We’re more than a month out from the 2026 NFL Draft, which means teams are traveling the country from coast to coast in search of talent. Teams like the New Orleans Saints are turning over every stone and taking the owner’s private jet out for cross-country flights. On Sunday morning, public flight tracking records found that Gayle Benson’s jet took off from Baton Rouge and landed a couple of hours later in Gunnison, Colo. Kellen Moore and Jeff Ireland used her jet last year to visit high-profile pro days and hold private meetings with draft prospects from Miami to Georgia, Texas, and other spots in between. Maybe that’s what happened here, too.

Besides being one of nation’s most beautiful ski resort towns, Gunnison is also home to Division-II Western Colorado University. It isn’t a school known as a pipeline to the pros — they haven’t had a player drafted since 1984 — but running back Austin Ekeler is one recent alum who found NFL success. And there are a couple of WCU players worth keeping an eye on. One of them is Ricky Freymond, who competed in front of pro scouts at the College Gridiron Showcase in January. The defensive lineman weighed in at 6-foot-4, 268 pounds with arms well over 32 inches at the CGS, but was snubbed by this year’s NFL Combine. He was credited with 58 tackles for loss and 29 sacks (with 8 forced fumbles) in 49 career games, and he also blocked four kicks on special teams. He could be a late-round sleeper.

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Another Mountaineer to remember might be WCU quarterback Drew Nash. The school listed him at 6-foot-2, 215 pounds but he wasn’t invited to any all-star games after throwing for 8,061 yards and 77 touchdowns as a three-year starter. He also rushed for 1,454 yards and scored 23 touchdown runs with multiple gains of 60-plus yards. The redshirt senior beat a lot of school passing records and led Western Colorado to a couple of rare Division II playoff wins. Nash may not be drafted but the Saints could view him as someone to develop on the practice squad like Hunter Dekkers last year. Western Colorado hasn’t announced a pro day this spring, so check-ins like this could be the only opportunity teams have to work out late-round draft prospects who may fly under the radar.

Of course we could be getting too far out over our skis here. Benson’s plane was only on the ground for 33 minutes in Gunnison before taking off again and looping around northwards to Rifle Garfield Regional Airport, a rural strip along the Colorado River. Maybe this journey wasn’t related to the team’s draft preparations at all. Maybe they were picking up regional scouts who had been on the road in rental cars. It would make sense to stop over at smaller schools before taking a quick flight to visit bigger programs’ pro days at UCLA and USC later this week. But at this point, all we can do is speculate and look out for where the Saints show up next.

This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: 2026 NFL Draft: Saints make surprise stops ahead of pro day circuit