The New Orleans Saints drafted Alabama cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry in the second round a few days ago, which led to speculation that Marshon Lattimore may be the target in trade talks with other teams. However, according to general manager Mickey Loomis, this is most definitely not the case, and the Saints are not currently looking to trade Lattimore at all.
In an interview with Adam Schein on his SiriusXM “Schein on Sports” podcast, Loomis discussed the topic of Lattimore and any considerations he is currently making.
“I’m not actively trying to trade Marshon, Marshon, you know, such a good player, he’s an elite corner,” Loomis said. “He’s had some injuries the last couple seasons that have kept him off the field, and we gotta get over that. It’s not his fault, it’s just circumstances, and so that’s just where we’re at.”
He also spoke about what Lattimore brings to the table for New Orleans with the current roster structure.
“Marshon’s been a really good player for us for a good period of time. He’s one of the leaders of our team. We can use as many corners as we can get,” Loomis added.
Ultimately, this settles things at least for a little while. While Loomis did mention that he always considers a Godfather “offer you can’t refuse,” he made it clear that this is the case with any player on the team, and only if it makes sense.
A secondary involving Lattimore, McKinstry, Paulson Adebo, Tyrann Mathieu, Jordan Howden and Alontae Taylor certainly looks stout on paper, and the utilization of these players would be more possible as they could play in specific roles to tailor to their strengths more often. Keeping Lattimore around to mentor the younger guys in the room, especially McKinstry, is something that you would think the Saints would prefer to do in the end. Their deadline to trade Lattimore is one week before the regular season starts. Let’s see if Loomis changes his tune.
