The New Orleans Saints aren’t in the best position to grab a lot of talent in free agency or through trade this offseason due to being cash strapped. Bleacher Report’s scouting department does have a couple of players New Orleans could trade for.
The department broke down the three top trade targets for each team. For the Saints, they chose draft picks, David Ojabo and Mazi Smith. Trading for one of the two former Michigan Wolverines are the type of moves that New Orleans may have to settle for. Bleacher Report’s scouts see these defensive linemen as players with “a high ceiling and could wind up helping a team like the Saints.”
A speed rusher and a run stuffer. That’s what the Saints need and these players are prototypes for it. Even if it doesn’t work, they give you much needed depth. Ojabo is on the last year of his deal and Smith has two years remaining. These are short term moves that could become long-term with productivity.
Neither one of these moves would prevent the Saints from making more impact moves along the defensive line in the first three rounds of the NFL draft. These could even be draft-day trades. Because they haven’t lived up to expectations, Ojabo and Smith may only demand a Day 3 pick. It wouldn’t require much and at the worst, would fill out the roster.
Smith has played all 34 games he’s been eligible for with the Dallas Cowboys, but he’s been miscast after being asked to drop a lot of weight his rookie year and then told to pack it back on the following summer. His career has been an up-and-down roller coaster because of it. As for Ojabo? Injuries have limited him to just 18 games in three years, but he’s bagged four sacks and a couple of forced fumbles. Snaps are hard to come by in Baltimore’s defense. Depending on how the Saints fill out their new coaching staff, he could have better opportunities in New Orleans.
The Saints need to get younger. Ojabo will be 25 in May and Smith turns 24 a month later. They were both better prospects coming out of college than anyone who will be available when the Saints are picking in the later rounds of this year’s NFL draft. These are exactly the kind of low-risk, high-reward moves the team should be exploring. We’ll see if either of them are actually on the trade block this spring.
