New Orleans Saints Executive Vice President/General Manager Mickey Loomis opened his pre-draft news conference Wednesday with non-draft news on quarterback Derek Carr .

"Derek Carr has an issue with his shoulder, we're looking for some resolution and clarity on that in the near future," Loomis said. "When we have it, we'll get back to you."

Beyond that Loomis offered no further elaboration on Carr, who restructured his contract in March.

"I'm just not going to answer any more questions about Derek," Loomis said. "If you have questions about the draft, then I'm more than happy to answer those."

Loomis said the situation would not force the team's hand in the draft. If the right quarterback is available based on draft position and valuation, it'll step up to the plate even after drafting Spencer Rattler last year and Jake Haener in 2023.

"You're always wanting to take swings and develop the position," Loomis said. "That's good business. I think the thing that you have to really resist is over-drafting and taking someone way sooner, because that's opportunity cost.

"If we take somebody way sooner than maybe we should have, we're taking a swing, if it doesn't work out, we missed out on whatever player that may be in the Pro Bowl. It's hard to resist, though. It's hard to do that sometimes.

"We like (Rattler and Haener) as prospects. We like them. (But) I think all teams are in the business of quarterbacks.

"The guys you fall in love with at that position, you feel like they're immediate players, are going to be taken in the top seven or eight, 10 picks, right? That's just the nature of it. That doesn't mean you can't find a really good quarterback later. Just more often later, it's more speculative and there's more development that's required. I think that's the difference between taking someone in the top five or six vs. taking someone later in the draft."

New Orleans currently is scheduled to draft nine players: A first rounder (No. 9 overall), a second (No. 40), two thirds (71 and 93), two fourths (112 and 131), a sixth (184) and two sevenths (248 and 254).

"I don't think the draft approach for us is any different than it would be in any year," Loomis said. "We're looking for as many good players, great players, as we can find and we're fortunate enough this year to have multiple picks in the first four rounds. And we're excited about that because I think there's some depth in this draft that we'll be able to help our roster.

"For us, if we're picking in the top 10 we're looking for somebody that, man, we're going to count on this guy for the next eight to 10 years. And he's going to fill that spot and we're not going to have to worry about it. For me, that's a goal.

"Sometimes that might be a home run, a perennial Pro Bowl player, but sometimes it might be a guy that's just, we can sleep at night because we've got that position covered for the next eight to 10 years."

A player's position will not prevent him from being drafted if the team already has an established player there, though that has been an infrequent occurrence.

"We're always looking for the best player we can get wherever we're drafting," Loomis said. "More often than not, when you're on the clock, you've got two or three players that are all graded roughly the same, and then you go to, which of these positions fits us at that time.

"Every once in a while, there's just a guy out there that's so far graded above everyone else that, 'We've just got to take this guy.' That's happened to us. It happened to us when (running back) Deuce McAllister was drafted (in 2001); we had Ricky Williams, we had a really good running back. And yet, (McAllister's) grade was just so much greater than anyone else that was on the board, (and) we took him. Best available player.

"That happened with (defensive end) Will Smith (in 2004), as I recall. More often, though, we've got two or three guys in a cloud, they're all graded roughly the same – have the same opinion about them – and then you're just sorting out by position at that point."

Loomis said the number of early picks the Saints have provides the opportunity for early impact.

"We've got a first-round pick, a second-round pick, two thirds and two fourths," he said. "I feel really good about that, because I think we'll get good players in all of those spots. The last time we had this many picks in the first four rounds I think was 2017, and that was a pretty good draft.

"I hope we have the same issue, with four years later we're trying to keep these guys and we can't keep them all. I hope that's the issue, that they're all good players and that it becomes difficult to keep them all."

He said that though he hasn't specifically quantified the numbers, it appears there are more defensive linemen in the draft worthy of being picked in the second and third rounds than previous years, and fewer cornerbacks.

FIFTH-YEAR OPTION: Loomis said the Saints will exercise the fifth-year option on receiver Chris Olave, the first of the team's two first-round picks in 2022 but will not pick up the fifth-year option on offensive tackle Trevor Penning, their second first-round pick that year.

"But that doesn't mean we don't love Trevor and expect him to be part of our team going forward," Loomis said.

BACK THAT THING UP: While Loomis has gained notoriety for moving up in the draft, he said he's not opposed to trading back.

"I know my record says something different, (but) I've never been against trading back," he said. "It just appears that way.

"I believe in our evaluation process, I believe in our grades. And so just philosophically, it's hard for me to say I want to trade back and get a lesser player than I can get in moving forward. So if you move forward, you're guaranteeing yourself – in my mind – a better player based upon our grades.

"Now, we've got to be right (with the grades), as opposed to going back and I might end up with a lesser player. And I get that you're getting more swings when you trade back, you're picking up assets and you're getting more swings. I understand that philosophy; I don't disagree with it, they can all work.

"Sometimes you might feel like I can trade back and still get the guy that I was going to take. That's when it really makes a lot of sense, when you feel like you can move back some spots and still get the guy or one of the guys that you really wanted."