New Orleans Saints surprisingly bought into the seventh round of the 2020 NFL Draft to take Mississippi State’s Tommy Stevens. As it turns out, they did so in order to avoid losing him to Carolina Panthers.
Saints’ head coach Sean Payton recently told The Athletic’s Jeff Duncan that they initially intended to sign Stevens as an undrafted free agent, but the 23-year-old signal-caller already had a deal in place with Panthers. Still, Payton wouldn’t let that affect his plans.
“There’s no way I was going to lose this kid,” Payton explained.
Saints first tried to offer Stevens to match the figures that Carolina gave him before bumping up their offer. Still, the player and his agent declined, intending to honor their deal with Panthers. Payton then took a different approach.
Since the Saints didn’t have any later round picks in 2020, they decided to make a deal with Houston Texans, sending their 2021 sixth-rounder for the No.240, which they used to draft Stevens.
“I said, ‘Honestly, I was having some fun,'” Payton added. “‘You had given your word, and I respect that. But we weren’t going to lose you. You were going to become a Saint.'”
Thanks to his versatility, Tommy Stevens is often compared to Saints’ “Swiss-Army knife” player Taysom Hill. This is probably one of the reasons why Sean Payton wanted him so badly and didn’t let other teams get ahold of his talents.
Stevens managed to play just nine games in 2019, as he struggled with injuries. He finished the season with 934 passing yards, 310 rushing yards, and 12 touchdowns.
