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By John Sigler | Saintswire

Who starts at quarterback for the New Orleans Saints in 2021? They have three passers under contract in Drew Brees, Taysom Hill, and Trevor Siemian (who finished the 2020 season on the practice squad), but Brees is expected to announce his retirement and begin a career in the NBC broadcast booth.

The Saints went 3-1 with Hill starting in Brees’ place. Jameis Winston showed the coaching staff plenty to like in a year of practice, but he’s an unrestricted free agent. And this year’s quarterbacks carousel is taking quite a spin.

It’s a solid free agent class in its own right, with quarterbacks like Dak Prescott (a franchise tag candidate returning from a serious ankle injury) and Cam Newton, and veteran backups like Ryan Fitzpatrick, Andy Dalton, Tyrod Taylor, Jacoby Brissett, and Mitchell Trubisky all joining Winston on the open market. ...

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By John Sigler | Saintswire

So, this isn’t a great development. The Athletic’s Jeff Duncan reports that the New Orleans Saints are competing with Atlanta Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot for the right to keep one of their best-kept secrets in the building: Khai Harley.

Fontenot, of course, spent the last decade-plus climbing the ladder in New Orleans to become the team’s vice president of pro personnel and assistant general manager. That rise catapulted him into the G.M. chair in Atlanta, where he’s been working to recruit one of his former coworkers.

Harley, who owns the formal title of vice president of football administration, is the man behind the spreadsheets in New Orleans, the salary cap wizard who has navigated the team through all of its creative accounting: restructures, ghost years, and all. He’s been a pioneer of maneuvering the salary cap to keep the books in order for the Saints, allowing them to scoff at the dangers of “salary cap hell” every offseason. ...

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By John Sigler | Saintswire

ESPN’s Bill Barnwell picked the New Orleans Saints as one team he doesn’t expect to see in the playoffs next season, with their projected losses mounting too high for the team to overcome after Drew Brees moves on to his expected retirement.

It’s bad enough to see the Saints out of the 2021 playoff picture altogether. But the upstart Tampa Bay Buccaneers are Barnwell’s projected No. 1 seed, and the always-rebuilding Atlanta Falcons are one of his choices to sneak in as a wild-card team. Just how bad does he expect the Saints to be? Here’s some of his explanation:

“The New Orleans Saints are the team most conspicuous by their absence, but you can probably guess why I’m skeptical. Drew Brees‘ expected retirement and the $100-plus-million cap hole the Saints find themselves in heading into 2021 mean this roster will be significantly less talented than the one we saw over the past several seasons. Coach Sean Payton is still going to be an offensive genius, but New Orleans’ 2021 season feels like it could be similar to the Patriots’ 2020.” ...

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