While plenty of people were dubious of the upside that New Orleans Saints rookie quarterback Tyler Shough brought to the table after being a second-round pick in April, the job ahead of him didn't seem all that difficult. In the wake of Derek Carr's retirement, all that the college-seasoned Shough had to do was beat out Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener in training camp and the preseason and he could be QB1 in the Big Easy. After two preseason outings, though, Shough has done nothing of the sort.
In Sunday's second preseason game for the Saints, Shough got the start, which came with the ever-familiar preseason give-and-take of playing with the starting offense but also against a higher-level defense. But the rookie didn't acquit himself all that well, much worse than his final stat line might indicate.
Yes, Shough going 9-of-12 for 66 yards with no turnovers certainly isn't a bad thing. At the same time, however, averaging just 5.5 yards per attempt isn't what you want to see, especially in the preseason. But making that worse is the fact that Rattle came in for the second half and looked far better, despite throwing an interception. He finished the game going 18-of-24 with 199 yards and a touchdown to accompany the pick.
And if Kellen Moore was looking for a reason to give Shough the starting job, it's hard to say that the Saints rookie has given the head coach one.
Tyler Shough basically gift-wrapping QB1 job to Spencer Rattler
Again, I'm fully aware that we saw Shough and the Saints offense face off against most of the Jaguars starting defense on Sunday afternoon. At the same time, Rattler didn't have the luxury of lining up with Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed. Again, there's a give and take with this stuff in the preseason.
It's also telling that the Saints offense simply looked coherent when Rattler was on the job, scoring 14 of the team's 17 points in the eventual tie when the incumbent backup led the offense, as opposed to just one field goal when Shough was at the helm.
Admittedly, I was skeptical of Shough coming out of college. His success at Louisville was counter to much of what his injury-riddled career at other stops had looked like, which could easily be explained by playing under an offensive wizard in Jeff Brohm with the Cardinals. However, if the Saints liked him enough to use the 40th overall pick on him, you'd hope to see more than what he's shown in the preseason.
At the end of the day, it's hard to feel confident in many of the Saints' options at quarterback going into the season. Rattler struggled a season ago, Haener has essentially done nothing but struggle in his career, and Shough isn't showing out at all thus far in the preseason. It could be a long year in New Orleans. The hope is that they find something for the future.
That's the sneaky truth, though. Rattler is actually younger than Shough, despite his NFL experience. So if Moore and his staff see the things that I do when it comes to a game like Saturday, then the rookie isn't going to have much of a leg to stand on in the quarterback battle moving forward, because Rattler offers just as much hope for the future at the position as he does.