Was the Saints' Front Office (e.g., Loomis) Fleeced on the Sean Payton Trade?

This will be one of the few times I will take up for the Saints' front office, but I think Loomis and Denver made a fair trade. At the end, only one team seriously pursued Payton, and there was a ceiling in the draft compensation that the team wanting Payton was going to pay and that Payton going to the team giving up draft picks would accept.

Even with Denver's recent success, I would have preferred Denver's 2024 one-round pick rather its very late 2023 first-round pick. But regarding the question posed, I do not believe that Loomis was fleeced. I do think he was fleeced by Philadelphia with his 2022 trade and made a mistake (in retrospect, huge) in signing Derek Carr. But those are different issues.