The New Orleans Saints made the most of their 2019 draft class, despite not having a lot of ammunition coming into the three day fracas.
The Saints entered the draft with just one pick in the first four rounds. After some clever maneuvering and trades, Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton were able to draft Center Erik McCoy out of Texas A&M and acquire a fourth round pick. With that pick the Saints grabbed Safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and then in the sixth round snapped up Safety Saquan Hampton from Rutgers.
According to General Manager Mickey Loomis those three players were ranked pretty high on their draft board. “Three of our guys that we drafted were in our top 70,” Loomis said.
The Saints traded up twice in this draft. Loomis and the Saints stayed true to their aggressive nature. “When you have the opportunity to go get somebody, get a player you covet, you go get them. That’s been a successful formula for us. I’m not saying it’s one hundred percent, but it’s a successful formula for us. If you like the player go get them, that’s our philosophy,” Loomis said with conviction.
Loomis and the Saints loved their second round pick, Erik McCoy, so much they were shocked he was still on the board in the second round. The team discussed moving up in the second round as soon as the first round ended. “He was a target for us, and we talked about what we had available to us and the cost it would take to move up,” Loomis added. In that trade the Saints added a fourth round pick that allowed them to trade up in the fourth round to get Gardner-Johnson.
All in all for a team that didn’t have many holes and lacked draft selections, the Saints fortified their roster even further with the first three picks. The Saints finished the draft with two seventh round picks in Notre Dame Tight End Alize’ Mack and Idaho Linebacker Kaden Ellis.