The Adam Trautman era came to an end for the New Orleans Saints on Saturday when they traded their former third-round pick to the Denver Broncos, who wanted to reunite their head coach Sean Payton with one of his former players. Payton explained their thinking in his post-draft press conference with Denver media.
“We comped him to a handful of the tight ends that we were discussing in this draft. We drafted Adam in the third round, and ironically we were comping him to a few of the other third-round players. He’s clean, great makeup, great character,” Payton said.
So who were they comparing Trautman to? The third-round tight ends picked this year included Tucker Kraft (South Dakota State, to the Green Bay Packers at No. 78), Darnell Washington (Georgia, to the Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 93), and Cameron Lau (Alabama, to the San Francisco 49ers at No. 101). It’s no guarantee that the Broncos had third-round grades on those players, and they passed on them with both picks in that frame by selecting Arkansas linebacker Drew Sanders at No. 67 and Iowa cornerback Riley moss at No. 83, but it’s a good guess.
Payton added that conversations with the Saints centering on Trautman picked up early Saturday, after their highest-graded tight ends went off the board. The Broncos liked the idea of simply swapping late-round picks to get a player he knows well.
“I think part of that became available because New Orleans, they were able to sign a tight end, and I’m sure they were looking at the long-term plans with Adam,” Payton said, in reference to the two-year extension that Juwan Johnson signed with the Saints earlier this offseason. “So we felt this was one of the needs for us coming in, we couldn’t force that, so when we passed that little area, or sweet spot of tight ends, having drafted another player yesterday, this came up and we felt really like, it’s flipping picks and all of a sudden getting a player that we have a clear vision for.”
That move allowed the Broncos to stay in play later in the draft, moving down to No. 257 (in the seventh round) from their initial pick at No. 195 (in the sixth round; the Saints used that selection on Wake Forest wide receiver A.T. Perry). If you’re curious, Denver used that seventh rounder on Oregon center Alex Forsyth.
We’ll see if a change of scenery helps Trautman develop after he struggled to get going in New Orleans. He didn’t consistently execute his blocking assignments and dropped too many passes for how little he was targeted, and he experienced some challenging injuries through his first three years. But he’s in a good spot to bounce back with his old coach and a veteran quarterback. Good luck to him.
