METAIRIE, La. -- By the time Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes gets into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, all 31 teams outside of Kansas City will probably have their version of “we almost drafted him” stories. But none will be more authentic than the New Orleans Saints' tale.

Mahomes was the Saints' expected target heading into the first night of the draft in 2017 -- partly because they never envisioned a scenario where Ohio State cornerback Marshon Lattimore would fall to them at No. 11.

If Lattimore had gone 10th, the Saints would have pounced on Mahomes. If both had been available, it would have made for a fascinating last-minute debate in their war room.

“[Chiefs coach] Andy [Reid] decided for us,” Saints coach Sean Payton said.

The Chiefs shrewdly traded up 17 spots to No. 10 to get their quarterback and reshaped their franchise that night.

But so did the Saints, who had reached a bit of a crossroads following three straight 7-9 seasons. Instead of landing Mahomes, the Saints' “consolation prize” was an incredible haul:

• Lattimore at No. 11 (the 2017 Defensive Rookie of the Year and a two-time Pro Bowler)

• Right tackle Ryan Ramczyk at No. 32 (a first-team All-Pro in 2019 and a second-teamer in 2018)

• Safety Marcus Williams at No. 42 (64 starts, including the playoffs, with 14 interceptions)

• Running back Alvin Kamara at No. 67 (the 2017 Offensive Rookie of the Year, a three-time Pro Bowler; his 52 career touchdowns are already three shy of second place in franchise history)

• Linebacker Alex Anzalone at No. 76 (20 career starts, including eight this season)

• Defensive end Trey Hendrickson at No. 103 (breakout 2020 season with 10.5 sacks)

Since then, the Saints have the NFL’s best regular-season record (47-14, one win more than the Chiefs and five more than any other team in the league). And the Saints (10-3) are one win away from their fourth consecutive NFC South title as they prepare to host the Chiefs (12-1) on Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS).

“Look, we hit on players. That was extremely important for us,” said Payton, who suggested it was fair to compare that class to New Orleans' legendary 2006 class that produced franchise cornerstones such as Marques Colston, Reggie Bush, Jahri Evans, Roman Harper and Zach Strief.

"Now, you could argue over the actual class itself, back and forth," Payton said. "But I think the fair comparison certainly is the importance in the procurement of talent back into the building to put you at that level you want to be at again.”

‘Magic week’

Of course, the Saints' 2017 class would have been even more spectacular if they had landed Mahomes. That’s impossible to deny -- even though Drew Brees, who was 38 years old at the time, has continued to play at a high level for the past four years.

It would have been fascinating and possibly awkward to see how the Saints handled the transition. Maybe they would have made Mahomes wait for several years like Aaron Rodgers did in Green Bay. But maybe they would have missed the playoffs for the fourth straight season in 2017 if they hadn’t drafted Lattimore, and maybe that would have inspired them to make the transition in 2018 when Brees was a free agent.

Regardless of the "what if" scenarios, one thing is undeniable: The Saints' scouting department -- led by general manager Mickey Loomis, assistant GM/college scouting director Jeff Ireland, Payton and others -- was on fire that year.

They were enamored with Mahomes in a year when the rest of the NFL obviously didn’t consider him a sure thing. They weren’t just planning to draft him at No. 11 because they felt like they needed a quarterback. They wanted to draft him because they thought he was special. As Payton said that weekend, “Put [Mahomes] in our room and go through the process like we did, we're gonna have a high grade on him three years ago [or any year].

“I know we took a trip down and had a workout down there, a private workout [at Texas Tech]. We were extremely impressed,” Payton said.

“I call it the 'magic week' where we went from there to Tennessee, saw Kamara, then onto the next stop, Lattimore.

“The week started in Lubbock. And we sent in an installation the night before and then met with [Mahomes] the next morning. And he was outstanding in the meeting room, and then on the field he was fantastic. And then I remember getting on our owner’s plane thinking, 'Man, that was as good a quarterback evaluation as I’ve had in my time in the NFL.'

“Then we landed in Knoxville ... I was the only one there to work out Kamara, then finished working him out and I got on the plane and I thought, 'Man, I’m on a roll here.'"

Payton said Mahomes “had all the things that you look for.”

“He was in a hurried offense a little bit, and the protection wasn’t great. But, man, you saw him survive rushes, you saw him throw without his feet set. You saw him do a lot of things that you don’t get to see sometimes from a college player,” said Payton -- who sees those same traits at an elevated level today.

“His arm strength, his awareness, and then his ability to process and throw it are very rare,” Payton said. “He certainly can [throw himself out of trouble]. But the thing he does is he moves and then is able to find the better throw.”

Credit the Chiefs, obviously, for having that same conviction.

Credit them even more for knowing which team they had to trade ahead of to get their franchise quarterback.

Both former Chiefs GM John Dorsey and Mahomes' agent, Leigh Steinberg, later identified the Saints along with the Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants as potential landing places.

"I felt to get this player, I had to be at 10," Dorsey said.

Payton said that as soon as the Chiefs made that move, "my gut told me, 'Here goes Mahomes.'"

“I don’t know how many people had the grade on Patrick that we had, but I thought Andy clearly would have with his background at the quarterback position,” Payton said. “I thought he would’ve seen the same things.”

Luck helps, too

Perhaps, in hindsight, the Saints should have tried to move up one or two spots. But one of the main reasons they didn’t is because they also loved Lattimore.

The Saints had Lattimore ranked among their top three or four overall prospects and never expected to have a realistic shot at him. So they were pleasantly surprised by some of the choices other teams made ahead of them (QB Mitchell Trubisky at No. 2, WR Corey Davis at No. 5, WR Mike Williams at No. 7, WR John Ross at No. 9).

At the time, the Saints said they would have taken Lattimore ahead of Mahomes if given the choice. But Payton acknowledged this week that, “I don’t know that we had decided fully yet.”

It’s impossible to know for sure since they had gotten so enamored with the idea of drafting Mahomes.

Professional golfer Ryan Palmer, a friend of Payton's, certainly heard Mahomes buzz when he and Jordan Spieth were invited guests in New Orleans' draft room that year while in town for the Zurich Classic.

“I think they were really big into Mahomes,” Palmer said a day later.

And speaking of awkward, Brees and two of his best friends from college were also in the war room that night. Payton pulled Brees aside to let him know what might happen -- later telling NOLA.com that Brees was "great" about it. Though Brees told NOLA.com, "As long as he's OK to sit for a few years."

Mahomes said this week that he would have been a little surprised to wind up in New Orleans.

“I know I definitely had a good workout [with the Saints], but I didn't sense that they were going to pick me obviously with Drew still being there and the success that he still has to this day,” Mahomes said. “At the same time, I think they got a great player in Marshon Lattimore, so I'm sure they're still happy with that."

“Everything worked out for the best. He’s over there doing his thing. I’m over here doing my thing. So everybody won, I feel like,” said Lattimore, who has talked in the past about keeping a mental checklist of the teams that passed on him.

“But I didn’t really talk with Kansas City. I knew I wasn’t going there. It was more like the top seven teams on my list,” said Lattimore, who is excited to face Mahomes for the first time, regardless. “Yeah, I’m excited to play him because he’s one of the great up-and-coming quarterbacks. Of course it’s always an honor to go out there and play against great competition."

The Saints got luckier as that draft wore on.

They also had the 32nd pick in Round 1 because they had traded receiver Brandin Cooks to the New England Patriots. As that pick approached, they had linebacker Reuben Foster on the phone and were considering him. But then the San Francisco 49ers swooped in and took Foster at No. 31. That helped the Saints settle on Ramczyk -- whom they had graded among their top 15 prospects in the draft.

Foster has appeared in 16 career games because of off-the-field issues and injuries.

Then the Saints took a bit of a risk by waiting as long as they did to select Kamara, whom they loved. Loomis later said they probably had a total of 20 teams on the phone before they finally acquired the 67th pick from the 49ers in exchange for a 2018 second-round pick and a 2017 seventh-rounder.

The Saints were wise to stockpile those extra picks that year, when they considered the talent pool so rich in the first three rounds.

The biggest shame is that they didn’t have even more of them, since they were so on top of their game.