The New Orleans Saints‘ quarterback controversy is officially off and running.
Spencer Rattler took the first-team reps as New Orleans’ starting quarterback during its first practice of the season Wednesday.
The Saints have a clear battle for their starting-quarterback position after the retirement of veteran Derek Carr.
Rattler is up against fellow incumbent Jake Haener and 2025 second-round pick Tyler Shough. Though Rattler is in the QB1 spot now, Shough, the 40th overall pick from Louisville, is likely to end up the starter at some point during the season — if not Week 1.
Why Was Spencer Rattler The Saints’ QB1 Wednesday?
Rattler earned the nod Wednesday, but first-year coach Kellen Moore announced Shough will get the bulk of first-team reps Thursday.
“We have a bunch of statistics and stuff based off of OTAs, and these guys are literally the same exact numbers in every category,” Moore said of Shough and Rattler. “Spencer’s obviously been here one more year, [so] we’ll start with him and go from there.”
Shough may have a perceived edge due to his age — he is 25 — and the fact Moore’s administration drafted him, but Moore said no QB has is ahead at this point.
“I view them all the same,” Moore said. “I love these guys. These guys have been awesome all off-season. I’m fired up to just let those guys play it out.”
Rattler, the 150th pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, went 0-6 in six starts a season ago with a 57.0 completion percentage and a 4/5 touchdown-to-interception rate. In part due to their uncertainty at quarterback, the Saints were ranked dead last in the NFL in terms of roster talent by ESPN — with quarterback as the team’s primary weakness.
Yet, Moore referenced his quarterbacks needing to overcome both the pressure of a competition with the inevitable outside noise that will seep in.
“I think that’s a big part for these guys, navigating this,” Moore said. “It’s a training-camp process. You’re going to have ups. You’re going to have downs. You just have to focus in on your task at hand.
“I think we have the right type of guys in that room to handle this. They’ll do an excellent job.”
Moore was asked about the potential for a quarterback controversy and how soon he would prefer to have the starter named. He offered a window into how that process affects his offense being implemented.
“The sooner you make a decision, the sooner you can focus in on certain personnel groups and certain consistencies,” Moore said, “but we’ll let the process take as long as it needs to and when we make that decision, we’ll roll.”
What Did Kellen Moore Say About Jake Haener?
The competition appears centered around Shough and Rattler, since they are getting the first-team reps over the first two days, but Moore reiterated that Haener is also in the competition.
“Going back to when he was coming out of the draft, we liked him,” Moore said of Haener. “I was in LA [Chargers] that year. We liked him.”
Haener, a fourth-round pick in the 2023 draft, played eight games but made just one start, finishing with 1-1 TD-to-INT rate along with a 46.2 completion percentage last year.
Yet, Moore got some important intel from his brother Kirby Moore, who was Haener’s offensive coordinator at Fresno State.
“I’ve known Jake for a while,” Moore said. “He played at Washington for my college coach [Chris Petersen in 2018] and obviously my brother coached him at Fresno State. Certainly, there’s plenty of familiarity there.”
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