Saints acquire Shockey for draft picks

By John Clayton
ESPN.com

Updated: July 21, 2008, 2:47 PM ET


Sean Payton's persistence finally won out. The New Orleans Saints acquired Jeremy Shockey for a second- and a fifth-round draft pick in 2009, a source confirmed Monday.

The deal was first reported by FOXSports.com.

The Saints had been trying since February to acquire the disgruntled New York Giants tight end. First, they offered a second-round pick. Before the draft, they increased the offer to a second- and a fifth-round draft choice, but the Giants felt he was too valuable to lose until a few days before the start of their training camp.

As Payton and Saints general manager Mickey Loomis did their last few minutes of office work before heading to Jackson, Miss., for Wednesday's start of training camp, they received a call from the Giants saying that Shockey was theirs.

Even through the weekend, the Saints tried to broker a deal for Shockey. On Sunday, they tried to get in the middle of the Jason Taylor trade to see if there was a way they could make a three-way deal that brought them Shockey, according to multiple sources. Taylor went to the Washington Redskins for a second-round pick in 2009 and a sixth-rounder in 2010.

Shockey, 28, a four-time Pro Bowler, has 371 catches for 4,228 yards and 59 touchdowns during his six-year NFL career. He grew disgruntled with the Giants because he wanted to be more involved with some downfield passing. The Giants valued his run blocking.

Payton was an offensive coordinator with the Giants during Shockey's rookie season. He caught 74 passes for 894 yards that season.

So Shockey will be driving Brees nuts in the huddle next.

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Originally Posted by RamWraith

Shockey, 28, a four-time Pro Bowler, has 371 catches for 4,228 yards and 59 touchdowns during his six-year NFL career.

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I had to check up on that, because almost 10 TD's per year sounded HUGE for a TE. Turns out John Clayton probably looked one coloumn to the left of what he was looking for on the stat sheet, Shockey has 27 TD's in his 6 year career (the 59 was 59 yards, as in "longest career reception").

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Originally Posted by laram0

So Shockey will be driving Brees nuts in the huddle next.

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Driving them where?