Teams potentially moving up for an offensive tackle.
With the official start of the 2024 NFL Draft just a day away, rumors and smokescreens are starting to surround the lands. Some of them, not so good for the New Orleans Saints if true.
Teams potentially moving up for OT
Just recently today, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah tweeted out that many of his phone calls involved teams potentially moving up for an offensive tackle in round one.
To summarize my last 5 phone calls- everyone is moving up for an OT.
— Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) April 24, 2024
If this in fact were to be true, it begs the question of what does a team like the Saints do in this scenario?
The Saints are the most tackle-needy team in the entire league at the moment meaning that teams looking to move up will likely look to get ahead of them. The team is in a little bit of a tough spot in this case due to where they are scheduled to pick, and the limited draft compensation they have to work with. If the Saints wanted to move up let’s say to Pick 12 (Denver), they would likely have to give up something equivalent to a third round or fourth round selection of which they don’t currently possess. They would likely have to dig into future assets in this case. The team would only make this type of move if they felt that other teams were going to move up ahead of them beating them out of the offensive tackle race.
With that being said, something that would benefit the team in a scenario like this is being in close proximity with the team you’re trading with. Because they are only about 15-20 first-round talents in this years draft, if you’re a team like Denver at 12 moving back too far might take you out of range of getting a premier talent. Trading with the Saints may not get you much draft capital but it still grants you the potential of getting a top pass rusher, offensive lineman or even quarterback depending on how things unravel. It wouldn’t surprise me if some calls were made with teams slotted to pick in this area.
What will the Saints do?
It’s tough to say what the team will do being that they’ve been so aggressive in recent years but my gut is telling me that they will sit tight at Pick 14 in hopes of a good player falling to them. Wasting future capital to move up in the first-round will be a hard pill to swallow since they will most definitely have to do this somewhere in round three or four. However, I will say that if they do have a preference at offensive tackle and have a big enough gap in between the players available at their selection, I’d bet money they find a way to move up a couple of spots to get their guy.