How would you feel with Jaxson Dart at 9?
it normal.for a team to call a player letting them know they planned to draft him and if that report was true then Payton should've have waited to make the call.
So in respect of this part, it comes back to the story I struggle with, that we called a player before the pick went in *and* giving enough time for the Chiefs to consummate a trade with the team picking above them.
The call should normally be made to the player *at just about the same time* as the pick has been phoned in to the team rep at the Draft, to turn in their pick. This is how it's done, not while the previous team is still making a pick.
I have heard of a team trying to tie up a player's phone when someone is about to draft them just in front, but that's desperate stuff. I'm also aware of the Raiders once drafting a player who was dead, which is probably another reason teams want to call them in the first place!
Basically it all still feels like a need to blame Payton somehow, when in fact the Chiefs had a good idea who else wanted Mahomes, saw him fall to #10 and knew that was when they had to step in. It wasn't a call from the Saints to Mahomes that changed any of that.
The most likely scenario is that the Saints told Mahomes in pre draft conversation quite some time before the day that they had an interest in him, which multiple teams do to multiple players, often including those they never draft at all, as well as drafting those they've not even spoken to. It means little.