Who will be Drew Brees‘ backup in New Orleans this year?



My guess is that quarterback isn’t even on the roster yet. Yes, the Saints took a long look at several quarterbacks in their recent rookie camp. They brought in Syracuse’s Greg Paulus and seventh-round pick Sean Canfield also took part. Paulus is a former Duke basketball player who played only one year of college football. At best, he’s a developmental prospect. Maybe he spends some time on the practice squad.



Canfield also is a prospect. He was a seventh-round pick and it’s unrealistic to expect him to start off as anything more than a No. 3 quarterback. But that role was held by Chase Daniel last season and it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Daniel and Canfield competing for the No. 3 job this year.



Yes, the Saints like Daniel, but he’s got no real experience. It’s kind of a stretch to imagine the Saints just handing the No. 2 job to Daniel at this point.



They’ve got a Super Bowl championship team. Let’s get hypothetical for a second and say Brees twists an ankle and has to miss a couple of games. Are the Saints ready to turn it over to Daniel? Or Canfield?



I seriously doubt it. This is a veteran team and just about anything less than another Super Bowl will be a disappointment. The Saints need an insurance policy behind Brees. They need someone with experience who could come in and lead them for a couple games.



You’ve got to believe something will happen on this front, especially when you look at how the Saints have collected depth just about everywhere else. Mark Brunell, last year’s backup, is still available as a free agent and I still think he’s the leading option. Yes, Brunell is old, but he already knows the system.



Even if the Saints think Brunell is too old, they’ve got to look at other guys with experience. The list of available free agents isn’t all that impressive right now. But someone like Marc Bulger could make the Saints feel a lot more comfortable with their backup situation.

I’ve been on the road and out of pocket since Adam Schefter reported the New Orleans Saints and guard Jahri Evans reached an agreement on contract extension earlier Wednesday. But I wanted to weigh in on this deal because it’s significant on several levels.

Evans

First, at seven years and $56.7 million, it’s the biggest contract ever for a guard. Since a lot of coaches and scouts around the league will tell you Evans has emerged as the best guard in the league, this deal is appropriate.



What may be even more interesting than just the size of the deal is that the Saints did it now. Evans is a restricted free agent and the Saints could have pretty much forced him to play this year without giving him a long-term deal. With uncertainty about the labor situation in 2011, a lot of teams are holding off on giving out big contracts, unless it’s absolutely necessary.



But it was pretty close to absolutely necessary with Evans. Not giving him a long-term deal at this point probably would have caused some harsh feelings in a locker room where Evans has quietly emerged as a leader. This sends a strong message to the other players that they can be rewarded. It also makes Evans happy, which should help keep quarterback Drew Brees happy – and standing.



The Saints have done a good job identifying their core and Evans and receiver Marques Colston, who previously got his big extension, are a big part of that core. There are some other restricted free agents, but they may have to prove themselves a little bit more. The next move on New Orleans’ list could be to extend Brees’ contract.



That’s another move that isn’t technically necessary right now. But it’s a move that would be prudent to reward Brees for taking the Saints to their first championship and it would go a long way in keeping the locker room happy.

Will the Cleveland Browns go with a rookie starting safety this season?



Rarely is an NFL coach stumped by a football question.



But after the Browns took cornerback Joe Haden in the first round of the NFL draft, coach Eric Mangini was quizzed on his starting safeties, which caused some hesitation.



“It’s a ways away,” Mangini said. “So I can’t really say that definitively right now.”



Over the next two days, the Browns drafted a pair of safeties — T.J. Ward of Oregon and Larry Asante of Nebraska. The Browns are hoping one of these players matures quickly and earns a starting role this season alongside veteran Abram Elam.



Safety was arguably Cleveland’s biggest need entering the draft. It was a major reason many projected Eric Berry or Earl Thomas to land with the Browns in the first round.



Berry was a target for Cleveland at No. 7. But when he went off the board at No. 5 to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Browns turned their attention to Haden. It also forced Cleveland to look very hard at safeties in the second round.



Some draft experts felt the team reached for Ward at No. 38. But Ward was a player the Browns really liked.



“When I looked at him and spent time with him he reminded me a lot of Lawyer Milloy,” Mangini said. “I think he’s got outstanding instincts in the running game. He’s one of these guys that can navigate through traffic and it’s almost like the blockers don’t exist. Very rarely does he miss tackles.”



The Browns selected Asante in the fifth round. He has similar skills to Ward in terms of being an aggressive hitter at safety. Right now, Ward is the favorite to be the Week 1 starter. But both rookies will have plenty of opportunities to impress Cleveland’s coaching staff in training camp.



“Just like with the other guys, he will battle at safety for playing time,” Browns general manager Tom Heckert said of Asante. “We do think he is a good player. He played at a big-time level of competition, which is always a nice thing to have.”



With opposing quarterbacks on the schedule such as Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Joe Flacco, Ben Roethlisberger and Carson Palmer, the Browns need at least one of these rookie safeties to be fast learners.

Are the New Orleans Saints doing the right thing by staying so quiet?



The Saints sat high atop the football world after winning the Super Bowl in February. But the future stories of recent champions hasn’t been pretty.



Still, the Saints pretty much have been sitting still in free agency, not adding much of anything and losing a couple of key cogs.



The truth is, they’re handling the situation perfectly and you have to keep in mind this is a unique situation. Without a labor agreement, the NFL is headed into a season without a salary cap and some special rules apply to the final eight teams left standing last season. That means the Saints can only sign an unrestricted free agent when they lose one of their own and the price tags are similar.



To date, all they’ve really lost are unrestricted free agent Scott Fujita and restricted free agent Mike Bell. They also released defensive end Charles Grant and a few others, but you can call that addition by subtraction, and the Saints may look to replace Grant with Alex Brown, who recently was cut by the Bears.



Fujita, an outside linebacker, and Bell, a running back, each played important roles last season. But neither player was part of the team’s core. They both got big money elsewhere and the Saints would have matched or bettered those offers if they truly believed Fujita and Bell were irreplaceable.



The Saints have a bevy of young linebackers and they’re hoping one of them can step forward and claim Fujita’s job. They also might pick up a linebacker in the early rounds of the draft, so the loss of Fujita isn’t devastating.



Neither is the loss of Bell. He was part of the backfield rotation with Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush last year. But the Saints also have a young power runner in Lynell Hamilton. They’ve sniffed around a couple of free-agent running backs and it’s also a position they might address in the draft.



The Saints also are letting veteran safety Darren Sharper hang out there as an unrestricted free agent. They still want him back, but they’re not going to break the bank on a 34-year-old safety. From the looks of things, it doesn’t appear any other team is beating on Sharper’s deal to give him a huge contract. There are contingency plans in place if Sharper leaves.



No matter how that one plays out, the Saints are in good shape. Their real focus this offseason is to protect their core and they’ve done that by placing high tenders on restricted free agents like guard Jahri Evans. At some point, they’re going to have to give him a long-term contract. They also are likely to extend the contract of quarterback Drew Brees, who is the core of the core.



Yes, the Saints haven’t added very much, but that will change some with the draft. Besides, the Saints haven’t lost all that much. They still have the core of a team that won a Super Bowl, which is a lot more than most teams can say.

The Rams will have a hard time convincing me they’re interested in a second-round quarterback even if they run Colt McCoy through a private workout.



It’s not just that general manager Billy Devaney’s teams have never drafted a quarterback in the second, third or fourth rounds. Mostly it’s because the Rams can’t afford to invest a high choice in a quarterback without feeling strongly about getting a franchise player in return. Taking a quarterback they’re less sure about should not come at the expense of immediate needs.



“One thing that should be noted is the success rate of quarterbacks drafted in the second round is far worse than that of those drafted in the first round,” Rams executive vice president Kevin Demoff wrote during a March 4 chat. “The only second-round quarterback to make the Pro Bowl in recent memory was Drew Brees, and he would have been a first-rounder if there had been 32 teams in the NFL when he was drafted.”



Such a cold recitation of facts hardly came off as a smokescreen. As noted, Kordell Stewart (1995 draft) and Jake Plummer (1997) went to Pro Bowls as second-round choices, although neither enjoyed exceptional careers by elite quarterback standards.



“I believe at the end of the (2009 season), 18 of the 32 quarterbacks starting in the NFL were first-round picks, and the next most prolific round was undrafted,” Demoff wrote in the chat. “If you look at the playoffs last year, nearly all of the starting quarterbacks were first-rounders, with the exception of Brees, Brady and Warner, who all could be in the Hall of Fame. The percentages are much better in the first round, but with the reward comes great risk.”

People ask me all the time to predict how the NFC South will shake out next season. I’m hesitant to do it because it’s only March and lots can change between now and September.

Smith

But I’m always open to hearing other opinions. And I got one that I respect very much Wednesday morning at the NFC coaches breakfast at the owners meeting. I asked Atlanta coach Mike Smith to break down the NFC South.



Smith provided a scouting report. Here it is:

I think arguably the NFC South is the toughest division and I think that has played out over the last five years. With the Saints as the defending Super Bowl champs, they have to go into the season as the favorite. Offensively, they’re very dynamic with Drew Brees and the weapons that he has like Reggie Bush and Jeremy Shockey, Marques Colston, Devery Henderson and Robert Meachem. They’re a very powerful offense. Defensively, last year, they were probably the most opportunistic defense in the league. They do a great job of attacking the football and creating turnovers.



Carolina, every year, John [Fox] has that team playing well and playing hard. I think everything sets up around their two running backs. They’re going to run the ball and they’re always going to play strong defense with John and Ron Meeks. I played against Matt Moore when I was in Jacksonville one year and Jake was injured. I think he’s got a very good skill set. He’s got the height and the arm strong. He doesn’t have the experience yet, but I think he’s got a chance to be a very good quarterback.



In Tampa Bay, with Raheem [Morris] in Year 2, I think you’re really going to see big strides. I really like the big quarterback, Josh Freeman. He can not only throw the football, but he can run. He can extend a play. We played both our games with them in the second half of last season and I saw quite a bit of improvement, especially on the defensive side of the ball. They were really flying around and attacking the offense.’

And what about the Falcons? We’ll have more on them — through the eyes of Smith, Arthur Blank and Thomas Dimitroff — later today. I’ll be posting a column on the Falcons this afternoon.

Jake Delhomme won’t be coming to the New Orleans Saints as a backup quarterback.



He reportedly has agreed to a contract with Cleveland, where he could have a shot at the starting job. The Saints were planning on Delhomme visiting this weekend, but all they could offer him was a backup role behind Drew Brees.



Although Delhomme began his career with the Saints and is a Louisiana native, the chance to compete for a starting job with the Browns apparently outweighed the chance to come back home. Delhomme had been the starter in Carolina since 2003, but was released recently after a disastrous 2009 season.



Carolina plans to go with Matt Moore as the starter. But, ironically, Delhomme signing with Cleveland could give them another option. Numerous reports have said the Browns are shopping quarterback Brady Quinn for a potential trade and Carolina might have some interest.

Former Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme is in New Orleans and will be visiting with the Saints the rest of today and Saturday. General manager Mickey Loomis held a meeting with the local media Friday morning and was pretty open about the team’s interest in Delhomme.

Delhomme

“I think this is a combination of that exploratory visit along with a desire to sign him. We need to have a conversation with Jake and talk about how he sees himself and how he thinks he would fit here before we can say, ‘We’re willing to sign you.’” Loomis said.



That’s a wise approach because, with Drew Brees as the starter, Delhomme would be coming in purely as a backup. I know Delhomme pretty well and he’s a smart guy. I don’t think he would even have made this visit if he didn’t realize a backup role might be his best option at this point.



He’s also a Louisiana native with a deep love for his home state and began his career as an undrafted free agent in New Orleans. If the Saints can get him, I think they’ll have a significant upgrade over Mark Brunell.



Loomis also said the Saints aren’t overly concerned about Delhomme’s surgically-repaired elbow, although their medical people will check it out.



“We need to answer that to some degree, although we don’t have a lot of concern about the injury,’’ Loomis said. “We saw some things during the season that lead us to believe that he’s fine. Again, we’ll have a discussion with him about that today and tomorrow. And we give all of those guys a physical when they come as well.”

LaDainian Tomlinson is going to visit the New York Jets.



Tomlinson has left his visit with the Vikings without a deal. He could still end up in Minnesota, but he’s opening his horizons to other teams. Tomlinson could replace Thomas Jones in New York. The Jets cut him and he signed with Kansas City.



It is being reported Tomlinson could also visit Philadelphia and New Orleans. There, he’d reunite with close friend and former San Diego teammate Drew Brees. Tomlinson was cut by the Chargers on Feb. 23.

TAMPA, Fla. — I’m on my way to see a New York Yankees spring training game (weather permitting) tonight. But I had to pull over to give you a little update on Jake Delhomme.

Delhomme

The former Carolina quarterback visited the Cleveland Browns on Thursday, but, as we’ve been saying all along, there remains a real possibility of him staying in the NFC South. There are reports Delhomme’s next visit will be to the New Orleans Saints.



We’ve even heard from a reliable source in New Orleans that coach Sean Payton was heard publicly praising Delhomme earlier today.



This one makes sense on a lot of levels. Payton tried to get Delhomme to Dallas when he was an assistant coach there. He also currently is in the market for a backup quarterback because Mark Brunell is a free agent or could be heading for retirement. Delhomme would be an upgrade over Brunell because he’s younger. He also would be a good extra pair of eyes for starter Drew Brees and is a good guy to have in the locker room.



Then, there’s Delhomme’s history. He grew up in Louisiana and loves it there. He began his career with the Saints and was a fan favorite. That was back at a time when former coach Jim Haslett was obligated to “franchise’’ quarterback Aaron Brooks because of his draft status. Delhomme never had a shot to compete with Brooks.



In the current climate, Delhomme also would be a backup because nobody’s going to take Brees’ job anytime soon. But Delhomme may be at a point in his life and his career where he can be content with that. Plus, he’d be back home.



We’ll see what happens over the next few days.