-first attitude makes him a perfect fit to compete with Taysom Hill as the future starting quarterback in New Orleans.
The pick: QB Jalen Hurts, Oklahoma
Round 4
Not gonna lie: a lot of players we liked were picked off in this round. Backup linebackers and cornerbacks with special teams upside, productive wide receivers with poor athletic testing numbers, versatile offensive linemen from smaller programs, and reserve quarterbacks from pro-style offenses didn’t pass through unclaimed. There’s definitely a benefit to not trading up as frequently as we’ve done here to pad out the middle class of the roster.
However, the Saints have guys like all of them already. Some of them were drafted just last year. Any rookies the Saints pick from here on out are going to have a tough time of making it through roster cuts, and many of them will be competing against their own doppelgangers. In this case, we’re happy with our choice to target easier scheme fits with more talent earlier in the draft by aggressively navigating the board.
Round 5
There weren’t any appealing options here. The only top 100 prospect on our board left available was North Carolina left tackle Charlie Heck, a tall prospect who struggles to bend low enough to compete with flexible pass rushers. So we made some calls about trading down, trying to add a seventh-round choice, and found a taker in the Miami Dolphins.
We swapped our fifth-round pick (No. 169) for their sixth- and seventh-round choices (Nos. 185 and 227), plus a seventh rounder in 2021. We’ll toss it on the stockpile.
Round 6
We just missed out on Texas A&M slot receiver Quartney Davis, an unremarkable athlete with reliable hands who might have pushed Tre’Quan Smith in training camp. The best available prospects at No. 185:
- CB Reggie Robinson, Tulsa
- DT Khalil Davis, Nebraksa
- TE Stephen Sullivan, LSU
- CB Harrison hand, Temple
We’ve seen a run on cornerbacks begin in this range in past mock drafts, so went with the highest-graded prospect in Robinson. He’s got a great toolkit from an athletic perspective and has started many games at the college level, while eagerly chipping in on special teams. He’s the ideal fit to back up Marshon Lattimore and Janoris Jenkins, but he might have to outwork Justin Hardee or Patrick Robinson for a roster spot.
The pick: CB Reggie Robinson, Tulsa
The Saints were on the clock at No. 203, their final choice in the sixth round. We’ll take it. None of the previous crop of prospects made it, leaving these top options:
- OT Alex Taylor, South Carolina State
- QB Steven Montez, Colorado
- WR Quez Watkins, Southern Mississippi
- LB Shaquille Quarterman, Miami
Of that group, Taylor has the easiest path to contributing in 2020. He’s a mammoth and former basketball player with the athleticism that comes with that background, but will need NFL-quality coaching before he’ll be ready to take the field. He’s also played almost exclusively on the right side. We’ll give him a shot as an understudy for Ryan Ramczyk.
The pick: OT Alex Taylor, South Carolina State
Round 7
Watkins and Quarterman were still around from last round’s cloud of prospects, but an interesting prospect emerged in Nebraska defensive tackle Carlos Davis. He played a bit part throughout his college career but consistently chipped in a few tackles for loss and sacks each season, never making fewer than 24 tackles total in a single year. That’s interesting, and suggests he might fit the Saints as a reserve behind Rankins, David Onyemata, and Shy Tuttle. We’ll take a flier on him and hope our other targets continue to slide into undrafted free agency.
The pick: DT Carlos Davis, Nebraska
