Mel Kiper Jr. explains fit between Shedeur Sanders, Saints after Derek Carr injury

Ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft later this week, QB Shedeur Sanders has been connected to more and more possible picks, including at No. 9 for the New Orleans Saints. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. and Field Yates think that’d make sense too, based on what that franchise may need moving forward for next season.

With the release of the final mock for Kiper Jr., Sanders went ninth overall to the Saints. He’s expecting New Orleans to think about quarterbacks there regardless, though, considering the current status for next season of QB Derek Carr.

“The Saints have been interesting for a month now. They’re interesting because, even with Derek Carr, were they going to look at a quarterback?” Kiper Jr. said. “Remember, back in the day – it seems like back in the day. I had Jaxson Dart going there, right, in my mock early on. And I had Shedeur Sanders going in this, in terms of mock, the 3.0-4.0, when you look at what they need.”

“For me, Shedeur Sanders makes perfect sense. It did then, it does now. It did before Derek Carr’s injury, okay. Bottom line is they were interesting long before that and now even more interesting if you want to say that if Shedeur Sanders is there,” Kiper Jr. said. “And we’re assuming, guys, he will be there. That’s the assumption, right – that everybody’s going to let him pass, nobody’s going to move up.”

Yates agreed to some extent just considering the circumstances down in NOLA. He thinks a lot of what the team has done to this point this offseason, including the timing of all the news about Carr, makes a quarterback, including Sanders, possible, if not likely, at No. 9.

“Obviously, this news breaking when it did? Friday, April 11th – less than two weeks from the NFL Draft, well past free agency and the NFL Owners Meetings and the scouting combine and, oh, by the way, well past the date in which Derek Carr had his contract restructured to make it that much more onerous to get out of next year as opposed to the Saints just taking their medicine this offseason, swallowing it, and moving on and pivoting,” said Yates. “All of this is very confusing for a lot of reasons.”

Now, to be clear, Yates doesn’t agree with that way of thinking for New Orleans. He thinks the Saints should be using this top-ten pick to focus on a full reset of the franchise in order to best succeed in years still to come. Since they aren’t doing that based on their offseason, though, a quarterback is an option just to try to win this year considering the other options they have at the moment.

“Now, here’s what I don’t know – and the Saints, I think, are about as much of a wild card as any team in the entire NFL for this reason. I think any logical human would watch what’s happened in New Orleans over the past few years and say, ‘You have the ninth pick in the draft. This would be a reasonable offseason to press reset’, right. To strip this thing down to the studs, get bad before you get good again. You play in a division that might be viewed as more winnable than, let’s say the NFC East as an example. That being said, what the endgame for the Saints right now this year? Maybe you win the division at 9-8 and then you get waxed in the first round of the playoffs. We don’t want to chase the middle in the NFL. And, yet, what do the Saints do this offseason? First, they did restructure Derek Carr. Second of all, go look at some of their spendings in free agency…This team still thinks it wants to win,” Yates said. “Now that we have those parameters set, you aren’t winning if your quarterback is either Derek Carr playing through a shoulder injury or potentially Spencer Rattler here.”

With that, New Orleans could very well go with another position if they’re trying to win now. Still, quarterback continues to come up with them possibly needing a starter come kickoff and, as such, Sanders likely being there as QB2 in this draft is something the rest of the league is taking note of when it comes to the Saints.

“Quarterback has to be more a part of the conversation now at nine than it already previously was for the Saints,” said Yates. “Mel has been tabbing it as a need. I think it becomes that much more of a need because you might need the player who has a zero-week runway.”

“Is it a guarantee that it’s a quarterback at number nine? I’m not totally convinced of that,” Yates said. “But, make no mistake about it. The teams behind the Saints are saying to themselves, if we’re interested in Shedeur Sanders and only Shedeur Sanders, we might now have to get all the way up to number eight in order to land Shedeur Sanders because you have to assume New Orleans is strongly considering that player.”