Saints almost had a third trade deadline move completed

By Ross Jackson

Getting a pair of trades done felt like a win for the New Orleans Saints ahead of the deadline. The team offloaded two starting-caliber players and recouped three selections in the next two NFL drafts. But considering that the best of those selections was a fourth-round pick in 2026, a third move would have cast a stronger light on the Saints’ day. 

Per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, that was nearly the case. 

“The Colts were in the mix on [cornerback Alontae Taylor],” Fowler reported. “One team in the CB market said the Saints were looking for an early Day 3 pick for Taylor, who is a free agent after this season. If the Gardner deal fell through, I believe there was a decent chance Taylor would have been a Colt, allowing him to play more outside while Kenny Moore II manned the slot.”

An additional fourth or fifth-round selection in 2026 would have helped the Saints future prospects as they rebuild the roster quite a bit. Either New Orleans could have selected players at that spot or used the pick to mobilize throughout the draft. 

The situation would have shaped up well for Taylor, too. The corner is in a contract year and is playing a hybrid role between the outside and slot corner positions. That’s going to make contract negotiations, which are said to be active with the young defender, a bit more complicated. Not impossible, but certainly not simple. 

Taylor would have had an opportunity to man the outside role in Indianapolis for the remainder of the year, giving him a surefire boundary corner negotiation fodder at season’s end. Instead, the Colts reached a deal with the New York Jets in a blockbuster agreement to send cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Colts instead. 

It appears the Taylor deal would have been the fallback option if the Gardner deal had not gotten done. 

Now, Taylor will remain with New Orleans through the remainder of the season with a chance to test the market in free agency, assuming a deal doesn’t get reached to extend him in the Big Easy first. It would not be a surprise to see him explore the open market for a perimeter corner deal before re-signing with the Saints, however. 

The cornerback has 44 combined tackles (four for a loss), one sack and four passes defended on the season thus far.