Has an NFL team ever traded away all their draft picks?

In 1999, the New Orleans Saints became the only team in the history of the NFL draft to hold just one pick.

That’s because – in one of the most outrageous trades ever executed – they swapped all of their draft picks for opportunity to select the one player they felt could change the fortunes of their franchise.

They’d tried to make a similar move in 1998, offering a bounty of picks for the chance to move into the top two positions in the draft, where they would have chosen either of that year’s top quarterback prospects, Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf. But their overtures were rebuffed.

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Ahead of the ’99 draft, the man Saints head coach Mike Ditka had set his sights on was running back Ricky Williams.

Williams was entering the NFL fresh off a season with the Texas Longhorns that had seen him rush for an NCAA record 2,327 yards and a staggering 29 touchdowns, earning the Heisman Trophy as the season’s most outstanding collegiate player.

Set to pick 12th in the first round, Ditka knew Williams was unlikely to fall to him, so he and general manager Bill Kuharich started making moves.

They found a trade partner in the Washington Redskins, who owned the fifth pick.

In order to swap places with Washington in the first round, the Saints handed over the remaining five picks they held in the ’99 draft, plus a first- and third-round pick for the 2000 draft.

It was instantly one of the most shocking transactions in NFL history. And it quickly became one of the most ill-fated, too.

The Saints finished the ’99 season with a 3-13 record, the second-worst in franchise history. As a result, Ditka and Kuharich were fired.

Williams endured an injury-hit debut NFL season, rushing for a disappointing 884 yards and two touchdowns.

He rebounded to post 1,000-plus rushing yards in each of the next two campaigns, but he never quite hit the desired heights in New Orleans and was traded to the Miami Dolphins in 2002.

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