Will The New Orleans Saints Have To Switch Quarterbacks Soon?

The New Orleans Saints are 0-2 at the start of the 2025 NFL season. Their schedule isn't getting easier this week, as they make a cross-country trip to play the Seattle Seahawks.

While the whole Saints team may be winless in these two games, their current starting quarterback Spencer Rattler is on a longer winless streak. Rattler has started 8 games over his first two NFL seasons, and he remains 0-8 for his starts.

What Are The Saints Other Quarterback Options?

The Saints took a draft pick older than their 2nd year quarterback Rattler, when they selected Tyler Shough in the second round of the NFL Draft.

Shough is 25-years-old, and oddly shares the same birthday as Rattler, on September 28th. Shough was born in 1999, and Rattler in 2000...so Shough is exactly one year older than the QB ahead of him on the depth chart.

The Saints used their highest draft pick on a quarterback since Archie Manning on a quarterback who is already behind schedule as soon as he walked in. While teams often try to sit a rookie quarterback to learn behind a veteran, that rookie is normally much younger than veteran helping to train them.

Why Isn't Tyler Shough Starting?

While the Saints are 0-2, and Rattler is 0-8, it's hard to say that Rattler hasn't been playing better. In fact, Rattler has played well enough over the first two games this year to push Shough questions to the side.

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For Rattler's season so far, he has thrown for 421 yards over his two starts, while rushing for 43 yards. He's thrown for 3 touchdowns, and maybe most importantly...no interceptions.

While Rattler hasn't won games for the Saints this year, he also hasn't lost them.

The investment in Shough isn't enough to force him into the starting role alone. During training camp, Rattler outplayed Shough on a daily basis according to reporters observing practice. If Shough isn't better than Rattler, it doesn't make any sense to force him into that role.

Once Shough appears to be playing better than Rattler in practice, he will likely get his first NFL start.

Will Shough Save The Saints Season?

Even when Shough does take the starting job, there's no guarantee that the team will play better. There's no guarantee Shough will throw for more yards, or more touchdowns than Rattler. So no, it doesn't mean that the Saints will instantly be better when-and-if Shough becomes the starter.

But that's not why you would start him.

At some point, you have to put Shough into action to see what you have. The franchise invested more draft capital into Shough than any quarterback in decades. So they have to find out if they hit, or missed.

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If Shough was a miss, they need to start planning for a trade, free agent signing, or draft another quarterback.