SmashMouth

The New Orleans Saints never let a draft go by without a few surprises.

They just waited 24 hours to throw a curveball in the 2016 NFL Draft.

The Saints took the safe pick by selecting defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins with the 12th pick in the first round. As they entered the second round, guard or pass rusher was considered their top need.

The Saints threw that out the window. Instead, they took a pair of Ohio State teammates, selecting wide receiver Michael Thomas with the 47th pick. Then they traded their third and fourth round picks to the Patriots to move back up and take free safety Vonn Bell at 61st overall.



The Saints considered both players at pick 47. So trading up wasn't a hard decision, according to Saints coach Sean Payton.

"We felt there was a dropout at that position and we saw value in the player and where we had him graded. It wasn't that difficult," he said.

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