The biggest problem for the New Orleans Saints is they don’t have the quarterback of the future. Derek Carr may show he can be better than he was a season ago, but he isn’t the 10-to-15 year answer moving forward. In Bleacher Report’s five-year re-draft, New Orleans solved their biggest problem.
This re-draft made every player drafted since 2020 eligible again. Teams had to take the player’s current contract as well. For example, Joe Burrow was selected second and the Tennessee Titans had to take his $300 million contract with him.
Draft order was determined in a lottery system that landed the Saints at No. 24 overall. That’s low, but they were still able to find a quarterback. The Saints selected North Carolina rookie Drake Maye at that spot. Here’s why B/R’s Bryan Toporek says they should take Maye in this scenario:
The New Orleans Saints still have quarterback Derek Carr under contract for three more seasons, but it’s a stretch to call him their long-term answer under center. The 33-year-old has a career record of 72-89 as a starter and hasn’t topped 30 touchdown passes in a season since his second NFL campaign in 2015.
While Carr has a manageable cap hit of $12.7 million this season, it balloons to $51.5 million in 2025 and $61.5 million in 2026. That’s unsustainable for a Saints team that’s already projected to be nearly $100 million over the 2025 salary cap.
The real-life Saints spent a fifth-round pick on Spencer Rattler, giving themselves a cheap swing at a developmental quarterback. Here, they decided to give themselves an even better shot at a potential Carr successor by selecting Drake Maye.
Maye was the top-ranked quarterback on the B/R Scouting Department’s final big board—yes, above even Caleb Williams. B/R scout Derrik Klassen called him the “prototypical quarterback prospect” and said he has “the athleticism, arm talent and baseline processing skills to become a weapon” in the NFL.
Selecting Maye wouldn’t help the Saints win right now, but they can’t keep kicking the can down the road forever. This would help them launch a long-overdue reset.
Maye has yet to play a snap in the NFL, but many believe he has Josh Allen level potential. Maye was the third quarterback selected in the 2024 NFL draft because of his high ceiling. There’s a belief that sitting for a year would suit him best. The Saints still have Derek Carr in this hypothetical, so they can afford to wait.
Prominent Saints players who would have been available in this pool included wide receiver Chris Olave and cornerback Paulson Adebo. Adebo goes undrafted and returns to the Saints. Olave was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the comp pick portion, pairing him with first-round pick Justin Jefferson.
