{"id":377703,"date":"2025-09-18T12:54:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/377703\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T12:54:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:54:14","slug":"whats-behind-spencer-rattlers-improvement-his-decisions-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/377703\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s behind Spencer Rattler’s improvement? His decisions. | Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since he named a starting quarterback, New Orleans Saints coach Kellen Moore<\/a> hasn\u2019t received one question about whether he\u2019s considering a switch to a rookie Tyler Shough.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a testament to Spencer Rattler\u2019s play.<\/p>\n

Through two games, Rattler has staved off any talk of a quarterback controversy in part due to his solid start to the season. He\u2019s been quick, decisive and shown noticeable improvement \u2014 none more so than how he\u2019s cut down on turning the ball over.<\/p>\n

As a rookie, Rattler committed 10 turnovers \u2014 five interceptions and five lost fumbles \u2014 in seven games. This year, Rattler has played mostly clean.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust (have) a little bit more experience,\u201d Rattler said. \u201cI love how we coach. We\u2019re very detailed on \u2026. \u2018Hey, if it\u2019s not there, get it down because we\u2019ve got guys like (Alvin Kamara) and other guys (who) if you dump it down at a yard, he\u2019ll get 8. Just keeping things like that in the back of your mind and trying to reset my focus each and every play.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been close calls. In New Orleans\u2019 season opener against the Arizona Cardinals, Rattler was picked off by cornerback Will Johnson before the play was negated because of a defensive penalty. Then, in Sunday\u2019s loss to the San Francisco 49ers, Rattler notably fumbled on fourth-and-2 on New Orleans\u2019 final possession. But on that play, 49ers edge rusher Bryce Huff got around tackle Taliese Fuaga so quickly that Moore remarked the Saints \u201ccouldn\u2019t even get the play started.\u201d Cesar Ruiz also recovered the ball, which is why Rattler wasn\u2019t credited with a turnover.<\/p>\n

Even then, Rattler\u2019s decision-making has been sound. Though he\u2019s fourth in passing attempts, Pro Football Focus only charted three of his 80 passes as turnover-worth throws. That percentage of 3.1% has him near league average among qualified passers, ranked 14th.<\/p>\n

This coming Sunday will be a greater test, however.<\/p>\n

The Seattle Seahawks, New Orleans\u2019 opponent, are second in the NFL with four interceptions. Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald oversees one of the league\u2019s best units, propped up by a ferocious defensive line and a ball-hawking secondary.<\/p>\n

But Moore said Rattler\u2019s ability to avoid turnovers was evident throughout the offseason, adding he won\u2019t overreact even when the quarterback throws an interception at some point.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually, it happens,\u201d Moore said. \u201cBut what he\u2019s done is he\u2019s just done a great job of putting us in a really good position to be successful. He\u2019s making really good decisions, using his feet when he does have those opportune times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of positives there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since he named a starting quarterback, New Orleans Saints coach Kellen Moore hasn\u2019t received one question about whether…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377704,"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-377703","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\/115225406174735252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377703","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=377703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}