Metairie, La. — The Saints were finally on the clock Friday, and decided to make a trade with Miami to move-up from 62 to 48, so they could get Erik McCoy, a center out of Texas A&M– a guy Sean Payton said was their target coming into the day.”
“We felt strongly that he wouldn’t make it to 62,” Payton said. “That was one thing that we didn’t think he would be there at that time. We were pretty confident that he wasn’t going to be available if we stood pat.”
“I burst into tears,” McCoy said in his Skype interview with the New Orleans media. “This is a moment I’ve been waiting for my whole life. My family, they’ve sacrificed a lot for me to be here. Just to be around all of them in this moment it was honestly the best feeling of my life.”
Payton said they liked what they saw from McCoy on tape– his consistency and versatility — especially performing at such a high level against top SEC competition.
“You see his strength on tape and in each game you watch,” Payton said. “We really had a high grade on him. He played obviously at a high level of competition and you see the consistency. There were just a lot of things to like with the player.”
The Saints are back on the clock Saturday with their final 5 picks in the draft. They picked-up a 4th-round selection in that trade with Miami and gave-up one of their 6th round picks, so they’ll have one pick in the 5th, one in the 6th and two more in the 7th.