Saints might get a compensatory draft pick in 2025 after all
Could the New Orleans Saints finally have a full assortment of picks in the 2025 NFL draft? They rejected temptation and didn’t trade away any of next year’s picks in the 2024 draft, only using a couple of current-year picks to move up in Round 2 for cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry.
It’s a good thing, too. The Saints already traded their pick in the seventh and final round of the 2025 draft along with defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson in 2022. That pick conveyed to the Philadelphia Eagles, who sent back a fifth-round pick in 2023 (which was traded to move up for offensive lineman Nick Saldiveri) as well as a sixth-round pick in 2024 (that became defensive tackle Khristian Boyd). So while the Saints own their picks in the first six rounds, that seventh rounder is going to Philadelphia.
But New Orleans just might get another seventh-round selection to make up for it. Over The Cap’s Nick Korte forecasts the Saints to receive a seventh-round compensatory draft pick in 2025 for losing either cornerback Isaac Yiadom or linebacker Zack Baun in free agency this spring. The deadline for comp pick considerations passed on Monday, April 30, so they’re one step closer.
Of course it isn’t that simple. Depending on which player factors into the comp picks formula, how often Yiadom or Baun is on the field (for the San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles, respectively) will impact the valuations. Baun was previously ranked higher in Korte’s calculations, but now it’s Yiadom slotting in as the qualifier.
It also depends on other players around the league outplaying the Saints’ qualifiers and bumping them down the ranking. Either way, this is pretty low stakes. The comp pick in question would be the second-to-last pick in the 2025 draft. This year, that was No. 256 overall, just nearly Mr. Irrelevant himself. It would be nice for the Saints to get another comp pick in 2025, replacing the selection traded to the Eagles, but no one should lose sleep over the second-to-last pick.
