Saints' Payton details maneuvers to snag QB Stevens from Panthers
Tommy Stevens created quite the queue for a seventh-round quarterback who might change positions in the NFL.
It started with the Carolina Panthers setting up the framework of an undrafted free agent contract with Stevens, who is regarded as a versatile player capable of playing multiple positions in the mold of New Orleans Saints utility man Taysom Hill.
The Panthers, as Saints head coach Sean Payton detailed to The Athletic, were offering a $15,000 signing bonus and $30,000 of Stevens' salary guaranteed to reunite him with Carolina offensive coordinator Joe Brady. Brady coached Stevens at Penn State and last year was the passing game coordinator for LSU. He also has worked for Payton with the Saints.
New Orleans tried to compete with the offer by making guarantees on parts of the salary, but Stevens did not want to renege on a commitment to the Panthers.
The Saints went all the way up to $144,000. Agent Buddy Baker didn't budge.
"I said, 'Honestly, I was having some fun,'" Payton said. "'You had given your word and I respect that. But we weren't going to lose you. You were going to become a Saint.'"
The Saints eventually stopped negotiating and traded a sixth-round pick in next year's draft to the Houston Texans for a seventh-round pick in order to select Stevens 240th overall.
Stevens, who is 6-foot-5, 235, likely will play tight end and special teams while working some with the team's quarterbacks, including Hill and Jameis Winston, behind Drew Brees.
Payton said he sent one text to Brady that said, "Not so fast." Then he sent one to Stevens and Baker that said, "I'm tired of asking. Now, I'm taking."
"There's a little bit of competitive juices flying between me and Sean about, 'We want this player. And we're not gonna let anybody take him from us. We're gonna take him from them,'" Saints assistant general manager/college scouting director Jeff Ireland said on the team's podcast.
--Field Level Media
