Alabama cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry said he was a little surprised to be picked by the New Orleans Saints in the second round of the NFL Draft on Friday night, but he’s looking forward to taking the field in Caesars Superdome for the Black and Gold.

“Last time I played in the Superdome, I went off,” McKinstry said. “I had a great game. We played against Kansas State, so it’d be great if we could continue that.”

The Crimson Tide defeated the Wildcats 45-20 in the Sugar Bowl on Dec. 31, 2022, as McKinstry broke up three passes and returned a punt 15 yards.

The Saints were kind of surprised to get McKinstry, too.

New Orleans had only two picks in the first three rounds of the draft, and the Saints used the first one to obtain Oregon State offensive tackle Taliese Fuaga at No. 14 on Thursday night.

Because New Orleans’ next pick didn’t come until No. 45 – the 13th selection of the second round – the Saints didn’t figure McKinstry would be around.

But in the first round, an unprecedented number of offensive players were picked. With offensive players filling 23 of the 32 selections on Thursday night, some highly regarded defensive prospects got pushed into the second round.

After Friday’s selections opened with two wide receivers, four of the next five picks were defensive tackles before the Philadelphia Eagles chose Iowa cornerback Cooper DeJean, a player sometimes mocked to them in the first round.

The Saints then traded up to add McKinstry with the 41st selection. New Orleans sent the Green Bay Packers the 45th, 168th and 190th choices to move up four spots.

“We feel like where we got this player, we thought it was really good value for us,” Saints coach Dennis Allen said. “And so, yeah, I thought there was a chance he could go in the first round.”

The waiting didn’t seem to wear on McKinstry.

“Just waiting on God, man,” McKinstry said. “Just waiting on God. Just putting it in God’s hands and waiting on God’s timing. My time was my time.”

And so the overnight wait didn’t take the joy out of the moment either for McKinstry.

“It felt good, man,” McKinstry said. “All the things I’ve been through as a person, all the work I put in as a football player, it just felt good to hear my name called.”

Four-time Pro Bowl cornerback Mashon Lattimore has missed 17 games in the past two seasons with the Saints, who also return their two most active cornerbacks from 2023 – Alontae Taylor and Paulson Adebo.

Allen said a team “can never have too many good corners.”

“I feel really good about getting Kool-Aid,” Allen said. “I think he’s a really good player, highly intelligent, highly instinctual, has shown the ability to play press coverage. He can play outside. We feel like he can go inside and play inside the nickel, so there’s some versatility that he can play with. And so we really like the player and felt like getting him at that value was the right place to get him.”

A first-team All-American selection for The Associated Press and The Sporting News in 2023, McKinstry said he’s not flashy, but he does get the job done.

“I feel like at cornerback, it’s a position that everyone can see a mess-up, so I play the game the right way,” McKinstry said. “I don’t really gamble unless I know I can make the play. I feel like that’s the way the game’s supposed to be played. Sometime you can gamble and it look good. Sometime you can gamble and it’s going the other way. Like I said, cornerback’s one of those positions that even someone who had never seen a football game or a grandmother that’s never seen football, she know when a cornerback messed up, she know when a receiver done got to a cornerback. Just being honest with you. That’s why I play the game the right way, why I play cornerback the right way because I don’t want to be that guy.”

Allen said McKinstry would train at all the cornerback variations, including as a slot corner, even though he has little experience at that spot.

“When you watch him play and you talk to the staff there, you see a highly intelligent and highly instinctive football player,” Allen said. “You see a guy that has the ability to fit in the run game and play physically. And so when you have somebody who has the coverage skills like he does on the outside and then you combine that with the instincts and the intelligence and you see the willingness in the run game and the physicality, that makes me think he can play inside. And I think coach (Nick) Saban would say he could play inside.”

McKinstry was the first Alabama player picked by New Orleans since the Saints took safety Vinnie Sunseri in the 2014 draft.

Before going to Alabama, McKinstry was the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s Mr. Football and Class 6A Back of the Year while playing for Pinson Valley High School in 2020, when the Indians won their third AHSAA Class 6A championship in four seasons.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.