Revisiting Last Years Trade

[Raves]

So last year the Saints did some wheeling and dealing that led to the Saints getting Chris Olave at #11 and Trevor Penning at #19.  The cost still to be paid was our 1st in this years draft, #10 overall, and our second in the 2024 draft.  

It was reported that the Saints originally had options to be able to trade up in the draft to select Olave prior to the Eagles trade went through but felt there was a lot of value at that range of the draft and felt they could get another impact player for a team that had looked strong the previous year.

Olave obviously balled out and was well worth any initial trade cost would've been but now the question is, what if the Saints hadn't made the trade for the additional 1st round pick last year which ended up being Penning and they still had the #10 pick?

My theory is that LT would be viewed as an absolute priority in the draft, even more than considering trading up for a QB with a package similar to what the Panthers gave up for CJ Stroud/Bryce Young.  So the question then becomes how do you view Penning vs the top rated OTs that would likely be available at the #10 pick in this draft?

Peter Skoronski from Northwestern

Broderick Jones from Georgia

Paris Johnson Jr from Ohio State

All 3 OTs are definitely talented, but I think if Penning was in this draft he'd definitely be ranked ahead of Paris Johnson and possibly even the other two.  Although he was/is more raw than Skoronski/Jones his upsides surpasses both of them as he has a rare athleticism for the position and a true nasty streak that you want to see in your lineman.

[tyler735]

On 3/11/2023 at 5:28 PM, Raves said:

So last year the Saints did some wheeling and dealing that led to the Saints getting Chris Olave at #11 and Trevor Penning at #19.  The cost still to be paid was our 1st in this years draft, #10 overall, and our second in the 2024 draft.  

It was reported that the Saints originally had options to be able to trade up in the draft to select Olave prior to the Eagles trade went through but felt there was a lot of value at that range of the draft and felt they could get another impact player for a team that had looked strong the previous year.

Olave obviously balled out and was well worth any initial trade cost would've been but now the question is, what if the Saints hadn't made the trade for the additional 1st round pick last year which ended up being Penning and they still had the #10 pick?

My theory is that LT would be viewed as an absolute priority in the draft, even more than considering trading up for a QB with a package similar to what the Panthers gave up for CJ Stroud/Bryce Young.  So the question then becomes how do you view Penning vs the top rated OTs that would likely be available at the #10 pick in this draft?

Peter Skoronski from Northwestern

Broderick Jones from Georgia

Paris Johnson Jr from Ohio State

All 3 OTs are definitely talented, but I think if Penning was in this draft he'd definitely be ranked ahead of Paris Johnson and possibly even the other two.  Although he was/is more raw than Skoronski/Jones his upsides surpasses both of them as he has a rare athleticism for the position and a true nasty streak that you want to see in your lineman.

Overall, I don't think the trade was a bad thing as we took a WR that should be a Pro Bowl level player for years to come. With that said, we also could have stayed put and came away with some solid options as well. I was really high on guys like Treylon Burks (with our original pick), or going after George Pickens in the 2nd round. In theory we could have taken Penning with our original pick and grabbed George Pickens with our 2nd round pick, which would have given us a comparable package to Olave/Penning without sacrificing extra draft capital. Obviously the jury is still out on if Penning is going to pan out or not, but we needed to take a chance at LT regardless of the trade with the loss of Terron Armstead.

However, we don't end up with Alontae Taylor in that scenario. I think Taylor plays a significant role in grading whether the trade was worth it or not. If Taylor takes the next step this year and becomes a solid starter for us at CB, then I think we look back and can easily say we made the correct move with the trade. If he regresses and never really takes ahold of a starting spot for us, then I'd say that we probably had better options without trading, but still ended up with an impact player in Olave.

Edited March 14, 2023 by tyler735

[Raves]

8 hours ago, tyler735 said:

Overall, I don't think the trade was a bad thing as we took a WR that should be a Pro Bowl level player for years to come. With that said, we also could have stayed put and came away with some solid options as well. I was really high on guys like Treylon Burks (with our original pick), or going after George Pickens in the 2nd round. In theory we could have taken Penning with our original pick and grabbed George Pickens with our 2nd round pick, which would have given us a comparable package to Olave/Penning without sacrificing extra draft capital. Obviously the jury is still out on if Penning is going to pan out or not, but we needed to take a chance at LT regardless of the trade with the loss of Terron Armstead.

However, we don't end up with Alontae Taylor in that scenario. I think Taylor plays a significant role in grading whether the trade was worth it or not. If Taylor takes the next step this year and becomes a solid starter for us at CB, then I think we look back and can easily say we made the correct move with the trade. If he regresses and never really takes ahold of a starting spot for us, then I'd say that we probably had better options without trading, but still ended up with an impact player in Olave.

Since Penning did have an uncharacteristic injury riddled season, how would you compare Penning to the OT prospects in this draft?  I think he would've been viewed right up there with the best OTs.

[tyler735]

4 minutes ago, Raves said:

Since Penning did have an uncharacteristic injury riddled season, how would you compare Penning to the OT prospects in this draft?  I think he would've been viewed right up there with the best OTs.

Last year was really top heavy for OT prospects with 3 going in the top 10. I don’t think this year is quite as talented there. I think Penning would likely be viewed with the top guys this year. The tough part with Penning is he is more of a traits and athletic specimen than polished prospect. Really hard to gauge where he’s at from a development standpoint after his rookie year.