2026 mock draft: Saints miss out on Arch Manning, still draft a local favorite
Should the Saints trade up for him? What would it cost? Would it be worth it? In the end, Harbaugh has the Saints getting outbid for the first pick (owned by the New York Giants) after the Pittsburgh Steelers traded up from No. 15. With the draft appropriately held in Pittsburgh next spring, the Steelers gave up their second- and third-round picks in 2026 as well as their 2027 first- and third-round picks to move up 14 spots and select Manning.
That feels like an underpay to go from No. 15 to No. 1 in any year, but especially with the Giants needing a quarterback and having the nephew of their two-time Super Bowl champion Eli Manning on the board. Either way, it wasn't a deal the Saints could match, at least in this scenario. So who did they draft instead?
Harbaugh has the Saints staying put at No. 3, where they selected LSU Tigers passer Garrett Nussmeier. Here's what Harbaugh had to say about that pick:
The connection between New Orleans and the Nussmeier family is going to be hard to ignore this season, even with the contract that the Saints just gave Tyler Shough. The Saints' offense aims to be more dynamic and electric in the passing game, as Moore's offenses have demonstrated in the past.
He's right about that: if the Saints are bad enough to be picking top-three in 2026, it'll be because Shough wasn't good enough to lead them to wins or even hold down the starting job, and his contract won't keep them from rolling the dice on another quarterback. Obviously Nussmeier's fraternizing with Kellen Moore at minicamp and, you know, his father being the team's offensive coordinator are going to drive speculation. But will it really matter on draft day?
We'll see. Stranger things have happened in the NFL. Let's just hope the Saints beat these expectations and are closer to a playoff berth than a top-three draft pick in Moore's first year on the job.
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