The New Orleans Saints traded all four of their remaining picks, Nos. 130, 169, 203 and 244, in the NFL Draft on Friday night to select Dayton tight end Adam Trautman. Here’s a breakdown of why they picked him, what the key players had to say and what they might do next.
Why the pick
The Saints surprised almost nobody when they moved up to select linebacker Zack Baun. They surprised a lot of people when they apparently ended their draft early after aggressively moving up to get Trautman. But from the Saints’ perspective, it wasn’t much to give away. When they looked at the remaining players on their board, Trautman was at the top by himself.
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“He was another one I clearly wouldn’t have seen available at the end of the third round, but again, that’s how it works,” coach Sean Payton said during a conference call Friday night.
Trautman turned some heads at the Senior Bowl and his stats improved every year in college. Last season, he had 70 catches for 916 yards and 14 touchdowns. Payton said he thinks Trautman is one of the better blocking tight ends in the draft and when they looked at him, they had a “clear vision of an in-line Y.”
Trautman doesn’t have that much experience at the position, having converted from quarterback during his freshman year of college, so the players he models himself after are younger players like George Kittle and T.J. Hockenson, with a particular emphasis on toughness.
“Definitely recently, over the past two years, George Kittle, just starting from how hard he plays, and I emulate that in my game I believe, just how hard he goes after people, it’s amazing to watch. I love it, and same with T.J. Hockenson. They’re obviously not the same level of player yet, but T.J. Hockenson has a lot of that in his game and I just try to emulate that style of play,” Trautman said.
What Payton said
“We see him as a True Y. I do think for a small college player, we feel like he’s got real good In-line strength. He’s also someone that I think has got really good hips, so his change of direction, you can see that in how he sets up his routes. So, for someone who played at a smaller level, you see a dominant player, and we see him as someone who can help us as an in-line tight end and obviously build on, his first year, build on some of the things he can do outside.”
What Trautman said
“To be honest, I’m a pretty big film junkie, so I watch a lot of film on a lot of team’s pre-draft process to just kind of like, match it up with my college offense and just read coverages and count it out and all that kind of stuff. I probably watched like 25 of the teams, and the Saints were definitely one I did watch,” Trautman said. “I think I can do anything you ask me. … I think I’m more of a traditional ‘Y,’ you know, put my hand in the dirt, but that’s not for me to decide that, obviously. But I think I can do it all on the field as a tight end.”
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What’s next
There’s an urban legend that former Saints coach Bum Phillips once traded the rest of his draft picks so he could go to the racetrack, but any vacation for the Saints is going to have to wait. They’ll get a head start on their undrafted rookie free agent process, something made more difficult this year because everyone won’t be able to be in the same room. The Saints have had a lot of success with that over the years, most recently with All-Pro kick returner Deonte Harris.
“We’ll have a great opportunity here tomorrow to pay close attention to what happens in front of us, but to identify some additional players that we think can come in and hopefully find a spot on our roster,” Payton said. “Every year we seem to have gotten a few players that have done well after the draft.”
(Photo: Butch Dill / Associated Press)
