The New Orleans Saints Invest In A Quarterback For The Future
The New Orleans Saints didn’t draft a quarterback in this years NFL Draft, but they’ve reportedly inked former Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett to an undrafted free agent deal.
But this isn't an ordinary undrafted free agent deal. The Saints are signing Barrett to a 3-year deal.
Barrett will join a quarterback room that features future Hall of Famer Drew Brees and his back-ups, Tom Savage and second-year pro Taysom Hill. But we're not sure if that room will be that full when the season actually starts.
Barrett threw for over three-thousand yards and 35 touchdowns last season for the Buckeyes. Here's his NFL Draft overview from NFL.com:
"Dual-threat quarterback who has benefited from playing with NFL talent around him all four years. Barrett is a natural leader with the ability to hurt defenses with his feet or with his arm on any given play, but he needs to improve his ball placement and approach in attacking coverage. Barrett's character, competitiveness, and ability in short-yardage situations give him a shot to compete for a roster spot as a package-based quarterback while he continues to try and improve as a passer."
Signing Barrett to a 3-year-deal signals that the team has future plans for him. There's no requirement to offer long-term deals to undrafted players, and most of them attend camps on a tryout basis. So for an NFL team to find someone who went undrafted that they want enough to put that deal in front of, the Saints must be ecstatic that Barrett went undrafted.