Question: Are Saints heading back to quarterback limbo?

In south Louisiana, late June can mean only one thing: It is time to talk football. Time to talk Saints football.

You can skip the previews.

Here’s a Saints’ 2021 synopsis you can take to the bank: Great quarterback play, great season; bad quarterback play ... and your New Orleans Saints are in danger of winning fewer than seven games for the first time since 2005.

When the Saints signed Drew Brees in March 2006, their quarterback nightmare was over. For 15 consecutive seasons, Saints fans got excellence at the position, with unwavering consistency.

But, from the time Bobby Hebert departed after the 1992 season through 2005, the Saints’ quarterback numbers were alarming. In a span of 13 seasons, 14 different quarterbacks started games for the Saints.

How many can you name? Just pause, and without Google, start thinking aloud. It is quite a trivia question.

Answers later.

In those 13 seasons, the 14 Saints quarterbacks threw 234 touchdown passes and 237 interceptions.

In Drew Brees’ 15 seasons with the Saints, he tossed 491 touchdown passes and 190 interceptions.

In the 2011 season, Brees threw 46 touchdown passes. In the three years that Mike Ditka was the Saints head coach, 1997 through 1999, Saints quarterbacks tossed 48 touchdown passes.

So, is Jameis Winston the same quarterback who threw 30 interceptions in 2019? Or, does a change in franchises and a season under the tutelage of Sean Payton bring a rebirth of his career?

Or, does Taysom Hill turn from a player who can do many things well into an upper-echelon starting quarterback?

Quarterbacks change everything. The evidence is all around.

At LSU, the right quarterback, Joe Burrow, produced a 60-touchdown season and a national championship.

At Tulane, true freshman quarterback Michael Pratt led the Green Wave to four wins in their last five regular-season games. Only a defensive collapse in a two-overtime loss at Tulsa prevented the Green Wave from winning their last five regular-season games.

Pratt led all freshman FBS quarterbacks with 20 touchdown passes. He gives the Green Wave a chance to go a fourth straight bowl despite a very challenging 2021 schedule.

So, here are the Saints’ 14 starting quarterbacks post-Hebert and pre-Brees:

Wade Wilson, Mike Buck, Steve Walsh, Jim Everett, Doug Nussmeier, Heath Shuler, Billy Joe Hobert, Danny Wuerffel, Billy Joe Tolliver, Kerry Collins, Jake Delhomme, Jeff Blake, Aaron Brooks and Todd Bouman.

So, skip the previews.

Here’s your Saints football intel: Great quarterback play, great season.

If not, you know the rest.

Ed Daniels is sports director at ABC26 WGNO. He can be reached at [email protected]