Tag: Jake Haener

3 New Orleans Saints rookies make ESPN’s top 100 draft picks list

Three Saints rookies made ESPN’s list of the top 100 draft picks. What can you expect from each player in 2023? via @southexclusives:

The New Orleans Saints had a solid 2023 NFL draft, depending on who you ask. ESPN analyst Matt Miller would agree with this sentiment. Miller recently made a list of the 100 best selections in this year’s draft andthree Saints rookie made an appearance on this list. Most interestingly, the only one of the three that was a top selection was running back Kendre Miller. Defensive tackle Bryan Bresee and defensive end Isaiah Foskey were absent from the list. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The back half of the draft being highlighted should create optimism around the depth of this  class. If Bresee and Foskey can play up to, or close to, their draft position, the 2023 Saints draft class will be looked at fondly for years to come. 

Miller highlighted each of the three Saints players on his list:

NFL fans can’t get enough of Saints QB Jake Haener’s ‘Zoolander’ rookie photo shoot

NFL fans can’t get enough of New Orleans Saints quarterback Jake Haener’s surprisingly sultry rookie photo shoot:

If this football thing doesn’t work out, Jake Haener might have a future in modeling. The New Orleans Saints rookie quarterback went viral on social media this week after his first NFL photoshoot, where he chose to have fun with it, cheese for the cameras, and turn in a surprisingly sultry performance.

Haener’s going to busy picking up the Saints’ playbook and waiting for the team to call his number should Derek Carr and Jameis Winston both be unavailable (which is easier for New Orleans to work with thanks to the new emergency quarterback rule). So it’s good to see him making the most of what could be an uncomfortable experience in front of the cameras.

Here’s what NFL fans had to say in reaction to Haener’s best Derek Zoolander impression:

NFL revives bylaw allowing third QB to dress out on game days without using a roster spot

The NFL revived an old bylaw allowing a third quarterback to dress out on game days without using a roster spot. What it means for the Saints in 2023:

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This is interesting: NFL owners voted to approve a bylaw allowing teams to dress a third quarterback on game days without using a roster spot, which could change how the New Orleans Saints and many other teams make roster decisions in 2023. It’s a rule the league has used before but shied away from after more tightly regulating roster construction.

What will this look like? The Saints have three quarterbacks under contract right now in their new starter Derek Carr, his backup Jameis Winston, and rookie fourth-round draft pick Jake Haener. Taysom Hill, listed as a tight end, doesn’t factor into things anyway. So the likeliest outcome is that Carr and Winston will be active each week while Haener is designated as their emergency quarterback on the inactive list.

But there are stipulations. For one thing, the third emergency quarterback must be listed on the 53-man roster, not the 16-man practice squad, in order to qualify, though he still won’t be included on the active roster on game days (instead, he’ll be on the inactive list among 8 players from the 53-man roster and 14 players from the practice squad).

For another, they may only play in the event of an emergency such as injuries or disqualifications to the other two passers. They wouldn’t get into the game if coaches benched another quarterback, for example. And if either of the primary quarterbacks are cleared to return by the team medical staff, the emergency passer must return to the sideline.

Let’s illustrate things more simply: it’s Week 1, and the Saints have activated Carr, Winston, and 43 other players from their 53-man roster while calling up two other players from their practice squad. Haener is included on the inactive list with 7 other players, but he’ll be in uniform and ready to go into the game if needed. This is going to add a new element to how coaches determine their game-day roster decisions, but fans will only really notice in case an emergency strikes. Let’s hope Haener’s services aren’t needed any time soon.

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Saints announce fourth-round draft pick Jake Haener has signed his rookie contract

The Saints announced that fourth-round draft pick Jake Haener signed his rookie contract on Tuesday, leaving just one rookie left to put pen to paper:

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And then there was one: the New Orleans Saints announced Tuesday that rookie quarterback Jake Haener (Fresno State) signed his first NFL contract after the team picked him in the fourth round of this year’s draft, meaning six of the Saints’ seven draft picks have signed on the dotted line and officially turned pro.

Haener signed not long after the Saints inked their first-round pick Bryan Bresee (Clemson), with four other rookies having signed before this past weekend’s minicamp practices began. The lone remaining unsigned pick is Isaiah Foskey, a second-round defensive end from Notre Dame.

What’s the holdup? The NFL’s latest collective bargaining agreements have drastically streamlined the process for drafted players to negotiate their contracts while introducing a new rookie wage scale, so there really isn’t much haggling to be done once both sides come together.

The only thing that can really be debated is what percentage of a contract may be guaranteed, with first-rounders and many players selected early in the second round getting fully-guaranteed deals. Foskey, selected at No. 40 overall, may be dealing with the same frustrations that cornerback Alontae Taylor experienced last year as New Orleans’ second-rounder Alontae Taylor (the No. 49 pick), who didn’t sign until later in the summer while going back and forth with the team about his contract details. Hopefully, the Saints can work things out with Foskey sooner than they did with Taylor, who didn’t sign until July.

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3 questions the Saints must answer on offense

The New Orleans Saints head into the 2023 season with multiple questions on offense, starting with their play caller, via @crissy_froyd:

The New Orleans Saints undoubtedly have some work to do after finishing out the 2022 season with an overall record of 7-10, despite the fact that tied every team in the NFC South for the second-best within a disappointing division that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-9) ultimately came out on top of.

Many of the team’s woes are centered around offensive performance that leaves much to be desired to say the least as the Saints came out at 19th in total offense at the conclusion of the season with an average of just under 334 yards per game.

Here’s a look into three questions the team needs to answer on the offensive side of the ball:

Saints have already signed half their picks in the 2023 NFL draft

The Saints have already signed half their picks in the 2023 NFL draft. Four first-year players put pens to paper on Friday:

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How’s this for a nice and simple New Orleans Saints offseason? The team announced Friday that four of the players they picked in the 2023 NFL draft have already signed their rookie contracts: running back Kendre Miller (third round out of TCU), offensive lineman Nick Saldiveri (fourth round from Old Dominion), defensive back Jordan Howden (fifth round of Minnesota), and wide receiver A.T. Perry (sixth round, Wake Forest).

That leaves just three other first-year pros yet to put pen to paper, but they’ll follow along soon enough. Many of the details in these rookie contracts are tied to draft slots these days, so there isn’t much haggling and negotiating to be done. All of these players are in town for Saints rookie minicamp practices over the weekend, so it’s a safe bet that Bryan Bresee, Isaiah Foskey, and Jake Haener will sign soon, too.

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Saints 2023 draft class: Projecting each rookie’s contract

New Orleans Saints 2023 draft class: Projecting each rookie’s contract and first-year salary cap hit

It’s much easier to project rookie contracts after the NFL’s latest collective bargaining agreements, which established a new rookie pay scale that ties many contract factors to the slot players are picked in the draft.

Which means we already have a good idea of how much the New Orleans Saints’ 2023 draft class will be counting against the salary cap, as well as their estimated signing bonuses and projected total value. Here’s a breakdown of how much each Saints drafted rookie will cost against the cap this season (all estimations via Spotrac):

Analysis: What the New Orleans Saints are getting in Jake Haener

Analysis: What the New Orleans Saints are getting in rookie quarterback Jake Haener, via @crissy_froyd

The New Orleans Saints have had nothing short of an up-and-down quarterback situation since the departure of Drew Brees, and Jameis Winston has not exactly fit the bill. The fact the Saints returned Winston on an amended deal with the likelihood he could be traded sooner rather than later doesn’t exactly reflect confidence, and, enter the Derek Carr experiment.

On the heels of that was the team selecting former Fresno State quarterback Jake Haener in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft. While Haener may be viewed as more of a developmental prospect out of the gate, there is also a very real situation in which he could become one of the most reliable backups in the league or a long-term, high-floor starter.

There’s a reason the Saints traded up for him without choosing to wait. Head coach Dennis Allen said after the pick: “If the guy is there that you believe in, I think you go and pick that player. Even though I feel really good about where we are at at the quarterback position, so it wasn’t necessarily a position of need, but it’s the most important position on the field. If you’ve got a guy you feel good about, you want to get him in your building.”

While Haener should not be expected to start right away, he should be considered to be a player who has the ability to take the reins. At a bare minimum, he projects as something of a Jimmy Garoppolo type.

Despite being knocked for his frame at a minimal height of a flat 6-foot, Haener brings so much more to the table, as was reflected by his impeccable performance at the Senior Bowl in which he separated himself from every other quarterback at the event by a county mile. He was named MVP for the Senior Bowl game itself, following recent picks like Justin Herbert, Daniel Jones, and Dak Prescott.

Haener has shown the ability to evade pressure, make throws out of structure, and put proper arm strength on passes despite not having a Howitzer. He has a high level of mental processing and incredible football IQ, and can throw into impossibly tight windows down the sideline at all levels of the field.

I spoke with Haener ahead of the draft on some of the things he had been negatively graded for in scouting reports.

“Stetson (Bennett is) about two years older than I am,” Haener said. “I’m still 23 and there’s a lot of quarterbacks out there about 23, 24 at this point so age I don’t think is a big deal. And height, it is what it is. I can’t control that and there’s probably a lot of people saying that if I was one or two inches taller that I’d probably be going a lot higher than I’ll go but I can’t control that. I play bigger than I am and do everything that I can in my power to get guys fired up and play at a high level that I’m capable of.”

And he was confident in what he showed the scouts.

“I feel like people have gotten a pretty good judgment of what I can do and I think it will continue to get better,” Haener continued. “Here I feel like is kind of a rough estimate of what accuracy looks like. How the ball comes off my hand. I feel like people can see that I throw a nice ball and that I have the arm strength there. When I get with guys I’m comfortable with, a system I’m comfortable in, I will continue to get better.”

It will be interesting to see what Haener accomplishes in New Orleans, but there is no question that the sky is the limit. He’s landed in a great spot to continue developing his craft.

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Saints draft picks Kendre Miller, Jake Haener invited to NFLPA Rookie Premiere

New Orleans Saints draft picks Kendre Miller and Jake Haener have been invited to represent the team at the NFLPA Rookie Premiere:

This is a cool opportunity for a couple of the New Orleans Saints’ first-year players. The NFL Players Associated invited Kendre Miller and Jake Haener to its exclusive Rookie Premiere event in Los Angeles, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, where they’ll be highlighted for future business and marketing ventures.

The NFLPA describes the event as, “This is one of the most valuable opportunities available to NFLPA partners because it’s the first time to connect directly with professional football’s most promising and marketable young players–all in one place—and build content and relationships that extend into the season and beyond.”

Miller, the former TCU running back selected at No. 71 overall, is in a great position to make a name for himself as a pro with Alvin Kamara and Jamaal Williams joining him on the Saints depth chart. New Orleans traded up to the No. 127 picks for Haener, a quarterback out of Fresno State, envisioning him as a long-term backup for Derek Carr given Jameis Winston’s contract status.

Both young players could be in the spotlight for the Saints in the not-so-distant future so it’s a good idea for them to get out in front of any opportunities ahead of them. The NFLPA Rookie Premiere will be held May 18-21.

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Here are the jersey numbers for the New Orleans Saints rookie draft class

Here are the jersey numbers for the New Orleans Saints rookie draft class:

It’s finally real. The seven players selected by the New Orleans Saints in the 2023 NFL draft have chosen their initial jersey numbers — which could change once other numbers become available after roster cuts later this year, so maybe wait to preorder your jersey. But here’s which numbers they’ll be wearing at rookie minicamps and practices over the summer: