Expectations are higher for Jake Haener in Year 2 with the New Orleans Saints. It was fine for him to ride the bench as a game-day inactive last year; everyone knew that Jameis Winston was ahead of him on the depth chart as the top backup behind Derek Carr. But he’s had a year to pick up the playbook and hone his craft, and there won’t be any excuses if Haener doesn’t show marked improvement in 2024.

There’s one goal on the horizon for him: beating his competition to win the  QB2 job. If he can do that, Haener will already have accomplished more than every quarterback that Sean Payton drafted in New Orleans.

Payton drafted four quarterbacks during his 15-year run with the Saints: Sean Canfield (2010), Garrett Grayson (2015), Tommy Stevens (2020), and Ian Book (2021). As first noted by fans on social media, none of them made the 53-man roster to start their second season in New Orleans, though Canfield was signed, waived, re-signed to the practice squad, and released 64 times from 2010 to 2012.

Grayson was similarly waived and brought back a few times in 2016 and 2017 before being let go for good. Stevens never got a real shot at competing at quarterback — he was seen as a possible Taysom Hill understudy, but he struggled to make much headway while learning the tight end position, and was released from the practice squad without much fanfare early in his rookie season. Dennis Allen closed the book on, well, Book during roster cuts in 2022.

So if Haener can outplay both Nathan Peterman and Kellen Mond this summer to earn his place on the Week 1 roster, he’ll already have accomplished more than any quarterback Payton ever drafted. The most successful backup Payton found for Drew Brees, Teddy Bridgewater, was acquired in a trade. Fan-favorite hype man Chase Daniel started his career as an undrafted free agent. Other backups like Jameis Winston, Luke McCown, Mark Brunell, and Jamie Martin were all journeymen free agents.

Haener pulling this off would be a small win, sure, but it would be meaningful. The Saints invested a lot in Haener by trading this year’s fourth-round pick (which turned out to be No. 116) to move up 100 slots from the seventh round into last year’s fourth frame, picking him at No. 127 overall. Mond and Peterman are not exactly world-beaters. But if Haener can overcome the challenges they do present, he’ll already have accomplished more than the quarterbacks Payton gambled on.