What will the New Orleans Saints do in the 2020 NFL Draft? History suggests they’ll make an aggressive trade up. They’ve done that in each of the last three drafts, leaping up the board to target players like Erik McCoy and C.J. Gardner-Johnson in 2019, Marcus Davenport in 2018, and Alvin Kamara in 2017. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone if that strategy repeats itself in 2020.
However, SB Nation’s Dan Kadar projects a trade down, rather than a move up. With teams like the Miami Dolphins owning multiple high draft picks, it makes sense for the Saints to seek them out and acquire new assets. He suggested a trade in which the Saints drop down from No. 24 to No. 26, adding a high third-round pick (No. 70) in the process. That would give the Saints three picks in the top 100 (at Nos. 26, 70, and 88), and still allow them to bag a starting-quality defensive back:
26. New Orleans Saints: CJ Henderson, CB, Florida
A trade for the Saints is the ideal because they have no second-round picks this year. If they miss out on Love and Eason, they could wait another year on a quarterback prospect. Instead, they could turn to the back part of the defense, where the team sorely lacks outside cornerbacks besides Marshon Lattimore. Sure, Janoris Jenkins is there, but he could be a money-saving cut.
While it would be confusing to have multiple CJ’s running around the secondary (Chauncey Gardner-Johnson started going by C.J. after being drafted), it’s nothing new for them: Henderson and Gardner-Johnson starred together at Florida, feeding off each other’s energy to rack up a combined 14 turnovers between the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
While Henderson isn’t a very willing hitter in run defense (he made just 26 solo tackles in 2019), that’s hardly unusual for cornerbacks, and doesn’t matter much in a pass-first league. What matters is that he’s a long, accomplished cover corner who consistently fights at the catch point — he logged 11 pass deflections in 9 games last season. If the Saints don’t retain Jenkins on his $11.2 million salary cap hit, Henderson could start right away across from Lattimore as a rookie.
