{"id":273172,"date":"2025-08-09T02:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T02:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/273172\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T02:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T02:25:09","slug":"tyler-shough-coming-on-strong-in-saints-qb-competition-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/273172\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyler Shough coming on strong in Saints QB competition | Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

IRVINE, Calif. \u2014 Spencer Rattler will start Sunday\u2019s preseason opener<\/a> against the Los Angeles Chargers.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t count out Tyler Shough in the New Orleans Saints\u2019 quarterback competition just yet.<\/p>\n

Friday easily marked Shough\u2019s best training camp practice of the summer as he looked confident, decisive and overall faster. It was the latest sign of growth for the second-round draft pick, who has seemed to turn a corner after starting particularly slow over his first few practices.<\/p>\n

Shough\u2019s learning curve was perhaps to be expected, but the Saints still needed to see progress from the 25-year-old. That has happened in droves lately. It started last Sunday when Shough began the Saints\u2019 first scrimmage 8-of-8 before cooling off. But on Friday, in New Orleans\u2019 second scrimmage, Shough hardly suffered a drop-off. He was aggressive \u2014 but more importantly, consistent.<\/p>\n

At his best, Shough\u2019s ball placement is the trait that arguably separates him from the other quarterbacks on the roster. And that was on full display in Friday\u2019s practice. He hit Bub Means in a tight window on a play-action pass that was right on the money. Later, on third down, Shough rolled to his right, scanned the field and found Dante Pettis for 30 yards while withstanding pressure right in his face.<\/p>\n

His most impressive throw, however, came inside the 10-yard line when he jumped to lob a pass right to Kevin Austin for a touchdown. On that play \u2014 another third down \u2014 Shough leapt so that he could still get the ball off with linebacker Pete Werner crashing in. Shough\u2019s score also came against the first-team defense \u2014 even though he spent the afternoon with the 2\u2019s.<\/p>\n

That level of instinct had typically been reserved for Rattler this camp. But Shough has made those kinds of plays of late, and you can see his confidence starting to grow.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how apparent Shough\u2019s confidence was in New Orleans\u2019 66-play scrimmage: After he fooled the entire defense on a keeper, Shough went running on the baseline of the end zone to high-five a small group of kids watching in the family and friends section.<\/p>\n

Coach Kellen Moore seemed impressed with Shough\u2019s decision to keep the ball for the score, too. He told reporters after practice that 95% of the time that play is supposed to go to the running back, but Shough made an instinctive call to end up with points.<\/p>\n

With all that said, let\u2019s take a look at the numbers during Friday\u2019s session:<\/p>\n

Rattler: 12-16 (92-134 overall)<\/p>\n

Shough: 10-14 (84-134)<\/p>\n

Haener: 3-8 (71-105)<\/p>\n

Did Shough close the gap on Rattler for the starting job? As good a day as Shough had, that\u2019s hard to say. After all, Rattler was almost equally sharp. He displayed an impressive chemistry with Rashid Shaheed, who filled in as the team\u2019s No. 1 receiver with Chris Olave nursing an ankle injury.<\/p>\n

Rattler thrived on deep play-action throws, such as when he found Shaheed for a 30-yard touchdown. On that score, Rattler quickly identified that Shaheed was in a mismatch and let it rip. Rattler has displayed a consistent level of decisiveness throughout camp, and that may ultimately be the reason he wins the starting job.<\/p>\n

But for the Saints, it was important for Shough to be decisive as well. And that\u2019s happened more and more lately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IRVINE, Calif. \u2014 Spencer Rattler will start Sunday\u2019s preseason opener against the Los Angeles Chargers. But don\u2019t count…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273173,"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-273172","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\/114996440198119263","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273172","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=273172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}