Much has been made about the New Orleans Saints' quarterback room recently.
Derek Carr is the guy and will be the team's starting quarterback in 2025 barring a shocking change. He's a talented guy and when healthy likely could get this team to the playoffs. He's a four-time Pro Bowler but health has been a big question for him throughout his stint in New Orleans which is likely part of the reason why there's been questions about him.
He'll be the guy in 2025, but beyond that is when questions actually come into play. His cap hit is scheduled to be over $69 million in 2025, but that could always be restructured or altered as the team proved this offseason. There's no way he plays on a deal with a cap hit of that size in 2026.
The Saints have Spencer Rattler behind him right now but there's been a lot of chatter about the upcoming NFL Draft. New Orleans has been linked to guys like Jaxson Dart and Shedeur Sanders, but NFL.com's Chad Reuter predicted that neither will end up with the Saints. Instead, he predicted the Saints will draft Ohio State quarterback Will Howard in the fourth round of the upcoming draft.
There's an argument that would be a much more intriguing plan. Howard threw for over 4,000 yards in 2024 to go along with 35 touchdowns. You could easily bring a guy like this and have him sit for at least a year,.
At this point next year, the most talked about quarterback likely will be Arch Manning out of Texas. Landing a guy like Sanders would surely take you out of the sweepstakes for Manning. One caveat here is the only way that someone is getting Manning next year is if they have the No. 1 pick. The Saints likely won't be in that positon, but if the wheels fall off, he's the guy you would want.
Drafting Howard would give the Saints a year to see what he could do without fully tying itself to him for years to come.
