Why Saints benched Spencer Rattler for Tyler Shough in QB decision

A new era starts now in New Orleans.

The Saints have made a quarterback change. Spencer Rattler is on the bench. Tyler Shough is in the football game.

It's Week 8, and the Saints were trailing 17-3 in the third quarter to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the time of the change.

Before he was pulled, Rattler was 15-for-21 for 136 yards with an interception to go with three runs for 12 yards.

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Why did Saints bench Spencer Rattler for Tyler Shough?

New Orleans has officially moved into the next stage of its QB plan.

Rattler has started the first seven games of the season, in which the Saints have gone 1-6.

New Orleans is on its way to another loss, thanks in part to an ugly pick-six thrown by Rattler, and Kellen Moore decided it was time to change things up.

Shough was a second-round pick in April out of Louisville after a lengthy college career. He was in college so long that he backed up Justin Herbert at Oregon.

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Now, Shough is the Saints' QB, at least for now, trying to prove that he deserves a chance to be the Week 1 starter in 2026.

On Sunday, he completed his first pass for six yards.

The Saints will hope there are plenty more completions to come for Shough. All they can do for the rest of this lost season is try to find out if their quarterback of the future is already on the team, and apparently they've decided it's not Rattler.

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