Originally posted by tjd808185:
Originally posted by 49erphan:
I made a mistake. For some reason I was thinking that the 9ers got the Saints 3rd round pick this year. Duh. No. They exchanged their 3rd round this year for the Saints second next year. So never mind my "moving down nine slots this year" talk. Duh. But the idea is still much the same. If the Saints are really good this year, the 9ers may only move up a few slots from what they could have had this year. A move up a few slots is better than not moving up a few slots but it may not be that big of a deal. But if the Saints are average to bad this year then it could turn into a really good trade.
The idea is to add more picks for next year to give us added flexibility in that draft. The adding slots is just gravy. Maybe we regret passing on Jordan Willis or Cooper Kupp but the additional pick could be far more valuable in trying to trade up next year.
I agree that adding a second rounder next year creates more leverage to trade up in a year when they may want to reach up higher in the first round for, say, a QB. But it's not either they did the trade to get ammunition to move up in the first round next year
or they did the trade because the Saints are likely to be in the middle or upper part of round two next year so they can gain a much better player than next year in round 2 than if they had stayed at the beginning of round 3 this year. Doing the trade could create the option of getting a fairly high round 2 player next year (if the Saints stay true to form) for an early 3rd round player this year
and the option using the second rounder to trade up higher in the first round next year. In fact, the higher the Saints traded 2nd rounder is next year, the more valuable it would be in any efforts to trade up in the first round.