The newest member of the New Orleans Saints team is the man they call Kool-Aid. Kool-Aid McKinstry, a cornerback for Alabama, is an expert at covering pressmen.
He also helped the Crimson Tide return punts. In his three seasons at Tuscaloosa, he had three interceptions overall, and none of those came in the previous season. Nick Saban demands that his defensive backs be proficient tacklers in addition to being eager ones. That was McKinstry for the tide.
McKinstry’s foot suffered a Jones fracture, which was not detected until the NFL combine. It’s interesting to note that McKinstry ran a 4.47 on his pro day. The team believes he won’t miss any time during training camp, but the injury should keep him out of the game until June.
From the outside, investing in McKinistry seems like a really good idea.
Step Two: Upsizing…
The Saints were unable to control themselves. A day after the Saints gave a trade back significant thought, but eventually decided against it, they did what they always do and advanced to the second round. It was not too much to the trading north. To take McKinstry, they only advanced four positions, from 45 to 41, with Green Bay. One Saints fifth-round pick (168) and one sixth-round pick (190) were lost in the trade.
There was talk in the second round that they would have another chance to cover the hole in their board from rounds three and four. Practically speaking, the Saints aren’t made of that. Rather, their movements are constantly in a single direction.
According to Dennis Allen, they thought McKinstry was a tremendous value, and they thought they had a chance to go up and get him at pick 36.
Step Three: Lattimore Prospect
For months, Marshon Lattimore has been a hot topic in trade discussions. This will only serve to stoke the rumors further. Something like this simply serves to heighten the doubts about Lattimore’s long-term status with the squad.
The Saints chose to aggressively move up to acquire McKinstry even though they didn’t have an immediate need for a cornerback.
Allen played the incident down, as one might anticipate. He stated that even though they haven’t spoken in a long and that Lattimore isn’t present in the building for the offseason program, they still look forward to having him play for the Saints.
The organization has a rather loaded cornerback room if Lattimore isn’t dealt: McKinstry, Paulson Adebo, Alontae Taylor, and Lattimore are all listed there.
Take Four: First Classification
McKinstry is a talented football player with the potential to become a strong starter in the future. As an experienced secondary coach, Allen maintained that his teams have always needed to rely on their fourth and fifth corners during the course of the season. In addition, the Saints believed that their second-round pick was really a first-round pick.
But the Saints had other needs, and there were plenty of players still available to cover those gaps. In the end, this move will be far more significant if Lattimore leaves the Saints before the season.
Rating: B
Take Five: Concluding Remarks
His grandma gave him the nickname “Kool Aid” because of his wide smile at birth. Ga’Quincy is his true name, but no one addresses him by that.
The Saints may not be done trading, in my opinion. To try to get into the fourth round, they might use two more of their fifth-round selections.
Remember that McKinstry can return kicks, which makes him a valuable asset for this club especially in light of the new kickoff rule.
Allen vehemently refuted reports that the Saints talked about trading up to choose a quarterback in the first round. Late on Thursday, there was a story indicating that the Saints were considering Michael Penix. According to Allen, they made “zero effort” to climb.
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