We saw the New Orleans Saints pull off a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars before Tuesday's NFL deadline, sending veteran defensive lineman Davon Godchaux to the AFC South in exchange for a conditional sixth-round draft pick. But it gets a little complicated from there. Right now, that sixth rounder is going to New Orleans in 2028. That's because the Jaguars don't own a sixth-round choice in the 2027 draft. Per the terms of the trade, the Jaguars will send a 2027 sixth rounder to the Saints if they acquire one before the upcoming NFL draft.
Maybe another team trades the Jaguars a sixth rounder before then. More likely is that the Jags will be awarded a compensatory pick. The experts at Over The Cap predict two sixth-round comp picks for Jacksonville
when the NFL awards those picks in March. Ironically, one of those comp picks is going back to Jacksonville because they let running back Travis Etienne Jr. leave and sign with the Saints. The other makes up for the loss of cornerback Greg Newsome II.
So how do you grade the trade? On its face, the Saints won this deal, having gotten back more (a future sixth-round pick) than they spent to acquire Godchaux in the first place (having traded a seventh rounder for him to the New England Patriots). That's a win. But it gets a little more complicated. Because the Saints restructured his contract, they were set to pay more than $6 million next season in dead money after kicking the can down the road a couple of times. They did save some money by trading him now ($650,000, which will be paid by Jacksonville) but New Orleans will still be on the hook for $6,037,000 in 2027. That's not ideal but at least they got something back for him.
What about the on-field impact? Godchaux's role had been decreasing week over week dating back to last season, and he hasn't played more than 50% of the defensive snaps in a game since Week 12 of 2025. The big run stuffer has been limited to fewer than 20 snaps in each oof the last five games. Better options have emerged like Khristian Boyd, who languished on the bench for his first two years. The Saints have kept taken the same approach with second-round draft pick Christen Miller, who had a season-high three tackles against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Paris but was a healthy scratch for Sunday's game with the Cleveland Browns. Removing Godchaux from the equation opens more snaps for those guys and could force defensive coordinator Brandon Staley to play Miller even if he doesn't believe the rookie is ready. Staley is fielding the 29th-ranked run defense and can't use the excuse that he'd rather put veterans into games anymore.
All told? We're grading this with a B. The Saints got a better pick than we expected for Godchaux and they created an opportunity to force a stubborn coach into giving his younger players a shot. Let's see if it makes a difference.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Grade the trade: How did Saints do in Davon Godchaux-Jaguars deal?
