When the dust settled on the NFL’s trade deadline, the New Orleans Saints emerged with three more draft picks for their war chest.

The cost was two starting players from their 1-8 football team — both of whom, in different ways, represented the areas the franchise has come up short in recent years.

The Saints started things by sending receiver Rashid Shaheed to the Seattle Seahawks for a pair of Day 3 picks in next year’s draft — fourth- and fifth-rounders. Minutes before the 3 p.m. buzzer, they completed a trade with the offensive line-needy Los Angeles Chargers, acquiring a 2027 sixth-rounder in exchange for offensive lineman Trevor Penning .

"We feel like this can continue to build a young foundation that's going to carry this thing for a long time," coach Kellen Moore said Tue

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