rlemieux said

You keep thinking so.

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"It's something we felt that could help our team right now," Payton said of the trade that rocked the first round. "And obviously there is downside and you give up some compensation and you give up some flexibility next year. But we are worried about this year, too, and our focus is on winning this year, and that was the cost to move from where we were in the first round to getting really into a different part of that round."

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Payton first became aware of the late-rising player -- there was little fanfare about Davenport entering his senior season -- when the Saints began what they call their "front-board" meetings to start dissecting Senior Bowl and combine participants in January. He would quickly become a player who Payton and Loomis discussed frequently, and a prospect they soon discerned would have no chance of being available at the later stages of the first round, where they were slated to pick.

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There is a tangible conviction in his voice whenever Payton speaks about the thinking that led to this brash trade and Davenport's importance to their short- and long-term goals. He and Loomis have long been willing to take risks. Perhaps this was their biggest.

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