The New Orleans Saints know they have Drew Brees for one more year.
Beyond 2020, no one -- not even Brees -- truly knows what's in store. With the annual draft set to begin today, it seems like a good time to potentially add someone with a longer runway at the position.
Saints general manager Mickey Loomis acknowledged the potential for New Orleans to select a successor to Brees in the draft's first round(s), and according to him, it comes down to selection fit.
"I think that any time you have a chance to get a quality quarterback prospect, regardless of your quarterback situation, you'd like to take advantage of that," Loomis said, via the team's official site. "For us, it hasn't come. There hasn't been the match where we're picking with a prospect that we really like. Our approach is exactly the same this year: If there's someone there that we really like and have a vision for at the time we're picking, then we're not afraid to pull that trigger."
This is where individual team opinions of players can make the draft very interesting, especially in a year in which we haven't had pro days for scouts and personnel people to meet, chat informally and perhaps trade a little bit of thought or information amongst each other. The mock drafts we've all been reading in the lead-up to Thursday could very well be off the mark more than usual as a result, too, making it additionally difficult to project where a team might go with the No. 24 pick.
There is a quarterback who has seen his name mentioned in the lower third of the first round, though, and could end up being a nice fit for the Saints. Utah State's Jordan Love, once a favorite to shoot up the draft board thanks to his blend of size and athleticism, should be available in the low 20s. Most expect Green Bay to seriously consider him at No. 30.
If the Saints like him, he might end up as their project for the future, destined to sit for a year or more behind Brees before taking over. Or maybe the Saints end up taking a defensive prospect. Taysom Hill is still there, after all.