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New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton categorized his team's free-agent strategy in three tiers: musts, needs and wants. Payton wouldn't mention specifically what the "musts" were before free agency began, but he did hypothetically say left tackle and backup quarterback could become "musts."

It just shows you how much the Saints value backup quarterback, a player that only sees the field in preseason, holding for field-goal attempts, garbage time in a blowout or in a regular season game where playoff positioning is already set.

The Saints already had a pretty good idea Chase Daniel was ready to move on in free agency, and Daniel, who was an unrestricted free agent, is headed to Kansas City with a three-year deal. Now Drew Brees is the only quarterback on the roster, so the Saints obviously need to find a backup passer.

The philosophy for Brees' top understudy has varied during the previous six seasons. The Saints have gone the veteran route with Mark Brunell, Jamie Martin and Joey Harrington as well as the young, inexperienced route with Daniel.

So the Saints could go either way to replace Daniel, or they could find one in free agency and one in the draft and have a competition in training camp.

Veteran quarterbacks on the free-agent market include Ryan Fitzpatrick, Jason Campbell, Derek Anderson, Drew Stanton, Brian Hoyer, Josh Johnson, Tyler Thigpen, David Carr, Brady Quinn, Luke McCown and Josh McCown.

The Saints probably aren't thinking about finding Brees' heir apparent with the 34-year-old in the second year of a five-year contract. So drafting a quarterback in the first two days of the draft or even early on Day 3 wouldn't be an option.

There may not be too many options in the middle rounds of the draft, though. Players like Tennessee's Tyler Bray, Oklahoma's Landry Jones, Miami's (Ohio) Zac Dysert and Arizona's Mike Scott are the only passers with projections from rounds 3-5, according to NFLDraftScout.com

Where New Orleans Saints turn to find Drew Brees' backup is a question mark | NOLA.com

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