The Saints had a first-year coach and a rookie quarterback in 2025, and they came out of it thinking they have two of the most important pieces in place.
Although the 6-11 record wasn’t great, the Saints went 5-4 once Tyler Shough stepped in as the starting quarterback, a marked turnaround from their 1-7 start with Spencer Rattler at quarterback. Saints head coach Kellen Moore said on PFT Live that Shough’s rookie season set him up for a successful career.
“It turned into a great journey for him through the entire season,” Moore said.
Moore said that when Shough didn’t beat out Rattler for the starting job at the beginning of the season, he immediately shifted his mindset to doing everything he could on the scout team.
“I’m gonna be the best scout team quarterback in the league. I’m gonna get to test myself, I’m gonna make throws and see if I can make this throw in this situation, do it on the field,” Moore said Shough told him at the time.
Moore said he saw Shough get better over the course of the season, especially with his poise in the pocket and ability to make the right decisions when the play broke down. This year Moore thinks Shough will be better still, thanks to a full offseason, training camp and preseason of working with the No. 1 offense.
“His reps with the core group, he’s not going to be rotating with the rest of the quarterbacks, he’s going to be with the top group and getting a lot of reps with those guys before the start of the season,” Moore said.
If Shough can get better, and Moore can get the rest of the team playing better around him, the Saints may finally return to the playoffs for the first time since Drew Brees was their quarterback and Sean Payton was their head coach.
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