WhoDat!656

Sounds like this guy doesn't have much faith in Chase Daniel!

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Despite the success of this year’s rookie quarterback class, drafting a ready-to-use QB remains a crapshoot. Drafting in the first round still does not, and will never, guarantee success. For every RGIII, Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson, there is a JaMarcus Russell, Matt Leinart and Rex Grossman.

NFL teams moved to highlight the strengths of their signal callers this year, leading to the formerly unbelievable concept of the Read Option succeeding in the league. However, given a full season of experience and film, we can be sure that Defensive Coordinators’ schemes will adjust to counter these mind-trick offenses, just like they did with the Wildcat formation. The outcome of these adjustments remains unknown until next season.

Thus, for teams like the New Orleans Saints, the best strategy should be to select a first-or-second-round quarterback within the next year or two. Wait. What?!?! Drew Brees just signed a five-year, $100 million dollar contract. And, the Saints need help on defense NOW! may prevail as common opposition to such a belief.

However, believing any team will fix an entire side of the ball (in this case, the defense) via the draft would be a mistake. The 2012 Saints Defense suffered from systematic issues and improper personnel. Selecting four-to-six fresh hands from the college ranks may slightly improve the unit, but will not cause them to move from last in the league to top ten.

And, yes, the Saints’ primary quarterbacking interests should remain in the hands of Brees. In fact, that’s pretty much the point of drafting a quarterback. Brees was an exception to the rule that teams almost never find franchise quarterbacks via free agency. Typically, a team strikes gold in the draft and does everything in its power to retain top-level signal callers. This should be the New Orleans mindset. Who better to mentor an up-and-coming face of a franchise than the player most responsible for the Saints’ ascendancy to a perennial playoff contender?

The best current example in the league for this idea is Aaron Rodgers. Serving as Brett Favre’s backup for three years certainly did not hurt Rodgers. Perhaps he could have started sooner, but the risk of fail-by-fire decreased with every offensive snapped he watched from the sidelines. Plus, it is likely that Brees would relish the mentor role if he does not view the young candidate as a threat to his job. And Saints fans know that the only individual who could threaten Brees’s job would be a perfect combination of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers in one body.

Like it or not, the Saints need a strategy for the post-Brees era. No matter who assumes the duties, risk will be involved. The best way to limit that risk is to draft and develop. Otherwise, the dice stand a better chance of falling the wrong way.

Time nearing for Saints to draft a quarterback

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."