{"id":870116,"date":"2026-04-19T18:36:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T18:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/870116\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T18:36:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T18:36:35","slug":"saints-make-head-scratching-pick-no-one-expects-during-espn-mock-draft-with-unusual-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/870116\/","title":{"rendered":"Saints make head-scratching pick no one expects during ESPN mock draft with unusual twist"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Orleans Saints hold the eighth overall pick in this year\u2019s draft as of now. Their choice will impact a lot of teams in the first round. What does an anonymous scout think they may do with that selection? His pick may surprise you. <\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTennessee defensive back Jermod McCoy (3) during an SEC conference game between Tennessee and Alabama in Neyland Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to monitor the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft. They have seen a ton of different players mocked to them ahead of night one. A recent ESPN exercise surprised some fans with how the Saints came out of the first round. <\/p>\n

Saints pick Jermod McCoy in unique mock draft scenario<\/p>\n

In an ESPN piece from Matt Miller, he asked ten anonymous scouts around the league to make the picks inside the top ten. None of the scouts had any connection to the team they selected for in the exercise. <\/p>\n

The Saints\u2019 selection was one that fans have not seen much of throughout this process. The scout chose Tennessee Volunteers cornerback Jermod McCoy with the eighth overall pick. When New Orleans has gone CB in round one, it has usually been LSU\u2019s Mansoor Delane.<\/p>\n

\u201cAFC South area scout\u2019s pick:\u00a0Jermod McCoy<\/a>, CB, Tennessee<\/p>\n

The Saints\u2019 remaining top three needs are edge rusher, wide receiver and cornerback, and New Orleans comes on the clock with talented players available at each position. The job of making this pick fell to a second AFC South area scout, who didn\u2019t hesitate to take McCoy.<\/p>\n

\u2018Rarely do you find true blue-chip cornerbacks, and when one falls to you, it\u2019s an easy decision to take them off the board,\u201d the scout said. \u201cSo I\u2019ll take McCoy with the belief that his knee is good long term and that he\u2019ll be back to the player we saw in 2024, when he was the best cornerback in the nation.\u2019\u201d \u2014 ESPN<\/a><\/p>\n

This pick is probably rare for a reason. McCoy was a projected top ten pick entering last college football season. That being said, he missed the entire year and some of the pre-draft process due to an injury. <\/p>\n

That situation has certainly affected his draft stock, and many mock drafts usually have him going in the back half of the first round now. While he could go earlier in reality, the Saints normally look elsewhere. <\/p>\n

I would be really surprised if McCoy is the pick on Thursday evening, but you never truly know. We will see what the Saints decide, based on how the board falls early on, to do with a premium pick in the top ten.<\/p>\n

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New Orleans Saints News<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSaints may have already completely shifted their 2026 NFL Draft plan due to Rueben Bain update\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The twists of the NFL offseason continue. Following recent reports surrounding projected first-round pick Rueben Bain, teams could look to a different prospect early in this year\u2019s draft. The Miami EDGE rusher was named as a person of interest in a car accident dating back to March 17, 2024,\u00a0which was first reported by Ollie Connolly [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Orleans Saints hold the eighth overall pick in this year\u2019s draft as of now. Their choice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[7,7489,896,55,2572,2571,6,397,6364],"class_list":{"0":"post-870116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jermod-mccoy","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanssaints","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-saints","16":"tag-tennessee-vols"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116432831356201904","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}