The NFL preseason just concluded, and there is a full season ahead for the New Orleans Saints. With expectations mighty low and the excitement for a long-term quarterback in next year’s NFL draft, it is worth looking ahead to next spring.<\/p>\n
In a recent three-round mock draft for 2026, Travis May sent the Saints a quarterback not named Arch Manning <\/a>with the first overall pick.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n 1. New Orleans Saints: Cade Klubnik, QB Clemson<\/p>\n First off, it\u2019s important to note that the 2026 NFL Draft class does\u00a0not\u00a0have a clear QB1. However, few quarterbacks\u2013if any\u2013eligible for next year\u2019s draft have a better mix of experience, high level efficient play (especially late last season), and strong weapons to work with to help him improve his NFL Draft resume heading into the 2025 college football season than Cade Klubnik of Clemson.<\/p>\n Klubnik finished with a top 10 quarterback efficiency profile last fall thanks to his 36 passing touchdowns, strong passer rating, and top tier QBR. He showcased improved mobility and decision-making all throughout last season already. If Klubnik takes just one step forward with his special trio of wide receivers in Antonio Williams, Bryant Wesco, and T.J. Moore he could easily be an early first round pick.<\/p>\n The Saints will almost certainly be selecting a quarterback again next year given their terrible roster. Klubnik could help give them a much brighter future. — Travis May<\/p>\n Klubnik was ranked as our top overall quarterback in the preseason rankings<\/a> at the position at A to Z Sports.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n I love this selection for New Orleans. As we know the quarterback prospects for next year’s class, Klubnik is the best of them. His pocket presence is impressive for his age, and he has showed off impressive arm talent so far in his Tigers career. I expect him to be a potential Heisman Trophy candidate in 2025. <\/p>\n Manning’s decision won’t surprise anyone if he chooses to go back to school, but there is still plenty of opportunity for him to enter the 2026 draft class if a few different outcomes occur this season. Only time will tel, though.<\/p>\n Related: NFL players twist the knife in Saints by reminding them of an incredibly costly decision from last offseason<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally reported by A to Z Sports<\/a> on Aug 25, 2025, where it first appeared in the NFL<\/a> section. Add A to Z Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL preseason just concluded, and there is a full season ahead for the New Orleans Saints. With…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[615,5385,7,4002,896,55,6,15,4656,46660,1257,12883,58961],"class_list":{"0":"post-315872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-arch-manning","9":"tag-cade-klubnik","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-mock-draft","12":"tag-new-orleans","13":"tag-new-orleans-saints","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nfl-draft","16":"tag-nfl-preseason","17":"tag-preseason-rankings","18":"tag-quarterback","19":"tag-quarterback-prospects","20":"tag-travis-may"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115088393710043430","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}