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BATON ROUGE — You may have to stay up past 10 p.m. to see it, but the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints could make Texas Christian University linebacker Daryl Washington their first pick in the newfangled NFL Draft with the 32nd and last pick of the first round Thursday night.

The new draft, which used to be held on a Saturday and Sunday in April, will be stretched out over two nights and one day and televised in prime time for the first time in league history. It all starts at 6:30 p.m. Thursday on ESPN with the first round only that is scheduled to run until 10 p.m. Pre-draft coverage begins at 2 p.m. Thursday on ESPN.

The second and third rounds will be televised live on ESPN beginning at 5 p.m. Friday and running through 9:30 p.m. The fourth through seventh rounds on ESPN will run from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Saturday.

"Looking forward to the new draft format," said Saints general manager Mickey Loomis, who has coordinated the good and bad of the last eight Saints' drafts, Thursday at a press conference at the club's facility in Metairie.

"I think it will be interesting. It will be interesting for me. It will be interesting for you guys to see how the process is impacted by this new schedule," Loomis said. "I think we have a few ideas of what could happen, but until we live through it once, we don't know."

ESPN analyst and former Tampa Bay Super Bowl winning coach Jon Gruden likes the idea of one night reserved for the critical and expensive first round instead of the first and second rounds on the Saturday and the last five on the Sunday as in the past.

"The way it was, it felt like three weeks at the end of the day," he said. "With what's at stake, it's good to take a break after the first round and reconvene in the morning after they've had a chance to think things over. I don't think it will be dramatically different until the first round is over. You might see more trades to start the second round. I think you'll see a little more aggressiveness."

The Saints may spend most of the first two days waiting as they will likely not pick until nearly 10 p.m. on Thursday and well into the night on Friday with the 64th pick of the second round and the 95th pick of the third round. They have fourth, sixth and seventh round picks (130th, 201st and 239th) on Saturday. They traded their fifth round pick last year to Philadelphia to go up in the fifth round and nabbed punter Thomas Morstead.

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ScottF

My initial impression is that there is a lot more time in between rounds so there is a greater chance we will see more trades.

RockyMountainSaint

I have a gut feeling that we will be involved in at least one trade on day one.
Maybe it will be Jammal Brown.
I remember when it was announced that we moved up in '05. I was convinced it was to get Thomas Davis from UGA. Glad I was wrong!

Danno

I smell multiple trade downs, and I love that smell.

st thomas

if its to fit our needs and possibly the future go for it

neugey

I'll live with the new format. Gonna watch the Lakers Thursday night and flip to ESPN for the draft during the commercials, so the slow first round doesn't bore me to tears.

st thomas

the laker's neugey

Rugby Saint II

This could actually benefit the team if it involves trades or swaps. The FO and coaches can reevaluate their boards and have time to digest how the first round affected them. Originally, I didn't like the idea but I'm OK with it now.

MatthewT

Since I have to work on Saturday's, I actually love this new format. All the great action will now be on Thursday and Friday Night! Love it for sure!!! I can live without watching rounds 4-7, as it's comparable to watching paint dry... Hopefully, the Saints can recover the 5th round pick they gave up last year. I do believe this is a very important draft for the Saints, as they are handcuffed in the free agency market.

strato

I can see us trading down as well...