Off-season talk

McCown participated in training camp
with the Saints last year before being cut
when the team trimmed its roster to 75
players. During the preseason, McCown
completed 9 of 16 passes for 86 yards
with no touchdowns and no interceptions.
McCown showed some ability to pass the
ball but it wasn't enough to warrant the
team keeping him around to at least the
final cut.
McCown eventually was signed by the
Atlanta Falcons and served as Matt Ryan's
backup last season.

 

So we're one big hit away from having Luke McCown as our QB? Man, we REALLY need a LT now. But, in fairness to McCown, it's not like Chase Daniels was going to take us anywhere if Brees got hurt, so I'm not sure how big of an impact him leaving has. Still though, you'd like to have a bigger name then Luke McCown as your No. 2 QB.

 

I agree, if we only needed him for a game or 2, but if Drew was out for any extended period of time, I'm not sure he'd be able to lead us to the playoffs.

 

not counting potential comebacks by JaMarcus Russell, Vince Young, and Seneca Wallace, here are the QBs that are currently available in free agency:

Available Free Agent QBs, Ranked by Career Passer Rating
78.9 -- Byron Leftwich (age 33)
77.2 -- Charlie Batch (age 39)
72.5 -- Tyler Thigpen (age 29)
70.2 -- Matt Leinart (age 30)
71.4 -- Rex Grossman (age 33)
68.5 -- Luke McCown (age 32)
64.4 -- Brady Quinn (age 29)
63.0 -- John Skelton (age 25)
62.2 -- Kellen Clemens (age 30)
34.4 -- Jordan Palmer (age 29)

Some notes on Luke McCown:

--he had a 91.0 QB rating during his two years with the Bucs, going 94 for 140 (67.1%) for 1,009 yards, 5 TDs, 3 INT

--in his only NFL game in the Superdome, he was 29-for-37 (78.4%) for 313 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT in the Bucs 27-23 victory over the Saints

--in his only game against the Patriots (the year the Pats went 14-2 and were Super Bowl Champs), he was 20-for-34 (58.8%) for 277 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs

--at Louisiana Tech, he passed for 12,666 career yards, including:

Soph (2001) -- 3,337 yards (#8 in NCAA), beating Ben Roethlisberger (#9 in NCAA) Eli Manning (#17), Philip Rivers (#28), Carson Palmer (#30), David Garrard (#42), Seneca Wallace (#53), Matt Schaub (#80)

Junior (2002) -- 3,539 yards (#9 in NCAA), beating Rex Grossman (#13), Eli Manning (#14), Philip Rivers (#16), Derek Anderson (#18), Seneca Wallace (#23), Ben Roethlisberger (#24), Matt Schaub (#28), Kyle Orton (#55), Jay Cutler (#92)

Senior (2003) -- 3,246 yards (#18 in NCAA), beating Kevin Kolb (#22 in NCAA), Matt Schaub (#30), Aaron Rodgers (#32), Kyle Orton (#33), Kellen Clemens (#49), Jay Cutler (#51), Jason Campbell (#54), Alex Smith (#56), Brady Quinn (#77)

 

he was, in the sense that we never had to use him (Chase has 9 career pass attempts...1 last season, 5 the season before that, 3 the season before that)

the perfect #2 would be a guy like Tony Romo, but good QBs are so scarce nowadays that the Cowboys are not only starting Romo, but just signed him to a seven-year, $119.5 million contract with $55 million guaranteed

also, keep in mind that Luke McCown might not make the final cut, just like last year. Here's a picture from last season's training camp on Aug 13, 2012:

New Orleans Saints quarterbacks left to right: Chase Daniel (10), Luke McCown (11), Drew Brees (9) and Sean Canfield (4) listen to quarterbacks coach Joe Lombardi as the Saints get back to practice in Metairie, Monday August 13, 2012.



Sean Canfield is a guy we took with the 17th-to-last pick in the 2010 Draft

Chase Daniel is a guy that we took off waivers (the Redskins signed him as an UDFA in 2009, they waived him making their final cuts on September 5, 2009, and then we signed him to our practice squad)

so expect us to do the same thing: either draft another QB, sign another QB as an UDFA, or pick another QB up off waivers like we did with Daniel

 

Nah, I think the perfect backup to Drew would be a guy like Matt Flynn or Colt McCoy. But both of those guys just got new teams this week. Not that we could afford their contracts anyway.

 

other than their age, Colt McCoy and Luke McCown are very similar: both from Texas, both passed for about 13,000 yards in college (both top 15 in NCAA history), both were drafted by the Browns in the 3rd/4th Round, then both traded away by the Browns in return for a 6th/7th R pick...Browns traded McCown to the Bucs in return for a 6th R pick (203 overall), Browns traded McCoy to the 49ers in return for a 7th R pick (and the 49ers also swapped their #164 pick with the Browns' #173 pick....that is, the 49ers move back 9 spots)