New Orleans Saints: Examining the possibility of a Stefon Diggs trade

Minnesota Vikings’ receiver Stefon Diggs seemingly wants out of Minnesota, with a need for a second receiver, is the New Orleans Saints a potential fit?

The NFL trade rumors are heating up and it is only the beginning of October. Minnesota Vikings wideout Stefon Diggs appears to already have one foot out the door, and of course, we have to discuss whether or not the New Orleans Saints are a potential candidate to trade for him.

Rumors have been circling around Diggs wanting out of Minnesota because of his role with the team. From cryptic social media posts to he said she said, this had all the makings of a classic trade rumor.

Nothing was really definitely confirmed until Thursday, where Diggs himself did us the pleasure of confirming the rumors. Diggs told the media on Thursday that, despite his unwillingness to talk about it, that there is some truth to the rumors.

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They are at a crossroads, however, as the Vikings reportedly have told interested teams that Diggs will not be traded. If this continues and Diggs flexes his muscles, there absolutely is the possibility that the Vikings cave at a good offer from another team.

The New Orleans Saints have not really been in the conversation as a potentially interested team in Diggs, the player who caught the Minneapolis Miracle against them two years ago. However, while you may not be hearing a lot about the Saints, they make sense in a pure fit standpoint.

While the Saints are already paying Michael Thomas a hefty contract, the receiving corps past that has been extremely underwhelming. Adding Diggs into the mix would give the Saints one of the best, if not the best, 1-2 receiver combos in the league and would make Drew Brees even more dangerous.

But is possible? That is the main question.

The New Orleans Saints have $4.7 million in cap space and Diggs’ contract has a $12.4 million cap hit. The only realistic way to work out this trade in terms of contracts would be to include Demario Davis in the deal, who has an $8.5 million cap hit this season.

Davis is a solid backer who makes an impact on the defense and would make an impact on the Vikings, albeit he is past his prime.

With a potential out after this season, he would be the perfect one-year player for the Vikings to bring in to make their defense even better this year without a long-term commitment. In that sense, the Vikings would essentially be getting future capital as well as cap space.

The other hang-up is the picks. If the New Orleans Saints have no plans of drafting a quarterback successor to Drew Brees in this upcoming draft then I absolutely could see them trading away their 2020 first-round pick.

However, if there are plans of drafting a quarterback then that obviously gets tougher to do, as the team would be betting on there being a solid quarterback available in the 50s.

If this were to happen I could see a package of Davis, a 2020 first and a 2021 third getting it done. They could even move that third down to the fourth or fifth.

The only other concern is the cap hit moving forward. While they would be freeing up money in Davis, they would be taking on four more years of Diggs’ contract. Granted, this means four years of having him in black and gold, but it could restrict things for the Saints.

This will be a problem in two years when Alvin Kamara is a free agent. But based on the running back situation in the league, the Saints might not even want to pay him a big contract.

Plus, by then, Jared Cook‘s $9 million will be off the books and the team might either be on a rookie quarterback if Brees retires or the veteran QB could even take a slight pay cut like Tom Brady, knowing the team needs that salary cap space to build a better contender around him.

There still are other players such as Andrus Peat and Sheldon Rankins, that are up in the next few years, but those are positions that can be replaced in the draft and we see that happen all the time in the league.

So, is a trade for Stefon Diggs possible? Absolutely. It all depends on the Saints’ philosophy, however.

If the Saints are all-in on winning it all while also knowing that Brees might be around for two more years then this is a possibility. If they are set on drafting Brees’ successor in 2020 then this trade will ultimately never happen.