NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Take One: Rattler in the lead
Through eight practices under Kellen Moore it’s pretty clear that Spencer Rattler is in the early lead for starting quarterback. He looks the most confident and comfortable executing the new scheme. He’s also received the most amount of reps of any quarterback during that stretch.
Overall, Rattler has played with good timing and rhythm and been decisive in his reads. He even had a day where didn’t throw an incompletion. Some of his top plays included a deep shot to Mason Tipton for a score and a bootleg touchdown throw to Rashid Shaheed where he dropped it in perfectly.
While he has looked the most competent of all the quarterbacks, he has not had a perfect camp to date. He leads all quarterbacks with three interceptions and has had moments of sluggish play in the red zone.
All of this is to be expected at this stage of camp. Regardless, he’s taken the early lead in the quarterback competition.
Take Two: Shough finding his footing
It’s been interesting to watch Tyler Shough’s first few practices as a pro. Early on, he’s battled indecision and hesitancy. Far too many snaps resulted in him pulling back on throws that were open and not getting a quality play off.
Some have said he’s played it too safe, I believe though it’s more of a sign of things moving too fast for him and not quite seeing the picture on a play. Thus, he’s unsure of himself.
However, there may have been a breakthrough in practice eight indoors. The results were certainly not perfect, but his process was much improved. For the first time all camp, he cut it loose. He found Mason Tipton for a touchdown, Kevin Austin for a big play on a wheel route and drew a pass interference penalty on a deep ball to Chris Olave. It also resulted in his first two interceptions of camp. One was a tipped pass; the other was a bad pass with him throwing off his back foot.
It was the first practice of camp where it felt like we were evaluating the same things from each quarterback. Instead of Shough clearly struggling with the speed of the NFL. Hopefully, his effort Thursday was a sign of things slowing down, and he can make up some ground in the competition.
Take Three: Haener hanging tough
Jake Haener remains in the battle. He’s received first team reps in two of the practices thus far. Haener has had great moments in practice.
On Thursday, Haener came on late and closed things out practice with a gutsy two-minute drill where he found Tipton in the end zone for a score. It was a great finish for Haener.
Normally moments like that would yield more praise from the media. However, in Haener’s case this feels like history repeating where he can take over in practice but is unable to take that momentum into a game.
He feels like a long shot, but his best path to the top spot may just be a great preseason.
Take Four: Rep rotation
Overall, the flow of this training camp has been outstanding. Kellen Moore’s operation has been extremely fast and efficient. If there is one small criticism, however, it’s been the rep distribution among the quarterbacks.
While the reps with the first team have been pretty evenly distributed amongst the three each day, the reps behind the first team have not been.
Rattler has yet to take third team reps, while Shough has spent time with the first, second and third teams. Haener has been only with the threes when he’s not with the first team.
In Shough’s case, this has resulted in multiple practices with a drastic reduction in snaps. For instance, unlike Haener, when Shough was with the third team Wednesday, he didn’t get a chance to do a 2-minute drill.
These practice reps are so valuable, and the Saints have a lot invested in Shough. The rookie second round pick needs as many as possible especially since he’s locked into a competition to be the starter. With the walkthrough included, Shough has now had three practices where he basically received little to no snaps.
Moore has been very calculated and intentional this entire camp, so there’s no doubt a reason behind this. It’ll be interesting to see how the reps gets divided up in future practices.
Take Five: Other Observations
Rattler’s three interceptions have all looked the same. In each one, he underthrew a pass near or in the end zone. This has been the most emphasis a coaching staff has placed on the quarterback run game in any Saints training camp I’ve covered. That includes the 2021 camp with Taysom Hill. Rattler and Shough have shown they have some wheels. While there certainly has been frustration watching Shough, it should be noted that a rookie still working through the speed of the NFL in his first eight practices in the league is pretty normal.Regardless of who is playing quarterback, the ball seems to find Mason Tipton a lot for big plays this camp.
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