Saints Projected to Pick 28th Overall in NFL Draft

The Saints are projected to pick 28th in the NFL Draft, but they're looking at only a handful of draft picks right now.

John Hendrix | Jan 19, 2021

The Saints saw their season end in disappointing fashion after being upset by the Bucs on Sunday. It's likely the last we've seen of Drew Brees, but nothing official has been announced and won't be for some time. However, the league-wide belief is that his time is up. New Orleans is facing a gigantic offseason regardless of Brees returning or not, having major salary cap decisions to make and moving forward with some projected roster turnover.

Assuming nothing changes, New Orleans will go into the NFL Draft with the 28th overall pick with three selections.

Current Draft Picks

Round 1
Round 2
Round 4

What happened to the others? Here's how the Saints lost out of the other picks. One is not set in stone, so there's a chance that it's more than just three original selections before the compensatory formula calculates.

Round 3 - Zack Baun trade from last year's draft. Browns got the 88th overall and New Orleans' 2021 3rd Round pick for 74th overall from the Browns and their 7th Rounder (244th Overall).
Round 5 - This is projected to be lost based on the Kwon Alexander trade. The trade was originally for a 2022 fifth-round pick, but could become a 2021 fifth-rounder if Alexander hits play-time markers as a Saint. It's unclear on if that happened or not.
Round 6 - The Saints traded with the Texans last year to get Tommy Stevens with the 240th pick in the 7th Round, but gave up their 2021 sixth-round pick in the process.
Round 7 - This pick was stripped from New Orleans on Nov. 29 as part of the NFL's discipline for repeated violations of the league's COVID-19 protocols

New Orleans is projected to have two Round 3 picks through the compensatory process. The first would come from Teddy Bridgwater, and the second would be through Terry Fontenot joining the Falcons. Of course, we'll just have to wait on that, but the importance of said picks will be just as important as the 2006 and 2017 seasons. It's a lot to live up to, whoever they choose.

Published Jan 19, 2021

JOHN HENDRIX

I officially started covering the New Orleans Saints & other NFL topics in 2011. My work has been featured on various outlets over the years. I worked closely with Skyhorse Publishing in Fall 2018 to update the book, Tales From the New Orleans Saints Sidelines, which filled in all Saints material from the 2013-2017 seasons. Prior to joining Saints News Network, I served as the Managing Editor of SB Nation's Canal Street Chronicles for 3.5 years, and before that with FanSided's Who Dat Dish as the Managing Editor for several years. I have also had experiences of being a freelance Saints reporter for The Sun Herald in Biloxi, MS and a contributing writer for WDSU, a local NBC TV station in New Orleans. I have appeared on a vast amount of TV and Radio shows, both nationally and locally. For tips, comments, or suggestions, please contact me at johnhendrix@saintsnews.net