Zach Wilson chuckled when he asked whether he already knew his new New Orleans Saints teammate, Tyler Shough.
“Funny enough, we were actually in the same Elite 11 class in high school,” Wilson said.
Wilson, who is about to enter his sixth NFL season, was a three-star recruit in the 2018 class. Shough, who just finished his rookie campaign, was a four-star recruit in the same class.
“He probably doesn’t remember me even being there, but he was the (four) star, all the offers from everybody,” Wilson said. “And I was just like a three-star quarterback with just a few Mountain West offers and a couple Pac-12 offers back then. And then we both went our separate ways.”
Their separate ways were quite different, but they both led to New Orleans for the 2026 season.
Shough endured much hardship in his college career, suffering several season-ending injuries as he attended three schools in seven seasons before the Saints selected him 40th overall last year. Wilson starred at BYU and left after three seasons when the New York Jets took him second overall in the 2021 draft.
But Wilson never met the lofty expectations that came with his draft status. He lost 21 of 33 games as the Jets starter, and now he finds himself on his fourth NFL franchise, still seeking the best version of himself as a professional quarterback.
That is part of why he decided to call New Orleans home.
Wilson said there were a couple of teams he was looking at during free agency. He acknowledged the Saints were in the midst of a rebuild, which comes with some good and bad, but the organization checked a lot of the boxes he was looking for in free agency.
“I just picked based off priorities, like finding (a coach) that had played the position, an offense that I feel comfortable with, that I could go on and play well, a great fan base, great culture, great place to live,” Wilson said. “That stuff was maybe more important to me than some of the other things you look at in the process of free agency.”
A big part of that was finding somewhere he could develop. Wilson progressed little during his difficult three years with the Jets, with his passer rating topping out at 77.2. They traded him to the Denver Broncos in 2024, but he did not see the field. In Miami last season, he played only 26 snaps.
He saw a staff in New Orleans that coaxed solid play out of two young quarterbacks last year in Shough and Spencer Rattler — a staff that includes three former NFL quarterbacks at its highest ranks in head coach Kellen Moore, offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier and quarterbacks coach Scott Tolzien.
“That was kind of part of the thought process,” Wilson said. “Where can I go that’s gonna help me be the best player I can be?”
Wilson said he learned plenty from his experience in New York. It was a difficult time, but he believes there was a reason he went through it. He is now better equipped to handle the burden of expectations, even if those have changed at this stage of his career. He said he has learned how to not only be in the moment but also to be grateful for it.
That means accepting whatever role the Saints have in mind for him, which could include being way down in the pecking order.
Shough is firmly entrenched as the starter, and Rattler played well enough in eight starts last season that Chris Olave said after the season he deserves to get another chance to start somewhere in his career.
“Do everything I can to learn and study and do the best I can,” Wilson said. “And if I get an opportunity to play at any point, whether that’s preseason or season or practice — it doesn’t matter — just go out there, do my best and just try and help the team.”