Updated Saints mock draft after the Sean Payton trade

The New Orleans Saints got themselves some draft capital when Sean Payton decided to come back to the coaching world.

It’s incredibly hard to change your fortunes in the NFL without high draft picks. And one of the rewards for being a bad team is you get a draft pick close to the top of the draft where you can take a stab at a prospect who could help turn things around.

Unfortunately for the New Orleans Saints, who were bad enough to position their pick as 10th overall, they traded their pick away to the Philadelphia Eagles, who not only play in this year’s Super Bowl but also have an incredible pick to keep getting better this offseason. The rich get richer.

New Orleans, until this week, had no first-round pick. They also had no clear path to getting one without potentially having to give up future picks or talented players.

Then, the Denver Broncos missed out on Demeco Ryans and they missed out on Jim Harbaugh. And with that, they turned to Sean Payton. New Orleans still owned Payton’s coaching rights and needed to waive those rights in order for Payton to accept in Denver. Because of that, the Saints got a pick from the Broncos, No. 30 overall (originally owned by the San Francisco 49ers).

So, with that, what will the Saints picks look like in late April? Let’s take a stab at a mock predicting who they’ll take with their first three picks, starting with No. 30.