The New Orleans Saints became sellers after all at the NFL trade deadline as they sit mired in a 7-game losing streak.
The Saints have traded star cornerback and former first-round pick Marshon Lattimore to the Washington Commanders. The Saints officially announced the trade just after 1 p.m.
Here's how the full compensation broke down, per ESPN's Adam Schefter:
Saints get:
- 3rd round pick
- 4th round pick
- 6th round pick (Saints pick sent in John Ridgeway trade)
Commanders get
- Marshon Lattimore
- 5th round pick
It was a move that comes on the heels of the firing of head coach Dennis Allen, which came on Monday following an ugly loss to the Carolina Panthers. Multiple teams displayed interest Lattimore, including the Kansas City Chiefs.
The move officially ends a highly productive, 8-year Saints tenure that began when the Saints drafted the former Ohio State standout No. 11 overall. That pick came after the team was set to select quarterback Pat Mahomes, a fact that has been discussed extensively in recent years, but were leapfrogged by the Kansas City Chiefs, who have gone on to build a modern NFL dynasty and won three of the past four Super Bowls.
The Saints made out well, with Lattimore the secondary cornerstone of a defense that rose to one of the top units in the NFL with Dennis Allen as defensive coordinator. Lattimore, 28, was the lockdown cornerback the Saints needed, appearing in 97 games while rolling up 405 tackles, 15 interceptions and 88 passes defensed while routinely tracking the opposing team's best receiver. Lattimore was the NFL's defensive rookie of the year in 2017 and a four-time Pro Bowler.
Injuries and frustration appear to have soured the relationship in the past several years, with Lattimore missing 10 games in 2022 due to a freak kidney injury, then another 7 games in 2023 due to a high ankle sprain. He dealt with a hip injury in training camp and has missed two games this season due to a hamstring injury, while leaving three others in the second half due to the same issue.
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Lattimore was a popular name in trade discussions during the offseason due to a reported rift between the player and coaching staff, as well as a restructured contract that appeared done in such a way that it could facilitate a trade. No deal materialized and Lattimore was on hand for all mandatory team activities, committing to the team publicly during his rare conversations with local media.
A team trading for Lattimore will be hopeful that the injury woes are something he can put behind him, because when the player is on the field he's been highly productive. In 257 coverage snaps this season, according to Pro Football Focus, Lattimore was targeted just 14 times, allowing 8 catches for 83 yards.
The move doesn't change much immediately in terms of depth at the cornerback position, but it will still be one to watch closely. Lattimore and rookie Kool-Aid McKinstry both missed Week 9 with hamstring injuries, leading the Saints to sign several players off the practice squad, signing one of them on the outside in Shemar Jean-Charles. The Saints also moved Alontae Taylor from the slot to the outside corner position, with Ugo Amadi manning the slot. When the rookie McKinstry returns, the Saints will have to decide whether they want to keep Taylor outside or shift him back into the slot. The other Week 1 starter in Paulson Adebo is on injured reserve as he recovers from a broken femur, and the Saints will have to decide whether to try to bring him back on a new deal or go in a different direction.
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The trade signals more winds of change after the team opted to fire Dennis Allen following a loss to the lowly Panthers that punctuated a seven-game losing streak, the team's longest since 1999 and the final year of the Mike Ditka coaching tenure. It's the first in-season firing by the Saints since Dick Nolan was let go midway through the 1980 season.
The decision, while jarring, was not a massive surprise under the circumstances. The Saints will turn to special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi as the interim head coach, and while he was still getting his bearings on Monday and had yet to have any personnel conversations, he ensured the gathered media that the team was still committed to winning.
New Orleans brass has said repeatedly in recent weeks that they had no intention of being sellers at the deadline, but that was before the coaching change. This is what Mickey Loomis said on WWL Radio last week.
“There’ll be a lot of contact from other GMs, other personnel people taking temperatures as to hey, do you have anybody that you’re trying to move, and look, I think, you know, when you’re in a losing streak, you know, you’re calling those teams looking to see if they’re sellers, right, and so we’ll get a number of calls and we’ll respond accordingly. I’m not really one who thinks that trading away half your roster makes a lot of sense at this point for, generally, what I think are undervalued offers.”
All NFL trades must be completed by 3 p.m., Tuesday.
We'll have to wait and see whether wins come, starting on Sunday with a date against the Falcons at the Caesars Superdome.