Are the Saints going to trade up in round one?

Daniel Jeremiah thinks teams are looking to trade up for offensive tackles.

No matter how Mickey Loomis or anyone else tries to spin it, it’s very clear that the New Orleans Saints have one glaring need: Offensive tackle.

It’s such a glaring need that even Daniel Jeremiah, an NFL Network draft expert, said on X “find me a team that has a bigger need than the Saints at OT.”

Luckily for the Saints, this is a very offensive tackle heavy draft. You have Joe Alt who’s considered the best tackle in the draft, but after him, you have another 5+ guys who could, and probably will be first rounders in Olu Fashanu, Taliese Fuaga, Troy Fauntanu, Amarius Mims, JC Latham, Jordan Morgan and Tyler Guyton.

However, when one team has a need that glaring and is in a good position to grab one of the top guys, that makes it very easy for teams further down the board to make a trade to jump them, and that’s exactly what might happen on Thursday.

Jeremiah reported that he made some phone calls, and the one major thing he took away from those conversations was that teams are going to trade up for an OT.

Currently, the Saints hold the 14th pick in this year’s NFL Draft. In the top-10, we expect to see three or four QB’s, three WR’s and an OT in Joe Alt be selected (possibly even a TE in Brock Bowers), meaning that by pick nine, there should still be a healthy selection of OT’s left on the board.

So why might the Saints trade up? Well, there are quite a few teams in the back half of the draft such as the Rams, Bengals, Cowboys and plenty others who need offensive tackles and are well within range to make a big move to get one.

The other issue? There are a few teams between picks nine and 13 who could be willing to move back as well. At pick nine, if the top-three receivers are off the board before Chicago’s second pick comes around, they could very well move back and acquire some more assets in this year’s or next year’s draft. At 10, the Jets don’t have any glaring need outside of maybe another pass catcher, and with this being a deep receiver class, they could move back and get more picks and still find a very good WR later. At 11, Minnesota could also move back if they aren’t able to get one of their quarterbacks.

By the time pick nine or 10 rolls around, the Saints could find themselves in a bidding war with some other tackle-needy teams to move up and get whichever guy they prefer. If they do sit at 14, they’ll pretty much be guaranteed to get one of Fashanu, Fuaga, Fauntanu or Latham, but we know Loomis likes to secure his guy at the expense of future capital. Just look back at 2022 when the Saints traded up for Olave. A lot of fans didn’t expect that to happen, but they got ahead of the train as Detroit traded up right behind them to select Jameson Williams. If they didn’t move up, they would’ve missed out on their guy.

I’m not telling you that the Saints absolutely will make a deal in the first round to get a tackle, but if what Jeremiah is reporting is true, they may have to move up a few spots to 10 or 11 to secure their guy.