New Orleans Saints make statement on Tyler Shough at Thursday’s OTA practice

Despite spending seven years in college and being a 25-year-old rookie, NFL teams had an infatuation with Tyler Shough. It helps that he visually looks the part—Shough is a towering six-foot-five with above-average mobility and impressive arm strength.

He's the kind of athlete who jumps off the screen when watching the film, and his production in his final season at Louisville was enough to shoot him up draft boards.

Shough was the highest-drafted Saints quarterback since the franchise took Archie Manning second overall in 1971.

This unprecedented move from the franchise led plenty of analysts to believe Shough was in the driver's seat to start under center week one, but that might fail to come to fruition after the team made a clear statement during their first public OTAs on Thursday.

According to those in attendance, Spencer Rattler got time with the "ones," as Shough worked with the "twos."

Saints beat writer Mike Triplett noted that after the session, new coach Kellen Moore suggested that Rattler and Shough rotate working with the first group, with even Jake Haener supposed to be in the fold before suffering an oblique strain.

For a team with almost no expectations heading into next season, having a wide-open quarterback competition makes sense.

If the Saints are as bad as advertised, they will be firmly in the mix to take Cade Klubnik or Arch Manning in the next draft cycle.

With most of the OTAs closed to the media, it's impossible to fully know how many reps Shough will get with the starters or how equal of a split he will get.

He'll need time to adapt to the next level, but he's starting from an unfavorable position.