{"id":835819,"date":"2026-03-27T00:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T00:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/835819\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T00:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T00:07:12","slug":"houston-gamblers-coach-on-saints-qb-hunter-dekkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/835819\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Gamblers coach on Saints QB Hunter Dekkers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Updated March 26, 2026, 4:50 p.m. CT<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">It&#8217;s only March, but the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/new-orleans-saints\/350\" data-autotag=\"84b23fc0-f769-4d65-9d38-018c62e4efd7\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">New Orleans Saints<\/a> depth chart at quarterback <a href=\"http:\/\/saintswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/saints\/2026\/03\/26\/saints-qb-depth-chart-update-after-signing-zach-wilson\/89335778007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">already looks a lot different from what fans got used to<\/a> last season. <a href=\"http:\/\/saintswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/saints\/2026\/02\/02\/chiefs-sign-saints-qb-jake-haener-patrick-mahomes-nfl-news\/88479143007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Haener left the team for a fresh start<\/a> with the Kansas City Chiefs. Hunter Dekkers chose to try his hand in the UFL, a rebranded merger between the USFL and XFL spring leagues. And former New York Jets <a href=\"http:\/\/saintswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/saints\/2026\/03\/24\/nfl-free-agency-saints-sign-zach-wilson-jets-dolphins-qb-news\/89310402007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">second overall pick Zach Wilson arrived to try and salvage h<\/a>is career behind Tyler Shough and Spencer Rattler.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">So how have things gone for Dekkers? He signed with the Saints as a rookie free agent last year and spent his year on the practice squad, <a href=\"http:\/\/saintswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/saints\/2026\/01\/12\/2026-ufl-draft-houston-gamblers-pick-saints-qb-hunter-dekkers-nfl\/88145979007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">but sought out this opportunity with the UFL&#8217;s Houston Gamblers<\/a> to get real reps and develop his game. Dekkers competed with former Delaware quarterback Nolan Henderson throughout Houston&#8217;s training camp; Henderson was named the starter at the end of it, but he had a leg up on the job after appearing in 10 games with the team from 2024 to 2025. It helps that Houston brought back offensive coordinator Eric Price, who coached him before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">With that said, Henderson&#8217;s yet to find his first win as a starter. Maybe that changes on Saturday when the Gamblers visit the Dallas Renegades at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. Maybe it&#8217;s Dekkers who ends up getting credit for a win. Expect each of them to get on the field.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;Nolan is going to start the game. He&#8217;s our starter. But we had a conversation with Hunter, I mean, he&#8217;s going to play,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/UFLGamblers\/status\/2036573858568782139?s=20\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">Gamblers coach Kevin Sumlin said Tuesday<\/a>. &#8220;But Nolan&#8217;s going to start the game. But I look for both of them to play in the game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">As some fans noted on social media, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Jovan10\/status\/2036578339410874586?s=20\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">it isn&#8217;t spring football if both quarterbacks aren&#8217;t playing<\/a>. That&#8217;s just as true at spring camp in college ball as it is for a startup league trying to carve out a niche for itself. It sounds like there will at least be a package of plays designed for Dekkers just like there were for Taysom Hill in recent years, but he&#8217;ll probably do more passing than catching. It says a lot that the Gamblers brought in another quarterback, Taulia Tagovailia, just days before their season starts. Maybe they&#8217;re adding a third arm in case Dekkers or Henderson misses time with an injury.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:6|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">How do the Saints fit into all this? Dekkers wasn&#8217;t going to threaten Shough or Rattler on top of the depth chart, but the team did have a long-term vision for him as a backup. If he can make the most of his opportunities in Houston and grow as a quarterback, he could end up back in New Orleans for another year. The UFL playoffs end June 13, more than a month before the Saints will start training camp. They&#8217;ll be keeping an eye on his progress. The Gamblers&#8217; season begins at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 28. Their season opener will be broadcast on Fox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated March 26, 2026, 4:50 p.m. CT It&#8217;s only March, but the New Orleans Saints depth chart at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[95878,7,896,55,2572,2571,6,397,15505,96128,95882,97972,115188,96129,95899,96373,95883,104016,99094,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-835819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanssaints","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-saints","16":"tag-sstssportsnflsaints","17":"tag-sstsnsaints","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagjake-haener","20":"tag-tagkevin-sumlin","21":"tag-tagnew-orleans-saints","22":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","23":"tag-tagspencer-rattler","24":"tag-tagsports-news","25":"tag-tagufl","26":"tag-tagzach-wilson","27":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116298229417186033","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835819","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=835819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}