Tyler Shough<\/a>, the quarterback the Saints picked in the second round of the NFL draft, that you might be dubious about his age (25) and extensive injury history.<\/p>\nHis advice: Free your mind, and the rest will follow.<\/p>\n
\u201cTyler has been put into a lot of boxes,\u201d Riddick said. “Saints fans need to give him a chance. Once they learn a little bit about him, they’re going to be super, super impressed. This kid\u2019s a damn good quarterback with some serious, serious skills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riddick understands the skeptics. Because he was one, too.<\/p>\n
The veteran ESPN analyst didn\u2019t know much about Shough before the 2024 college football season. Shough wasn\u2019t a household name and had spent six years in college after transferring from previous stops at Oregon and Texas Tech. Riddick\u2019s expectations were understandably low when he was assigned a few Louisville games as an ESPN color analyst last season.<\/p>\n
Riddick and Cardinals head coach Jeff Brohm had a connection as former teammates with the XFL Orlando Rage in 2001. Riddick believes Brohm and his brother, Brian, the Cardinals\u2019 offensive coordinator, are among the best quarterback evaluators and developers in the game. He trusted their opinions. And what he heard from the Brohms and others at practice and during production meetings about Shough leading up to the game opened his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone I talked to about Tyler \u2014 coaches, teammates, people in the football department \u2014 it was just A-pluses across the board,\u201d Riddick said.<\/p>\n
Then Riddick saw Shough play in ACC showdowns against SMU, Miami and Clemson.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was lights-out every time,\u201d Riddick said.<\/p>\n
Ditto Shough\u2019s workouts at the Senior Bowl and the NFL Scouting Combine, where he tested off the charts with a 4.6 time in the 40-yard dash and impressed teams with his maturity and football acumen in interviews.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just one thing after another that really stacked up for me,\u201d Riddick said.<\/p>\n
By the time the NFL draft rolled around, Riddick was captaining the Shough bandwagon. He told anyone who would listen that Shough was the biggest sleeper in the draft, that he would be selected higher than everyone expected. “Remember the name,” Riddick said repeatedly, as ESPN producers played a mashup of his on-air touts about Shough’s prospects.<\/p>\n
Ask Riddick what he likes about Shough, and he launches into an impassioned soliloquy about his prototypical size (6-foot-5, 219 pounds), athleticism and passing skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat’s not to like?” he said. “He has big hands \u2014 almost 10-inch hands \u2014 a 32-inch vertical jump and ran 4.6 at the combine. He has good vision down the field and in the pocket. He understands pro-style concepts and has the intellect and football intelligence to run a lot of different offenses. Jeff gave him a ton of responsibility on the football field (to make checks and get in and out of plays at the line of scrimmage). He produced all of the things Jeff expects him to execute in that offense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riddick didn\u2019t stop there. He was just getting started.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrow for throw, he might be the most talented passer in the draft,\u201d Riddick said. \u201cHe can throw from different arm slots, throw with touch and throw with horsepower. He can layer the ball down the field and throw it deep. And he\u2019s mobile. He has the ability to move outside the pocket and can take off and run with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s important to note Riddick\u2019s credentials. He played in the NFL for six years and was a scout and personnel director with the Philadelphia Eagles. He is so highly regarded multiple NFL teams have interviewed him for their general manager positions. His opinion is an informed one.<\/p>\n
Riddick touted C.J. Stroud and Jayden Daniels in the 2023 and 2024 NFL drafts and was one of the few analysts high on Bo Nix as a first-rounder a year ago.<\/p>\n
In many ways, Riddick believes Shough is fighting some of the same criticisms Nix did a year ago as an older prospect. The Broncos\u2019 first-rounder led Denver to its first playoff appearance in seven years and finished third in the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year voting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are lot of stereotypes attached to this guy (Shough),\u201d Riddick said. \u201cHe\u2019s being unfairly judged by some people who, quite frankly, are using surface-level, amateur evaluation metrics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riddick went down the list:<\/p>\n
Shough\u2019s injury history, which includes two broken collarbones and a fractured fibula in his leg.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis injuries were freak-type injuries, the kind that could happen to any quarterback,\u201d Riddick said. \u201cThis is not some brittle, injury-prone quarterback that is going to crumble to dust the first time he gets hit, and you have a wasted draft pick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Likewise, Riddick believes Shough\u2019s age (25) has been overblown.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s older,\u201d Riddick said. \u201cWho cares? It doesn\u2019t matter. Quarterbacks play into their 30s. He\u2019s going to be a two-contract quarterback in the NFL. If this kid plays a decade in New Orleans, and they\u2019re successful, does anybody give a (expletive) that he started off his NFL career at 25?\u201d<\/p>\n
If anything, Riddick believes Shough\u2019s experience will be an advantage for him and the Saints.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a blueprint for dealing with adversity,\u201d Riddick said. \u201cThis kid has been knocked down. What he\u2019s been through would have broken a lot of people. For him, it didn’t. It hardened and calloused him. The Saints know they\u2019ve got a guy who is going to respond the right way when adversity hits. They already know what he\u2019s made of.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Riddick is as bullish on Shough as any quarterback he’s evaluated, he cautions that he doesn\u2019t know how he will fare as a rookie. The transition to the NFL is difficult for all draft prospects, but it\u2019s especially steep for quarterbacks. Riddick was convinced Trey Lance and Dwayne Haskins would be good NFL quarterbacks, and neither panned out.<\/p>\n
In that regard, Riddick thinks Shough\u2019s maturity will suit him well when the inevitable adversity hits during his rookie NFL season. He also sees him as a perfect match for Kellen Moore, the Saints’ cerebral first-year head coach and former quarterback whose fingerprints, Riddick says, “are all over this pick.”<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really pulling for the guy and interested to see how it plays out,\u201d Riddick said. \u201cI know the kid is super, super determined to prove right the people that supported and believed in him. I think he\u2019s going to surprise the entire NFL.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louis Riddick understands where Saints fans are coming from. He knows you might be skeptical about Tyler Shough,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[7,4095,896,55,2572,2571,6,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-15918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-hardwall","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanssaints","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-saints"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114434102183968596","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}