Much like any other year, the New Orleans Saints have taken a good long look at the crop of quarterbacks eligible to be selected in the 2025 draft. Might this be the year they finally buck the trend and land one of the top names?
The Saints got a first-hand look at several top options during the pro day circuit, including Cam Ward of Miami, Jaxson Dart of Ole Miss, Quinn Ewers of Texas and Will Howard of Ohio State. New head coach Kellen Moore was on hand for several of those events. Shedeur Sanders of Colorado is another popular name that has been linked to the Saints.
"I’m a quarterback guy. I do like seeing quarterbacks," Moore said at this week's owner's meetings. "As we went through our process there were a couple as we went through our stops. So as you’re going through those guys you watch a lot of film on quarterbacks, ... you look for the skillset that they need, that they’ve got to reach a certain threshold, but then really understanding the person and then understanding the classroom aspect is huge, so you spend as much time with these guys as you can.”
The noise has been loud in that department, with NFL Insiders including Ian Rapoport floating the possibility often. He and others have also pointed to the potential of the Saints passing on QB at No. 9, but getting aggressive with trades later in the draft to move up for a signal-caller they covet. A popular potential target in that range is Dart, whom the Saints also got a good look at during Senior Bowl practices.
"[The Saints] don't need a quarterback," Rapoport said, "they have one for this year, but they are in a position where they could take one. They have done all the quarterback homework."
Drafting a quarterback certainly wouldn't be new ground for the Saints, considering they've done it in each of the past two drafts with Jake Haener and Spencer Rattler, respectively. What would break the mold would be taking a signal-caller on either of the first two days in the draft, with both Haener and Rattler representing Day 3 picks.
The Saints haven't taken a quarterback in the first three rounds of any draft since Garrett Grayson in 2015. The only QB in team history to be drafted higher, excluding supplemental drafts, was the legend Archie Manning in 1971. The Saints picked Manning at No. overall.
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New Orleans will have plenty of opportunities to snap that trend this year, currently owning the No. 9 and 40 overall picks, and a pair of third-round selections.
“It’s a good class, ... different skillsets," Moore said. "I think that’s the important aspect of it is kind of identifying, stylistically, how all of them play and what best suits them.”
So what is Moore's philosophy in terms of that position?
“I think every team in the NFL is always trying to bring in quarterbacks and develop them under any circumstance and so everyone does homework every year on quarterbacks," Moore said. "It’s a very valuable position and so obviously ... we have Derek [Carr], who’s played a ton of football and we feel great about, and then we have, certainly our organization has invested in quarterbacks the last few years.”
The Saints do appear committed to Carr for at least one more season in the starting role, with the team fully restructuring his deal and the new Saints head coach verbally committing to him as the starter multiple times. Carr has notably not been in the public eye during the offseason, though the team will begin their offseason conditioning program later this month.
Rattler, Haener and veteran Ben DiNucci currently make up the QB room and are expected to compete for the backup role in camp.