How does that song go? You’ve got to know when to fold them. Know when to hold them. And know when to walk away. With the New Orleans Saints lurching into a 1-8 start — what would be a winless 0-9 but by the grace of Jaxson Dart’s lapses in ball security — longtime general manager Mickey Loomis needs to show us he still knows when, and how, to cut a deal. If he’s so focused on not blinking in the face of lowball offers the NFL trade deadline will pass him by on Tuesday. It’s an opportunity the Saints can’t afford to waste. And if Loomis won’t budge, as he refused to last year when Dennis Allen fell into a 2-7 hole, then Gayle Benson must do her job as team owner and overrule him again.
Right now, the Saints own just five picks in the 2026 NFL draft, when most teams have seven of them. If they’re lucky they might get six choices. This is a bad team that’s too old at too many key position groups. It’s going to take time to rebuild, but getting more draft picks can make that process easier. Enough is enough. Even if they’re taking less than they’d like, these are just four trades we’d force Loomis to accept if we were in Benson’s very fashionable shoes.
Trade Brandin Cooks to the Pittsburgh Steelers
- Saints get: 2026 Round 7 pick
- Steelers get: WR Brandin Cooks
Nice and neat, one pick for one player. Some of these other deals won’t be so simple. Funny enough, this could be the pick the Saints already traded to the New England Patriots (for nose tackle Davon Godchaux), who subsequently dealt it to Pittsburgh. Steelers fans are greedy and want another young stud to pair with DK Metcalf, like Rashid Shaheed, but Cooks is probably closer to their budget. He’s one of the most-experienced wideouts in the game today and could be a good veteran presence in such a young receiving corps. He’s also due more than $8 million against the cap next year, which the Saints are not going to pay. Trading him now saves New Orleans $4.8 million on next year’s books and almost $700,000 this year. Because Cooks doesn’t have many guarantees for his new team to pick up, Pittsburgh can choose to keep him for 2026 or not without hurting their own cap situation. Cooks gets to join a playoff team, the Saints get their final-round pick back, and Loomis doesn’t have to feel too bad about it because he’s technically doing right by a veteran.
- Saints get: 2026 Round 4 pick, 2027 Round 7 pick
- Seahawks get: RG Cesar Ruiz
Noticing a theme here? We’re undoing some of the damage Loomis did earlier this year, this time making up for that Devaughn Vele trade which still hasn’t panned out (but trading Cooks to Pittsburgh forces Vele to climb higher in the rotation. Funny how that works). While the Seahawks did demolish the Washington Commanders on Sunday night, right guard Anthony Bradford remains a weak link in their line, and Klint Kubiak’s staff could view Ruiz as the missing piece who could make them playoffs-ready. Ruiz has been inconsistent at best in every year he’s played for the Saints except 2024, when Kubiak and his crew got to play him to his strengths in a run-heavy offense emphasizing outside zone concepts. Kellen Moore and his coaching staff have not embraced that philosophy, and Ruiz has taken a step back because of it. We might be reaching here, and it’s been reported that Loomis wants a third-round pick, but we’ll take what we can get to move off a bad contract. Ruiz is owed nearly $14.2 million against next year’s salary cap. The Saints only save about $12,000. We aren’t picky. Getting those picks for Moore to pick his own players is better than forcing him to start a player who doesn’t fit his playbook.
- Saints get: 2026 Round 5 pick
- Bears get: LB Pete Werner
Dennis Allen’s defense gave up 15 points in the fourth quarter, narrowly blowing a big lead in a 47-42 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. He needs players better suited to his scheme and Werner was one of his favorites during all those years in New Orleans. Conveniently, the Saints have been phasing Werner out while making room for young linebackers Danny Stutsman and Isaiah Stalbird. Trading him away opens that spot full-time next to Demario Davis. We’d even take a sixth rounder to get off of Werner’s contract. His next two salary cap hits are $7.9 million in 2026 and $8.2 million in 2027. Trading him means saving about $2.2 million. His contract is low on guarantees after this season, so the Bears can choose whether to pay his base salaries ($6.25 million in 2026 and $6.5 million in 2027) or go in a different direction themselves. But he would be an upgrade over most of the players in the linebacker corps Allen inherited.
Trade Nathan Shepherd to the Green Bay Packers
- Saints get: 2026 Round 6 pick
- Packers get: DT Nathan Shepherd
Green Bay has only lost twice this year (and tied in a game), but their depth on the defensive interior has been eroded, tested, and at times broken. They just lost to the visiting Carolina Panthers, who averaged nearly five yards per carry to the tune of 163 yards and two touchdowns. Shepherd may not start for them but he could give the Packers more depth and more of a veteran presence after they sent Kenny Clark to the Dallas Cowboys in the preseason. He hasn’t made a great impact in New Orleans but that’s largely because he’s been asked to play too many snaps, nearly as many as Bryan Bresee going into Week 9. The Packers could do a better job platooning him. Trading Shepherd wouldn’t save the Saints much against the cap (a little under $400,000 next year) but they badly need to shake up the interior line rotation. Of the five defensive tackles who played on Sunday, four were 30 or older, including Shepherd. Khristian Boyd needs to get into games and show us whether he’s worth keeping around. He’s been a healthy scratch far too often. Trading Shepherd is going to force him into games whether Brandon Staley likes it or not. His defense gave up 172 rushing yards to the Rams’ two running backs on Sunday. He’s going to have to try something else.
Projected Saints draft picks
So what if we got our way and each of these four trades were completed just like we drew them up? Here’s what the Saints’ future picks would look like, with picks coming in from our proposals highlighted in bold text. Even if we didn’t get the top-100 picks Loomis and a lot of fans covet, we did get several more at-bats spaced throughout the draft. Sometimes that’s all you need. Just ask Zach Strief and Marques Colston.
2026 NFL draft
- Round 1 (own)
- Round 2 (own)
- Round 3 (own)
- Round 4 (via Seattle Seahawks)
- Round 5 (own)
- Round 5 (via Chicago Bears)
- Round 6 (own)
- Round 6 (via Green Bay Packers)
- Round 7 (via Pittsburgh Steelers)
2027 NFL draft
- Round 1 (own)
- Round 2 (own)
- Round 3 (own)
- Round 4 (own)
- Round 5 (own)
- Round 6 (own)
- Round 7 (via Seattle Seahawks)
2028 NFL draft
- Round 1 (own)
- Round 2 (own)
- Round 3 (own)
- Round 4 (own)
- Round 5 (own)
- Round 7 (own)
- Round 7 (via Dallas Cowboys)
- Round 7 (via New England Patriots)
