Will Sunday be Spencer Rattler’s last start as Saints quarterback?

Will Sunday be Spencer Rattler’s last start as Saints quarterback?

From Fox 8 Sports, this is the Overtime Podcast. From the Fox 8 studios in New Orleans, this is the Fox 8 Overtime podcast. I’m your host, Sean Fazan, riding shotgun as he does each and every podcast. It’s Andre Johnson. Do not forget the junior. Very important, remember the JR at the end of the name. Before we get into today’s content, be sure to like, to share, to rate, to review. If you are watching us on YouTube, please do us a favor. Hit that subscribe button. get the bell notification. But when we drop that fire content also, hello GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network. Glad you have found us here. Please stay here now that you have found us. Not just us, but a lot of our friends uh and teammates, if you will, are on this station as well. Um before the game, after the Saints game, Pelican starting pretty soon. So, please tell your friends about the GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network. Andre, it is Friday in the city of New Orleans. Um, you know, normally we talk about your haircut, right? I was was letting my hair grow and then my West Bank just just DNA kicks in. I got to go and get my fade and I was I was going to let it grow, but I I let it grow for like a month. Norally get my my hair cut every 3 weeks, but I finally got it done today. I was this close to letting it grow out, but you know, after I get a haircut, I get a burger. Did you get a burger after? I went and got a sandwich after. Yes, I did. Wasn’t a burger, but I did get a sandwich after. So, um, we had a, uh, I end up getting the haircut. I I want to hear the the audience’s thoughts. Maybe should I grow my hair out a little bit? I’m trying to figure out if I should maybe, uh, let it flow a little bit, but, you know, it’s so hard. You know, growing up on the West Bank, we always had fades and um, had to go back to my roots a little bit. So, anyway, that’s just a little neither here nor there, but thought you guys should know. Feel free to leave a comment about it if you want. Um, also, Friday, uh, Saints are packing up, heading to Buffalo. Big game, a game no one expects them to win, let’s be honest. Um, we’re going to talk about that. Uh, but first things first, how you feeling? I’m feeling good. You know, a lot of we’re back to Friday, so we’ve got a lot of high school football going on on tonight. We’ve got college football tomorrow night. And then going into Sunday, the Saints trying to shock the world up in Buffalo as Kell Moore tries to get his first win as a head coach. And maybe even more importantly, Spencer Rattler continues to look for his first win in the NFL. So far he’s 0 and9 as a starter, 0 and 10 in the games he’s played. And Sean, that’s what we got to talk about today. You know, a fan favorite, the Rat Packs King, and right now we’re in a place, I mentioned it earlier, Spencer Rattler has yet to win a game in his career. And the questions are already coming for Kell Moore when it comes to, you know, when might Tyler Shock get an opportunity. So, the big picture today revolves around could Sunday, the game against the Buffalo Bills, be the last game that Spencer Rattler starts in black and gold. Yeah, I wanted to go here today. First off, happy Friday to everyone. Um, I wanted to go here today based I was at Kell Moore’s press conference Wednesday. Um, and it’s not that I didn’t expect Spencer Rather questions, but the way they were framed had started to they were coming like it was a lot of stuff we had been talking about on this podcast. as it just hadn’t really been phrased that way to Kell Moore, at least this quickly. And I and I thought maybe it it it arrived fairly quick in the season, which is part of the part of the dilemma, the conundrum that they find themselves in with the quarterback competition and with the way they decided to go things. You knew this was going to come. Um, we all knew eventually QB questions were going to come up, especially with Spencer Rather just based off the competition and obviously the f the way the first three weeks of the season has gone. Obviously, what’s interesting now is how much, you know, the play is one thing and we’ve we’ve broken down every angle of it, but how much now the winless tag is starting to really pick up. It’s starting to really attach itself to Spencer Rley. I don’t know if people really paid much attention to it last year, but then now that he’s been a starter this year and you still think about last year and you really add it up, it’s like 0 and9 is still 0 and n and it’s not just us locally that’s saying it. I mean, it’s starting to creep up and other Yeah, there was a blurb on ESPN.com about it. You mean cuz it’s it’s it’s not an easy thing to do to go 0 and9 as a starting quarterback. First things first, here’s Kell Moore on how he puts wins and losses QB record into context when he’s evaluating a young quarterback. At the end of the day, we’re all, you know, the win loss is what we’re ultimately graded on. And certainly, you know, coaching and quarterbacks tend to, you know, carry that that record very strongly. And so that’s just the way this thing works. Uh we all get it. I think Spence has done a lot of good. I think uh you know he’s heading in the right direction. I think uh you know there’s a lot of other factors in that game that you know we we got to clean up and put ourselves in better position. And so uh you know it’s frustrating because Spence hasn’t been able to get a win in this league and he earns he’s earned it and he deserves it and he’s done so much good and so uh you know we we got to all rally together, focus on our individual task and we’ll get that thing done uh sooner rather than later. All right, Andre. So that’s that’s Kell Moore to me that that’s a pretty reasonable pretty fair response to the question. Um and he’s right. I mean Rattler does has been working hard and he has at some point you want it to fall in his favor for him to get a win. No one wants to go winless. Like I said it’s very difficult to do in the NFL. But at the same time wins and losses are wins and losses. and two the the two people in any football organization that are judged the most when it comes to wins and losses, the head coach. Yep. And the starting quarterback. That is just that is just reality. That’s not fair. That’s just real. Life ain’t fair. We understand that. Um here’s the deal. We’ve talked a lot about Rattler on this podcast and and Chuck as well and we will continue to do so because it is such a big story and it is such a big part of the 2025 Saints. But the truth is, as the sample size grows from a player and the results remain the exact same, as the sample size grows, at some point, a quarterback being quote unquote not the main reason they lo they’re losing games is simply not good enough to remain the starter for your team. especially when that player, as we have pointed out, is a fifth round pick in his second year and the team has a second round pick sort of waiting in the wings behind him. The question though is when does that point I said at some point? When does that point arrive? Is it this week? Will it be this week after they play the Buffalo Bills? This is one of those spots in the calendar that certainly felt like a transition could take place, right? close out the first month of the season, two home games, two road games, depending on how they view the the Spencer Rattler dynamic. Do they view it as this is start number 10 for him? Do they view it as start number four for him? And look, obviously Tyler Shuck was was Kell Moore’s guy that he decided to pick. The answer to the question obviously is how does he play against Buffalo? How does he play against Buffalo? because if he is significantly worse than he has shown with multiple picks, they don’t score any points, then he makes it easy for everybody. You pull the plug um and you just give Tyler Shuck the final what 13 games in that scenario. That’s easy. But something tells me he’s not going to make it quite that easy, right? Um something tells me it won’t be a clear decision. Something tells me the Saints will have at least a touch of success offensively against the Bills. The Bills are missing some key defenders. The Saints will have all 11 starters. They’ve had 10 of 11 for two games and nine of 11 for for one game. They will have 11 of 11. Trevor Penning should make a season debut and Tali Fuaga is back and he obviously has all the skill position players. So, he should have his full arsenal. And like I said, the Bills are missing a few defenders. So, I can see a scenario where Rattler does another version of what he’s done this season, which is pretty good. Few nice plays, not bad, but clearly not good enough or great enough to win. This is not Joe Burrow from last year where he’s throwing for 350, they’re scoring 40 points, and yet they’re losing games. Or Drew Brees back in 2008 where he’s throwing for 5,000 yards and they’re seven and nine. No, no. This is a guy that’s shown modest improvement from last year to this year, but that improvement has not been enough to offset some of the other factors that come in when you are losing games. If that scenario plays itself out, this is where I want to get to. If that scenario plays itself out way, plays good enough or fine enough or well enough or not bad enough to lose the game. As much as it would annoy me because I’m I’m I’m kind of I would love to see the transition and let’s say they lose 317, I think he would still get at least one more week, if not two more weeks in that scenario. mainly because I haven’t seen the frustration in his play come out in the head coach’s voice when he’s asked. I think the worst he’s ever said was he missed a few opportunities against the San Francisco 49ers. But for the most part, he has spoken so glowingly about Spencer Rler. I don’t know where Tyler Shooks at in his development. But unless it’s a debacle, unless he bombs, I think he gets at least week five and probably week six as well. and we’ll they’ll see where he’s at after week six because um I just haven’t seen the the feeling of, you know, he’s he’s on thin ice sort of feeling uh from the organization about Spencer Rattler. That’s where that’s what it boils down to for me. If it’s more the same for Spencer Rattler, I bet he gets at least one more crack, if not two more cracks as starting quarterback. Yeah, you know, Kell Moore at the start of the season when he named Spencer Rattler the starter did mention that he would have a longer leash. So, I don’t think Buffalo is his last start. I think the Giants next week might be his last start because we all assume he’s going to lose to Buffalo. But with the Giants, that’s a bad team. That’s one of the worst teams in the league. That’s one of the few winless teams along with the Saints left in the NFL. And they just switched to a rookie quarterback in Jackson Dart. Yeah. Who if he doesn’t get his first win this weekend, I believe they play the Chargers. He’s going to come into the dome to play the Saints, a place where a lot of I I remember during draft time a lot of Saints fans we talked about Jackson Dart. We did podcast on Jackson Dart. A lot of people wanted Jackson Dart in New Orleans. So if Jackson Dart comes to New Orleans and beats Spencer Rattler with a team that’s just as bad, if not worse than the New Orleans Saints, at some point you’ve got to look at it and say, “Okay, Spencer Rattler, if he loses against Buffalo, he’s 0 and 10 as a starter. Loses against the Giants, he’s 0 11 as a starter. Is every single loss 100% on him?” Obviously not. No one ever said that it’s not or that it is. But just as everybody shares in the blame, he shares in the blame, too. There are opportunities that he’s had in each and every one of these games to make them competitive or to win them. And he hasn’t. And at the end of the day, the result matters, especially for quarterbacks. Quarterbacks get the most praise when you win. They get the most blame when you lose because that is the one position where you have the most control over who wins and who loses in the NFL. And I talked about this on Monday. Rattler right now 0 and9 as a starter that’s the third most career starts by any player in the last 15 seasons behind only Deshaawn Kaiser and Zack Metenberger the Shan Kaiser started 0 and5 was all 15 of those losses his fault probably not of course not but he started 0 and5 Zack Metenburgger 0 and10 both of those guys were out the league after two years both of those guys Deshan Kaiser a second round pick went 0 and5 and got traded the clock is ticking for Spencer Rattler to win the game because ultimately that is the ultimate, you know, destination that you’re trying to reach in the NFL. And you got to believe a guy in what he’s shown you. And so far from Spencer Rder, what has he shown us? He can’t win. So far, he was blown out in Shawn Peyton’s return to the dome in Denver last year. Blown out by Tampa, multiple turnovers, blown out and benched against the Los Angeles Chargers. He couldn’t close the deal against the Commanders, although that was a game that Jake started and put them in a hole in. That was his best game I thought. Yeah, that was probably his best game last year. Anyway, lost big to the Raiders who stunk. They came in on a with a backup quarterback with a banged up offense with their third string running back. Lost big to the Raiders by 15 points. Lost to Tampa again because he couldn’t close in the second half. Okay. Okay. Different team, injured team, different coaching staff. All the excuses that people want to give them. Okay. Well, he came back this year. Your team’s been mostly healthy. It’s a new coaching staff, a new offensive base coaching staff with Kell Moore at the helm of that. You couldn’t close the deal against the Cardinals. The offense scores 13 points against Arizona. You have the ball driving to tie or win the game. You cannot close the deal. You’re going against a Niners team that’s way more injured than you are in a backup quarterback in M. Jones. Once again, you have the ball 26-21. Two chances to win the game. Go down the field and score. you can’t close the deal. Then you go to Seattle and you get blown out at some point. We’ve seen who Spencer Rattler is. I’m not saying that Tyler Shuck is the answer. I’m not saying Tyler Shuck is the savior, the franchise quarterback, but I’m saying I think at this point we’ve seen enough from Spencer Rattler to say I don’t think he is the franchise quarterback. I don’t know what Tyler Shuck is, but we’re after this week we’re going to have 13 games to figure it out. And I think at this point we’re getting to the point where it’s going to be worth kicking those tires, seeing if Shucks got it because he’s a rookie. You got 13 games and if you have to make a draft pick in April, you want to know, hey, do we need a quarterback or do we have somebody in Tyler Shook? It’s a great point and two two things to follow up. You said um it’s very possible Tyler Shuck is not as good as Spencer Rather. It’s very possible, but we don’t know that yet. Um, and at some point you got to give yourself enough of a sample size for the other guy to to get a clear picture of who you actually have. And one of the issues, one of the riskier things you’re running here, if you if he if Rattler kind of stays in this kind of mid tier, if you will, is I mean at some point uh you have to basically be the guy or you are not the guy and at some point you have to get turn to Shuck because you have to reset the clock once Shuck gets here. So you got to basically you have to start like it’s going to start back at zero with Shuck. So you got to give him the grace period again and then how much after that grace period do you go and and and you start how many more games is that left? So at some point you have to there are a lot of mathematical reasons you have to look to the other guy if the guy you chose to pick chose to start is not getting the job done and I think after this week I don’t think they’re going to win. I think they’ll play okay. I think they’ll be respectable but they lose like 3117 I think gets one more start. But at some point you got to be like all right I got to see what I have in Tyler Shuck. And when you turn to Shuck, you probably roll with him for the rest of the season cuz at that point it’s Shuck or the guy in the clouds classroom as you say all the time. Um, and then you talk about Russell Wilson. You heard the frustration after the game from the head coach Russell Wilson. Okay, that’s why I’m not there yet with Spencer Rler and Kellmore. I haven’t heard that frustration and I don’t know if Kellmore is ever going to express that level of frustration, but you heard that. So that’s just something to keep in mind why I don’t believe this is his last start. I think he’ll at least get one more after this one depending on unless he bombs this one out. So, we’ll see what happens. I know y’all love that topic, but uh we’ll see. Um it’s worth mentioning, too, if let’s say Spencer Radler makes a start against Buffalo, Spencer Radler makes a start against the Giants, if Tyler Shuck were to come in after the Giants game, his next two games would be the Patriots and the Bears. Yeah, those are two winnable games. Winnable games, you know, two winnable games. So, speaking of that, um winnable games. This is not one I don’t think so. It’s going to be a long shot. There’s no doubt about it. But look, any given Sunday, but look, we talked this week in a locker room, there’s a lot of talk about penalties, a lot of talk about, you know, kind of the when you have a game like you played this past week, just how bad it can get. Um, and so we talked about, you know, how what was the mood, the mindset, what has to change because a game like that forces you to really look inward. Um, so you know, and we we went to the locker room and we talked to Justin Reed, uh, who was a respectable leader, comes from a winning culture, just about the vibe, just about the problems, just about fixing things. Um, so have a listen to what he said from our sounds from the locker room segment here because I thought it was interesting the way he put some things in perspective on uh on Sunday. So uh, what what uh what what makes him stand out? Why has he just been playing the ball that he’s been playing just recently? Like what what does he do just so Yeah, Joe Brady’s done so good with him, man. He’s just a he’s just a tremendous athlete and Joe Brady has him just playing very quickly. He doesn’t have to think a lot. He’s getting the ball out and he’s making plays. Um they run a consistent scheme. We have a lot of familiarity with each other. Played them six times in the last three years. Um so I know them pretty well. I’ve been trying to share my notes with all the guys from the past three years on everything that they do. Hopefully they find a couple of quick nuggets out of that that can uh give us a couple edges on some plays that we’re expecting to get. You uh sorry, you uh played against him a lot. Like is he the best quarterback you’ve ever I mean he played maybe one of the greatest just why is he special or where does he maybe rank against the guy? Yeah, I mean what really makes him special is um can he make all the throws? Yes, absolutely. He can make every throw you want to. Um but when things don’t go right, he just finds a way of making something explosive happen. you know, whether it’s scrambling, whether it’s running, whatever it is, like he’ll just um those backyard type plays where a play breaks down, he just starts running around the pocket and you know, the kid is what, 64, 65, 250. So, he’s no easy um guy to break down. And then his be his ability to be creative um on the fly is what separates um the great ones. So, he’s been really good at that. And um the emphasis here has been um one containing him in the pocket um making him play quarterback all game um and then just taking away his uh his number one threats. Yeah, I know you guys are off to this 013 start and and with this locker room. I know there may be a tendency for guys maybe to try to press and maybe do too much in terms of going hey like we got to turn this we you know so like let’s let’s you know whatever but maybe there is that tendency of like doing a little too much. So is that kind of the message? Like is is it kind of hard to fight that physique of trying to stay in the system? It’s a push and pull. It’s a pushing pool cuz you want you want guys to invest more invest more time, film study, whatever it is, right? But at the end of the day, football is the greatest team sport ever. You know what I mean? And it’s it’s the best because you can only do your job if the man next to you does his job. And he can only do his job if you do your job. And if everyone’s doing their job on an elite level, that’s when the defense is tight. That’s when the offense is tight. when execution across the board is tight, right? So, you want guys to be um into it, right? You want them to put in extra time, but at the end of the day, you have to always in professional athletics, you have to take care of your job. You can’t go searching for plays where you get out of your gap, you get out of your responsibilities, and now you create a big hole, right? You take care of your job first and then upon taking care of your job, now you go do extra. Now, you go run the ball down from high behind, see if you can do something special, right? So, um it’s just been about being that message of staying together, staying together as a team. It’s not about I, me, or any any of the other singular um words. It’s about the team and uh executing as a team. How do you feel like that would address the filters this week? How do you feel like that? I mean, just one thing. Yeah. I mean, that’s a that’s a that’s a question, but as far as it’s just, hey, you can’t have it. I mean, there’s certain things in these games it’s like when we’re playing at our best, we have a chance, but if we’re shooting ourselves in the foot, man, it’s like it’s not going to be anything good. So, um, we got to eliminate those and, um, there needs to be a level of accountability to that and like we just got to get it correct. There’s no way around um, there’s no way around it. What can a a win like this like huge underdog 0 and3 start against one of the premier teams in the league if you could get a win there? Does it become like what you’ve been doing is kind of a belief but maybe it becomes a reality if you Yeah, it becomes a turning point. It becomes a turning point. There’s there’s plenty of teams before us um that have had, you know, situations where whatever they’re going through in a season. And I’ve had experiences in my career where you’re going through things and some things maybe on a team isn’t quite right and then you have that one game where you get punched in the mouth and it becomes a you know a calling card, a catalyst, a turning stone, whatever you want to call it that ends up kickstarting the rest of the year, right? So um this is the perfect opportunity for it and the best thing that we’re going to do is put our best foot forward and go play as hard as we can and uh play together and find a way to come out with a win. We hear the word accountability. Sorry, you and I have a 4:30 meeting. We have a 4:30 meeting like special. Uh, no. Yeah. Okay, perfect. Thanks. Yes. Sorry. I mean, are you do you need to leave or we good? No, we’re good. We’re good. Okay. Yeah. But we hear the word accountability a lot. What does that mean in the sense of a lot of mistakes cleaning them up? Like what what what is accountability in that in this? You know, it takes shape it takes shape in in different versions, right? So, um, my role as a player is, you know, to gather guys like I try and inspire confidence, right? Hey, man, we need you. We believe in you. Um, but at the end of the day, you got to get this right, man. It’s professional sports, right? And then you have the coach’s responsibility that is, you know, if they need to at some point make a personnel change to eliminate the mistake and say, “Hey, we just can’t we just can’t tolerate this anymore,” then, you know, that’s their decision to make. Um, but my guy is for the guys who’s out there is to encourage them, have them ready to play, have them play confidently. Um, so I’m just gonna do the best of my role to do that. Justin, I want to ask just real quick. You’re one of the only guys who’ve made that trip to Orchard Park to play the Bills. What do you kind of tell your teammates about the environment they’re about to experience? Oh, it’s so fun. It is so fun. Yeah, the fans are nasty in a good way. Um, you know, they’re going to um the last time I played there, they’re throwing snowballs at us. Um, but it’s it’s such a fun environment to play in. You got people jumping through tables. Um, you know, you have some fans that, you know, those fans, you have some other fans that are just like great fans to be around and great fans. But it’s at the end of the day, it’s a great environment to play in. It’s a ton of fun and I think guys will enjoy it. Sorry. Just a Louisiana question. I know you grew up watching Drew Brees. He’s a nominee now for the uh NFL Hall of Fame. What are your memories watching growing up? I mean, the guy’s first ballot. I mean, I couldn’t believe we stole him from the Chargers. I mean, that was unbelievable. The best mistake they ever made, you know. Um but a guy is just unbelievable. Unbelievable leader, leader of men first of all because you know being a good quarterback is not enough in today’s league. You have to you have to be a leader of men and you have to be inspiring to your teammates that hey everyone in this building believes in me and I know that you know I inspired them to just hey give us one more shot. Give us one more chance. We’re going to do something with it. And he was that guy. So um I remember the Super Bowl in 2009 what that meant to the entire state. Um, and you know, just him just being just being, you know, the guy. You’re a big golfer. Are you watching the Ryder Cup this week or do you not even watch golf on TV? Yeah, I normally do watch golf, but I haven’t been paying attention to it lately. So, look, um, this is an interesting scenario for Justin Reed because that guy’s won a lot in football and high-end organization, obviously the model for all organizations right now in the Kansas City Chiefs. Obviously, he was obviously with the Houston Texans as well. So, I I thought it was interesting the way he was talking about accountability, the way he was talking about, you know, coaches can do certain things when it comes to accountability. players, we have to do things a certain way to make sure we holding guys accountable, but also showing them away the right way to do things. I picked up on a I didn’t I this is not how I’m going out this season type type of vibe. I picked up on a uh I don’t do this, so we’re going to fix this. And I hope that permeates throughout the locker room because it absolutely has to. Definitely, especially with the guys you’ve got in there. You’ve got a Justin Reed who’s won a Super Bowl. You’ve got Cam Jordans and the Mario Davises who have been in this league a long time and are closer to the end than the beginning. If this is how they’re going out, they don’t want it to go like this, you know, on a winless team being talked about as one of the worst teams in the league. So, there’s a lot of urgency in a locker room to turn this thing around. Maybe that potentially leads to a quarterback swap because if these guys, you talk all about, you know, losing a locker room. No, I’m not saying Spencer Rler lost the locker room. I’m not in there. I don’t know. I don’t think he has. I think they still believe in him, but just like we’re saying after a while if you can’t win, we’re not the only ones thinking that, you know, and also shout out to Drew Brees. He mentioned Drew Brees, you know, at the end. Drew Brees, I asked him about it. Yeah. You know, you asked about Drew Brees and he’s obviously nominated for the Hall of Fame. I think we all believe he’ll be a first ballot hall of famer. You know, no question. If he’s not, the city of New Orleans might ride. Yeah, he’s getting in. Next uh next summer is going to be interesting. I’ll probably be out in Canton. uh welcome and breeze in. But I thought he made some good points. Um and you know, you don’t want to go into any game with the expectation of losing and I’m sure they they got their mindset where they need to be, but like you don’t want to be in a locker room where losing becomes contagious, where you almost expect things to go wrong. And they’re not there yet. Obviously, it’s only three games in. But let’s be honest, they’re probably going to be four losses in after this week. Hopefully that’s the turning point and they’re able to to to kind of to to re re reset the energy, I guess you could say, and just um put things put some mojo back to get maybe get a little more of a winning feel. And look, sometimes that that that in of itself necessitates a quarterback change. You just never know. You just never know what’s going to happen. But we’ll see. Uh it should be a fun one. I’m heading out to Buffalo. The temperature 77 degrees on game day. That that is as warm as you’re going to get for a trip to Buffalo cuz apparently they’re really really excited cuz it’s a day game. They have like like seven of their home games are at night or six of their home games are at night. So, they’re very excited. Will you be going through any tables? I will not be. I will try to witness one. Maybe I’ll catch it with my phone or something. Post it. But anyway, we got to get out of here. Andre Johnson Jr., Sean Fazan. We’ll catch you guys next time on Overtime.

Sean Fazende and Andre Johnson Jr break down #Saints QB Spencer Rattler, and whether it’s time to move on from him, or if he still needs more time