New Orleans Saints Top 5 Quarterbacks of All Time

(last updated on February 18, 2026)

This is almost hard to fathom, but the New Orleans Saints started their existence with 20 straight non-winning, non-playoff seasons. From 1967 to 1986, the Saints had 11 seasons with four wins or less. The best they did in that 20-year stretch of futility was two 8-8 seasons. You may remember the old NFL Films archival footage of fans wearing bags over their heads at the Superdome in the 70s. They weren’t called the “Aints” for nothing. Since 1987, the New Orleans Saints have made 14 playoff appearances and won a Lombardi Trophy at Super Bowl XLIV. The city and team made a renaissance after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Bayou in 2005. Plus, the Crescent City has hosted 11 Super Bowls, including Super Bowl LIX in 2025 (tied for the most with Miami). Put on your Mardi Gras attire as we head down to New Orleans and party with the top quarterbacks of all time for the Saints.

Yes, Derek Carr was only with the New Orleans Saints two years, and, yes, they didn’t make the playoffs with him. However, if you look at his stats, you will see he deserves a place with the top Saints quarterbacks of all time. When Carr left the Raiders for the Saints, he was the all-time leader in passing yards and passing TDs for the silver and black. He brought that pedigree to New Orleans in 2023 and delivered a stellar statistical season: a 68.4 completion %, 3,878 passing yards, 25 TDs to only 8 INTs, and a 97.7 passer rating. He even had a four-TD day with a 145.5 passer rating in a season finale smashing of the rival Atlanta Falcons. Unfortunately, the 9-8 Saints missed the postseason on a tiebreaker. In 2024, although Derek battled multiple injuries, in 10 games he delivered his normal efficiency: a 67.7 completion %, 2,145 passing yards, 15 TDs to only 5 INTs, and a 101.0 passer rating. Although he wasn’t in New Orleans that long, Derek Carr earned the right to be called one of the best quarterbacks in Saints history.

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If you’re of a certain age, you may recall the influx of talented African-American QBs to hit the NFL in the late 90s and early 2000s. The big names were McNair, McNabb, Culpepper, and Vick, but the New Orleans Saints had another talented quarterback on this list: Aaron Brooks. This Virginia product stepped in late during the 2000 season and got New Orleans its first ever playoff victory. In the Wild Card round, Brooks led the Saints to an upset win over the defending champion Rams … yes, the Greatest Show on Turf Rams. He threw for 266 yards and 4 TDs with a 111.5 passer rating to outduel Kurt Warner in a 31-28 thriller. Aaron never got the Saints back to the postseason, but he did produce 3,500+ passing yards and 21+ passing TDs every year from 2001 to 2004. His 19,156 passing yards are third in franchise history, and his 120 passing touchdowns are second in team history (more than Archie Manning). If you forgot about Aaron Brooks, he was a solid NFL QB in the early 2000s and definitely one of the top quarterbacks ever for the New Orleans Saints.

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If you get referenced on a Seinfeld episode, then you are a fairly big name. Well, Bobby Hebert has this distinction, and he also has the distinction of being one of the all-time great quarterbacks for the New Orleans Saints. This Louisiana boy became the starting QB for the Saints in the strike-abbreviated 1987 season and led them to a 10-2 record … and their first playoff appearance in franchise history. The following year New Orleans went 10-6 behind Hebert’s 3,156 passing yards and 20 TD tosses. After missing the 1990 season due to a contract dispute, Bobby went a combined 20-5 as the Saints starter in ‘91 and ‘92. Unfortunately, both of those seasons ended in Wild Card defeats at the Superdome. Although the Saints never won a playoff game with Hebert, he got them to the postseason multiple times and had an impressive 49-26 regular-season record as their QB. Besides being mentioned on an episode of Seinfeld, Bobby Hebert should also be remembered for being one of the top quarterbacks in New Orleans Saints history.

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It may be hard to believe with the wall-to-wall Peyton and Eli exposure, but the original Manning was Archie … one of the top quarterbacks ever for the New Orleans Saints. This Mississippi native and second overall pick of the 1971 NFL Draft didn’t see much winning in the Bayou. Let’s be honest: he played on some bad teams and took a beating. Three of his first five seasons he was sacked the most in the league (sacked 340 times total as a Saint). You probably remember those highlights of Archie doing mad scrambles behind the line of scrimmage. He even missed the entire 1976 season due to a shoulder injury. On the brighter side, Manning had three straight seasons of 3,100+ passing yards (‘78-’80), and he got the Saints to 8-8 in 1979. His win-loss record is forgettable, but Poppa Manning did throw for 21,734 yards and 115 touchdowns (both in the team’s top three). Had Archie Manning been drafted by a different franchise, who knows how that may have affected his legacy (and health), but he gave New Orleans over a decade of courageous service, so this Manning definitely earned a spot with the greatest Saints quarterbacks of all time.

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The man, by virtually all accounts, who is probably the best quarterback in New Orleans Saints history is newly elected HOFer Drew Brees. Besides leading the team in pretty much every passing statistic, Brees brought the Big Easy its first Super Bowl title in 2009. In that game he outdueled Peyton Manning for the Super Bowl MVP with 288 yards passing, 2 TD passes, and a 114.5 passer rating. This Purdue man led the NFL in passing yards seven times, completion % six times, passing TDs four times, and passer rating two times. Just digest this … he had five seasons of 5,000+ passing yards; no other QB has done it more than twice. In 2011, he had these eye-popping and NFL-best numbers: 468 completions, a 71.2 completion%, 5,476 passing yards, and 46 TD passes. In terms of efficiency, this 13-time Pro Bowler has the two highest single-season marks in completion % (74.4 in 2018 and 74.3 in 2019). We could go on for days about his numbers, but the fact Brees is in the all-time NFL top five for completions, completion %, passing yards, and passing touchdowns really says it all. Drew Brees was a slightly overshadowed contemporary of Brady and Manning, but his stats rank him right up there with them, and Drew Brees is widely considered the top quarterback of all time for the New Orleans Saints.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2025 at 8:40 pm and is filed under NFL History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.