Exploring How the Saints Could Trade Up for Cam Ward

Yes, you see a ton of elite QBs on that list. What you don't see, is many that won SB's with the teams that gave the farm to get them within the 10 first pics in the draft.

Brady - 6th rounder, FA with the Bucs.
Brees - FA, no SB with Chargers, and was a 2nd rounder to begin with.
Warner - FA off the arena league
P. Manning - straight up 1st overall for the Colts, no trades, plus FA for the Broncos.
Rodgers - straight up 24th overall
Stafford - a correction here, I listed Stafford as FA, but he was part of a trade with the Rams; he was a well established, veteran NFL QB at the time, though.

Again, only 2 teams have won SBs with the QB they drafted within the 1st 10 picks. One is P. Manning, 1st overall, no trades; the other is Mahomes.

So, statistically speaking, it is better to not make the mistake of trading multiple picks (especially 1st rounders) for a QB who has not thrown a pass in the NFL.

I personally don't care about the "elite" label. I care about my team winning the SB. Elite, top 5, top grade... show me the trophy case.
The sample size is also really small for trade ups. How many QBs were drafted over the past 20 years that involved significant trades?