Brees: Tyler Shough’s command and poise stood out in Saints rookie’s breakout performance

Brees: Tyler Shough’s command and poise stood out in Saints rookie’s breakout performance

[Music] It’s our special quarterback to quarterback segment with Drew Brees. And the cinjun cannon is only one problem with that cinjun cannon. Drew, he wanted me to tell you he’s going to miss not talking to you this week, but he got to go see the grandkids in Chicago. Got to go see T-Bob. You know, T-Bob’s there in Chicago now with Bar Stool Sports. So, he told me to tell you, hey, I’m going to miss him, but I got to go see the grandkids. That’s all right. I’ll forgive him just this time. All right. Uh Drew, watching this Sunday and seeing Tyler Shuck, how poised he was. He had a really good day. Uh he threw the football and we all knew about, you know, great size, the arm strength, but it was his processing information, his ability to find the open man downfield. Your thoughts on watching him uh this Sunday with a big win against Carolina? Yeah, look, it was an impressive performance and and he’s one of those guys who’s only going to get better each time, you know, he gets a chance to get on the field. You know, that’s the only problem. The only tough thing about the quarterback position is only one guy can play and and you need the experience um and the repetition just to to develop confidence and and all those things that come with it. So, um you know, nothing replaces experience. So, with each and every snap he gets, the better he’ll get. And I think that’s one of the reasons why he was drafted, you know, and why we liked him so much was, you know, seven years in college, right? Unfortunately, a couple injuries that sidetracked, you know, a couple of those years, but just a ton of experience being around some great coaches and some great systems. And I think that was really the scouting report on him coming out was obviously he’s a big strong athlete. you know, he can make every throw. He can make plays outside the pocket. You know, he’s tough to bring down, but also just um I think his command of of the offense and um his his poise. Um and I I think you saw that on Sunday. Drew, what surprised me, I didn’t see I knew he was a good athlete, but I didn’t see his ability to get away from pressure uh like we saw Sunday. And and one play in particular when you look at that, you know, that that play to Jawan Johnson, that 52 y, okay, they got him, you know, he’s in chase now. Okay, they after you. And he finds him downfield. He was cool under pressure. Pow, that ball comes out of there and Jawan makes the big play and and you get in for the score. that that to me it shows a lot because a lot of times with young quarterbacks they want to run around and they run right into pressure instead of trying to avoid it and on that play man you saw the pocket presence of uh Tyler Shook. Yeah, for sure. And that’s and that’s something especially with young quarterbacks. Um you know it’s uh it it takes typically takes time you know to develop that comfort level in the pocket to stand in there and then also just to know when to abort and be able to you know get outside the pocket and make plays. I think a lot of times young guys kind of abort too soon you know cuz they’re kind of used to making those types of plays in college. But look, I I I think kind of his size and stature um you know, promote itself to just man being able to stand in there, really see it, um stand stand strong and deliver the ball down the field, but also, you know, he’s a good enough athlete that man when things break down, he can get outside and make make plays. One of the things um and talking to Bob about this and it does happen once you get a few games of tape on you how they adjust to you and you got to adjust cuz now they’re going to try to take away the strength of a quarterback and you kind of have to counter punch in that variety. Yeah, you’re look, you’re always trying to dictate the tempo of the game to the defense. Um, and a lot of that’s done with tempo and and that’s how you create rhythm for yourself, but it’s also how you keep a defense off balance. And in most cases, it keeps defenses more vanilla because they just don’t want to get caught out of position. But look, there there’s going to be times where um, hey, they’re going to, you know, they’re going to have a chance to dial something up on you. You know, they’re trying to, you know, kind of move you off your mark, so to speak. You know, defensive defensive lines always talk about occupying that space three to four yards behind the center. you know, that’s the area where quarterbacks typically like to step up, you know, so how do they, you know, kind of get pressure in your face, you know, maybe have you second guessess, you know, your your your vision down the field and again, maybe maybe make you abort too soon. Um, so yeah, that’s the cat and mouse game that you’re always playing, but it’s also why you move the pocket, too. You move the pocket with your nakeds, your bootlegs, your play action, um, your sprint out game, um, your screen game just to, uh, just to keep the defense off balance. One of the things in this game, uh, you you rushed for over 120 yards. It wasn’t a great average, but you continued to run and you know it as well as anybody. That running game is such a great addition when you’re a young quarterback that they got to respect that. And man, Alvin drank from the fountain of youth over the weekend and man, he looked uh on a couple plays like, man, that looked like the Alvin Chimera we had seen earlier in his career. Well, look, you you you bring up a great point. I’m glad you said that. You know, you to me it’s not about the average, you know, per rush. Um because because the reality is when you turn on NFL games is it’s typically two to three yards a rush. And then if you break a big one, that kind of helps your average. But it’s really you kind of just come to expect and embrace the fact that two to three yards is it’s it’s getting you into more favorable third down, you know, situations. It’s possessing the ball. It’s, you know, utilizing the clock. It’s it’s resting your defense, but it’s also just, you know, gradually kind of slowing down the defensive front. So it really does open up opportunities for you in the pass game later on and especially it’s a war of attrition as the game goes on. Those two and three yard runs turn into three and four yard runs and then give you the opportunities to break it open at the end. But I think too for a running back man just getting into a rhythm right of you know carrying the ball consistently or touching the ball consistently I think it just gets them into a better frame of mind and and allows them to be most efficient too. One of the things uh Drew is uh you know everywhere I go now is man do we got something here maybe you know we got something here with Tyler Shook I said okay we might okay we’re a few games away from from that anointment but how well the defense played because you knew going in what you were going to get you were going to get a fistful of Rico Donald in a running game with the Panthers and the Saints were able to shut that down and basically say, “Hey, I don’t think Bryce Young can beat me.” And he couldn’t. Yeah. Look, it was great to see that. You know, it’s it’s it’s it’s what every defense says, “Hey, stop the run.” But it’s much much um you know, easier said than done. But look, I think that that’s and we got some guys on the defensive side of the ball that just that stepped up to that challenge, you know, and I know that was the priority coming into this game. And so that was great to see. And look, if you can make a the opposing offense on one-dimensional, um that’s really what you strive for. The other thing too is uh this is a financial game. Uh no matter what there is a financial part and when the Saints traded Rasheed Shahid away to Seattle, it was telling you if we’re going to play any uh wide receiver, it’s going to be Chris Olafi comes up big in this game. A big 62 yard touchdown, over 100 yards receiving. And um man, uh I’m glad to see it because you think about all the concussion issues he had and what it does for you, not so much physically. We all knew Crystal Lobby could play, but between your ears. Yeah. Look, absolutely. psychologically, you know, I I think anytime you you you trade you you trade a player who I think going into the year, you know, you you especially with with with those two speedsters in Olavi and Shahed, you know, you’re sitting there going, “Okay, these guys blow the top off. You got other guys that can can kind of dominate the intermediate game and then all of a sudden, you know, you just you make a business decision to trade a guy like that.” And it does one of two things. either it, you know, the guys take that as, hey, well, we’re not as good as we were cuz we lost this guy or, hey, it’s time for everybody else to step up and it just means more opportunities for the rest of us and, you know, let’s go, let’s go show them what we’re made of. And and I think that’s what we saw. You know, you saw some young guys really stepping up. Um, obviously, you know, new quarterbacks kind of reestablishing the identity on offense, but then a guy like Olive, who I think, you know, we all we all have high expectations for. You know, we we drafted him in the first round a few years ago to kind of be the guy, right? And so anytime you come off a game like that where you make some big plays, that was really encouraging. Drew, after you had a four-ame losing streak, then you get a win. Okay, you got a little confidence, then bang, you get a by-week. Your thoughts on that to me, man, I you know, as a I would want to continue to play. Uh, okay, we got a got something going here. understand you need to take a little break and everything and that’s why they have the byweeks but to have it after okay you had that long not being able to drink from the water now you got a full glass and now okay you want to play this weekend yeah for sure yeah there’s always that balance you know you don’t want to don’t want to break up your rhythm but at the same time my week was always an opportunity to recharge the battery you know it’s the midway point of the season so probably a good thing for for a lot of the the veteran guys especially you know um a week to get The body’s right. And then make another run at it. [Music]

Legendary Saints QB Drew Brees joins WWL Radio to break down the Saints’ much-needed win over the Panthers and what he saw from Tyler Shough
in a breakout performance for the rookie signal-caller.

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