{"id":255291,"date":"2025-11-19T13:30:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T18:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=255291"},"modified":"2025-11-18T17:59:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:59:51","slug":"saints-could-target-major-free-agent-joe-flacco-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/11\/19\/saints-could-target-major-free-agent-joe-flacco-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Saints Could Target “Major” Free Agent in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the 2025 season is basically over for the New Orleans Saints, the team could target veteran 2026 free agent Joe Flacco in March. The Saints had to make a huge regime shift in the wake of Derek Carr’s sudden retirement announcement. This led to first-year head coach Kellen Moore having to bear the situation and find ways to get a spark out of Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough<\/a>. Unfortunately, it hasn’t panned out how they wanted, as the Saints were hopeful that Rattler would spend more time learning behind Carr. While the career is still young for Shough, the source believes<\/a> that they will stick with him as the backup for the future, moving forward, and get Flacco in starting reps next season.<\/p>\n

Saints Could Target “Major” Free Agent Joe Flacco in 2026 – 3 Other Possible Suitors<\/h2>\n

It makes sense why the Saints could target Flacco since he’s a cost-effective option, rather than cashing out for a potential trade candidate, Mac Jones<\/a>. The Saints don’t have the cap space to spend on a high-profile veteran, and while they will take a Day 1 quarterback in April, the team must find a means to settle for a bridge like Flacco. The veteran has been somewhat exceptional, but it’s nothing perfect to the point where the Bengals will be moving forward with Flacco as their starter for several years. With Joe Burrow set to return this 2025 season, Flacco will become free to sign with any team in March, and these three other rosters could look into him.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1. Carolina Panthers<\/h3>\n

At 5-5, quarterback Bryce Young<\/a> is finally waking up, and the Panthers have a good chance to bid a ticket for a wild-card matchup in January. While it looks great, the Panthers might benefit from adding another quarterback this upcoming offseason. Veteran Andy Dalton signed a new contract extension, but he couldn’t get anything going in the preseason. This means the Panthers should find a reliable backup for Young.<\/p>\n

It looks great for Young so far after breaking Cam Newton’s single-game passing record,<\/a> but it doesn’t mean the Panthers should be sold on him yet. The season is still long, and Flacco could get an interesting opportunity with the Panthers if Young begins to break his consistency.<\/p>\n

\"Bryce
Nov 16, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young (9) reacts to a touchdown in the fourth quarter against the Atlanta Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

2. Arizona Cardinals<\/h3>\n

The Kyler Murray<\/a> era might be one of the biggest busts in Arizona Cardinals history, which means they will likely draft a quarterback in the first round this offseason. Jacoby Brissett will stick around, but he hasn’t convinced anyone that he can be a true permanent starter in this league. However, Flacco has experience and can throw it deep to get Marvin Harrison and Trey McBride in the right situations. The veteran can be a one-year fixture until the next rookie quarterback steps in and begins the new regime for Arizona.<\/p>\n

\"Kyler
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (1) throws the ball over Tennessee Titans linebacker Jihad Ward (53)at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on Oct. 5, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

3. Miami Dolphins<\/h3>\n

It’s hard to imagine that the Dolphins keep Tua Tagovailoa<\/a>, but they plan to since he’s still under a huge contract they can’t get out of. The only solution is for Tagovailoa to take a paycut to recoup some salary cap space to spend on their offense. However, the next head coach, if Mike McDaniel is fired, should consider building his own scenery and sign Flacco on a low-stakes contract to keep things intact while they draft a new quarterback as well.<\/p>\n

\"Dolphins
Nov 9, 2025; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) rolls out during the first half against the Buffalo Bills at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New Orleans Saints will be rebuilding again in 2026, but may target this free agent for veteran presence. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4795,"featured_media":255293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,33,30,7,4,28,6431],"tags":[7801,9487,7739,7725,235,4674,7777,7752,7661,7659,8553,4443],"class_list":["post-255291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-cardinals","category-panthers","category-bengals","category-dolphins","category-saints","category-nfl-teams","tag-arizona-cardinals-news","tag-bryce-young","tag-carolina-panthers-news","tag-cincinnati-bengals-news","tag-joe-flacco","tag-kyler-murray","tag-miami-dolphins-news","tag-new-orleans-saints-news","tag-panthers-featured","tag-saints-featured","tag-spencer-rattler","tag-tua-tagovailoa"],"modified_by":"Anthony Palacios","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255291"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255307,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255291\/revisions\/255307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}