Saints could pull shocking NFL Draft move to screw over Derek Carr

The Saints aren’t a serious candidate in the 2023 NFL Draft quarterback sweepstakes, but they have their hook and bait in the water anyway.

Woohoo! The New Orleans Saints have their quarterback of the future in Derek Carr, right? Right??

Not so fast.

Roughly a month after signing Carr to anchor their quarterback room for the next four years, New Orleans is reportedly hosting a projected late-round QB prospect for a visit: Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker.

“Oh” is the most natural way to respond to this news. As in, “Oh….didn’t realize the Saints are already looking for Carr’s successor.” Or “Oh….guess the Saints’ front office is more confused than we thought.”

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport implies that the Saints could use their 29th overall pick on Hooker, but picking a developmental prospect that early in the draft could may not pan out as well as NOLA thinks. What exactly is the franchise thinking? Let’s pretend to be a bug inside Dennis Allen’s office for just a moment.

Saints walk a fine line between folly and sense with Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker

The Saints have Carr under contract for the next four years, and once he was signed, all thoughts of NOLA drafting a quarterback early in 2023 seemingly disappeared. But Carr’s contract is structured such that the Saints have an out after two years, if they want to take it; should Carr not perform up to par, NOLA would be making a prudent choice to draft a developmental talent like Hooker now and prepare him to take over as the starter by 2025 or so.

In that sense, the Saints may be crafting a break-in-case-of-emergency plan to keep the team competitive even if Carr doesn’t meet their standards in the next few years. That sounds reasonable enough, but taking a Plan Z quarterback late in the first round feels like….overkill.

New Orleans hasn’t drafted a quarterback in the top-100 since 2015, when the team took a chance on Garrett Grayson at 75th overall.

The franchise has admittedly suffered from quarterback instability ever since Drew Brees retired and could see a golden opportunity in 2023 to take a promising prospect who’s arguably ranked as the fifth-best quarterback in this year’s class.

Is Hooker worth that first-round pick, though?

Hooker is coming off a season-ending ACL injury and is 25 years old, which is considered senile for rookie quarterbacks. The Draft Network projects Hooker to be a fourth-round pick most similar to Seahawks’ Geno Smith, and they’re not the only ones valuing the former Volunteer as a Day 2 or Day 3 pick.

For the Saints to pick Hooker in the first round, he would really have to impress the franchise during his visit. None of those one-throw wonder videos like Zach Wilson. Like, seriously impress, and he can’t very much do that given his current health status.

Maybe the Saints hosting Hooker is just a visit, and nothing more. Maybe it’s a move to stoke the flames beneath Derek Carr and get him to play a little angrier in 2023, like he still has something to prove (he does).

In any case, New Orleans is walking a fine line between making an egregious decision and finding their franchise quarterback of the future. The franchise hit on last year’s first-round picks Chris Olave and Trevor Penning — even if the original trade with the Eagles was questionable — so Dennis Allen and Co. get the benefit of the doubt, for now.