METAIRIE, La. -- The New Orleans Saints had a long discussion about which Ohio State player they should draft with the 47th pick in the second round of the NFL draft Friday: receiver Michael Thomas or safety Vonn Bell. They went with Thomas. But they couldn’t resist when Bell was still there at No. 61, so they traded up to grab him, too.

The Saints gave up their third- and fourth-round picks to make the deal with the New England Patriots.

My take: Love the player, don’t love the trade. The Saints had only six picks to start with in this year’s draft, and now they only have five. But once you get past that idea, it’s hard not to like the value they got with Bell at No. 61.

ESPN/Scouts Inc. had Bell rated as the No. 30 overall player in the draft. ESPN analysts Todd McShay and Mel Kiper both labeled him as the best cover safety in the draft. And Saints coach Sean Payton said he envisions Bell (5-foot-11, 199 pounds) as a free safety who has the ability to cover receivers in the slot.

The one knock on Bell from analysts such as McShay, Kiper and ESPN’s Louis Riddick is that he shies away from contact too much on film. But Bell shot down that criticism during a conference call with the New Orleans media, saying, “Man, I don’t know why they say that. I’m a phenomenal tackler. I’m very confident. I would never doubt myself. ... I don’t know why they keep saying that, it just really bothers me.”

Delivering for Payton: During the scouting process, the Saints were missing times on some of Bell’s shuttle drills. So Payton called Bell personally to ask if he could send the video of those drills. Payton admitted it also served as a pre-draft test. And sure enough, Bell delivered when Payton’s text messages were flooded with videos within a couple days.

Bell proudly said he proved he could come through for Payton. And Payton confirmed that it mattered.

“That was important to me,” Payton said. “I told him after we drafted him, I said, ‘Had you not sent me back those videos, you’d still be sitting home eating nachos right now.'”

Superdome star already: Bell had nine interceptions in three years at Ohio State -- including six as a sophomore, when the Buckeyes won the national championship. None of them were bigger than his fourth-quarter interception in the semifinal game against Alabama, which took place in front of the end zone in New Orleans’ Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Now Thomas will get several chances to top himself in the same building.

What’s next: The Saints have only two picks remaining, No. 152 in Round 5 and No. 237 in Round 7. They still haven’t addressed four of the positions I ranked among their top five needs heading into the draft (No. 1 DE, No. 3 OLB, No. 4 G and No. 5 CB). But needs start to fall by the wayside a little bit at this stage of the draft, when the “best player available” becomes even more important.

It’s still possible the Saints could consider a quarterback (maybe Indiana’s Nate Sudfeld), but the chances become more remote with less picks to work with.