{"id":239275,"date":"2025-07-27T03:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T03:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/239275\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T03:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T03:42:11","slug":"how-do-saints-qbs-handle-the-mental-side-of-a-camp-battle-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/239275\/","title":{"rendered":"How do Saints QBs handle the mental side of a camp battle? | Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late in Thursday\u2019s practice during a red zone period, Spencer Rattler<\/a> rolled to his right, saw nothing there and decided to heave the ball out of the back of the end zone.<\/p>\n

The problem is the ball didn\u2019t get there.<\/p>\n

\u201cGotta put more on it,\u201d Rattler said. \u201cJust missed it. Bad decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ball hung up and stayed inbounds, allowing New Orleans Saints<\/a> rookie corner Quincy Riley to pluck it out of the air for an interception. It was a notable lowlight that landed in reporters’ notebooks and made the rounds on social media.<\/p>\n

And then, on the very next snap, Rattler saw the defense parting in front of him and scrambled through the gap for a touchdown.<\/p>\n

As the Saints let a three-man race play out for the starting quarterback job<\/a>, the players competing for the spot are focusing on doing exactly what Rattler did in that moment: Not letting one bad snap turn into several bad snaps.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re playing a high-stakes game where mistakes can feel magnified. That requires mental focus and the ability to not only flush a poor moment, but correct it in the aftermath.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always about how you respond to adversity,\u201d said coach Kellen Moore. \u201cGuys are going to make mistakes, Spencer threw an interception today in a red zone period, which he\u2019d done so many good things down there. Those moments change games, so he gets to evaluate it and learn from it, and I thought he responded really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rattler, Tyler Shough and Jake Haener have all been in these spots plenty of times before. All of them were involved in competitions while in college, and Rattler and Haener spent all of last training camp duking it out to be Derek Carr\u2019s primary backup on game day.<\/p>\n

Those experiences have helped form their mental approach as they go into this training camp vying for QB1 status.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing you can tell yourself is these competitions aren\u2019t won with one rep,\u201d Haener said. \u201c\u2026 Number 1, it\u2019s a long camp, and number 2, I\u2019ve just got to do everything I can to focus on what I can control.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past, Haener has worked with mental coach Brett Sandwick, whose clients also include U.S. military special forces. And for Haener, that means dialing in his mindset \u2014 how will he respond when things don\u2019t go his way? And how will he respond when things are going well?<\/p>\n

At least from the outside looking in, Haener appears to have the longest odds of winning the battle. After struggling in his lone starting opportunity last season, he then missed almost all of the summer program because of an oblique injury. He will also be the last of the three to get a crack at operating the first-team offense.<\/p>\n

But Haener uses all of that to fuel the mental side of his approach. He said he\u2019s always considered himself an underdog, and while he doesn\u2019t necessarily seek out evidence of people doubting him, he will add it to the fire when he sees it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always got a chip on my shoulder,\u201d Haener said. \u201cI want my teammates to feel my energy and my passion in my command of the huddle, because when those things happen we tend to be more crisp, more upbeat, and when those things happen we execute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Haener, Shough is doing his best to remind himself not to place any added significance on one play \u2014 good or bad, by either himself or someone he\u2019s competing against.<\/p>\n

Practices, he said, are scripted by scenario. It\u2019s not quite like the regular flow of a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo a lot of times, a throwaway or not taking a sack \u2026 are sometimes good plays,\u201d Shough said. \u201cThey may not look good in comparison to if I have a good throw or if Spencer has a good throw or if Jake has a good throw. I just try to go out and win that rep; that\u2019s the whole goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in a bunch of different competitions, so human nature is, \u2018Oh this guy threw it deep, I want to throw it deep.\u2019 But the biggest thing that Coach is looking for and what I want to do is execute it to the best of my ability, and then the good things will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late in Thursday\u2019s practice during a red zone period, Spencer Rattler rolled to his right, saw nothing there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239276,"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-239275","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\/114923133080260038","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239275","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=239275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}