The New Orleans Saints may have given Kellen Moore his first crack at becoming an NFL coach, but the franchise doesn’t necessarily have the kind of quarterback situation that a first-year head coach would want to be set up with. The two most likely options are Spencer Rattler, who went 0-6 as the starter in New Orleans in 2024, and Tyler Shough, a 2nd round rookie who will turn 26 years old before the first month of his rookie year ends.
Oh yeah, Jake Haener is in the mix too.
Yes, the same Jake Haener who looks more like a model than a quarterback. The same Jake Haener who I left out completely in a headline on the Saints quarterback competition just two weeks ago. The same Jake Haener who absolutely believes that he’s got just as good of a chance to earn the title of QB1 before the 2025 NFL season begins.
“I believe this organization, if they didn’t truly believe I could be a guy that they think couldn’t win the starting job, they wouldn’t include me in it. Simple as that,” Haener said after practice on July 26, per Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk. “They wouldn’t make me feel good about myself. I totally see it as a three-man race. I think I’ve earned that right.”
Jake Haener Runs With the Ones
Haener went 5-for-7 during 11-on-11 period on Friday afternoon, and throughout the early days of camp, he’s showed a preparedness in the meeting rooms and a willingness to push the ball down the field that has impressed Kellen Moore and the Saints coaching staff. After Friday’s practice, Moore reiterated that he viewed New Orleans’ QB competition as a three-man tilt.
“We feel good about letting all these guys go for it,” Moore said, per Matthew Paras of The Advocate.
Rattler has received the most first-team reps thus far, but he hasn’t yet done nearly enough to separate himself from either Shough or Haener. Suddenly, all three of New Orleans’ preseason games are very interesting, as Rattler will need to win the job rather than having it be handed to him.
Kellen Moore Has Early Support in Saints Locker Room
Even with a somewhat unconventional and definitely unexpected approach to finding New Orleans’ starting quarterback, it sounds like Kellen Moore has a great deal of support in the Saints locker room early on.
“I think he’s got a good energy,” veteran running back Alvin Kamara told reporters. “He has a rhyme and a reason to why he does things, he knows what he wants. And I think that’s one of the biggest things in being a player and a coach, just having the confidence to say something or do something and stand on it.”
While Kamara has been in the NFL for nearly a decade, it hasn’t even been a month since Tyler Shough signed his rookie contract. He too has been impressed with Moore’s approach early on.
“He speaks the language, he’s been behind the face mask,” Shough told Shaun Goodwin of The Idaho Statesman. “He knows what’s going on.”
He just doesn’t know if Jake Haener, Spencer Rattler or Tyler Shough will be his starting quarterback yet.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Wait, is Jake Haener Really a Threat to Win Saints QB Competition? appeared first on Heavy Sports.