The NFL Trade Deadline has passed, and in the end, the New Orleans Saints were able to make some deals. Both moves achieved the Saints’ goal of getting more draft capital and opening up opportunities for younger players, but were the trades worth it?
First Trade: Star WR Sent to the Seattle Seahawks
One of the trades that needed to happen before the deadline arrived was the Saints sending WR Rashid Shaheed somewhere. There were high odds that Shaheed would be leaving in free agency after the 2025 season. The Saints could have banked on a potential 2027 compensatory selection, given that when another team signs Shaheed, it would have stalled the chance of signing certain players in free agency, and the pick was not in 2026.
From the Seattle Seahawks, the Saints received a fourth-round and fifth-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft for Shaheed. This deal was a really good move by New Orleans, even if the team did not receive its original target price for Shaheed, which was a third-round pick. If the Saints were able to get that price, this trade would have been an A+.
Trade Grade: B+
Second Trade: Former First-Round Pick Traded to the Los Angeles Chargers
The next trade was a complete surprise to many, but it also felt like an inevitable move no one thought of. G Trevor Penning has struggled throughout his career with the Saints and has never been able to secure a starting position on the offensive line. Per PFSN’s Offensive Line Player Impact metric, this season Penning has had a C- (72.0) impact score and ranked 40th overall among guards. Not horrible, but not good enough.
If someone had said that New Orleans was able to trade away Penning for anything, Saints fans would not believe you. This player was not performing well and was on the verge of leaving in free agency. The Los Angeles Chargers needed O-Line help, so maybe this was more of a desperation move, and they sent the Saints a 2027 sixth-round pick.
The Trevor Penning trade wasn’t about keeping us contenders, it was about keeping Justin Herbert alive
— ChargersMemes (@ChargersMemes) November 5, 2025
This may not seem like enough trade compensation for a former first-round selection, but given how much that pick by the Saints has put this team behind, any gain is good news.