New Orleans Saints Hidden Gems: 3 Secret Superstars on the 2025 roster

That old football saying, “When you have two starting quarterbacks, you really have NO starting quarterbacks” would seem to apply to the 2025 New Orleans Saints. Bollixed as they were to a greater or lesser degree by Derek Carr’s retirement in May, this franchise that was a paragon of quarterback consistency with Drew Brees for eons has been trying to spackle over the crater left by Brees’ retirement after the 2020 season, with less than stellar results.

Jameis Winston gave way to Andy Dalton, who gave way to Carr in 2023 on a four-year, $150 million contract with $60 million guaranteed. The problem with Carr was that he wasn’t the kind of player who would lift you out of Quarterback Purgatory without a lot of help, and it seemed that help never came. Carr was pretty good in 2023, suffered though the injuries that predicated his NFL end in 2024, and the only good thing about it was that at least the team got half a look at rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler, whose YOLO style from his college days was very much in evidence... in ways both good and bad.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, per se — the Saints got Rattler with the 151st overall pick in the fifth round of the 2024 draft. He did what he was expected to do. The best way to handle the Carr transition would have been to sign another veteran to replace Carr, hope that new head coach and offensive mastermind Kellen Moore could help Rattler fill in the gaps, and see what was in store for 2025 and beyond.

The Saints were unable to do that, so instead, they now have Rattler and 2025 second-round pick Tyler Shough from Louisville as the main men in their quarterback room. If you’re wondering whether Shough can fulfill that level of draft capital... well, you’re not the only one. I’m no Bill Walsh when it comes to quarterbacks, but I had a mid third-round grade on Shough, and while draft position is ultimately meaningless when it comes to NFL success, you’d be right in expecting a lot from a quarterback selected that highly into a situation that is far from certain.

Shough’s issues when throwing outside of structure should be of particular concern.

“I think that’s our big emphasis — we just keep building all summer long,” Moore said in mid-June of Shough and Rattler, and the process therein once minicamps closed down. “Even when they leave here, now it’s on their own time, but they’re still continuing to build, and we just roll right into training camp, and I think that’s the big thing.”

Well, maybe the idea is to get everybody through the season, take a look at who’s available at the top of the 2026 draft, and make the call from there. Perhaps LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier would like to play for dad Doug, the Saints’ offensive coordinator. Or could it be that Arch Manning will fulfill the prophecy by becoming the team’s highest-drafted quarterback since grandfather Archie was the NFL’s second overall pick in 1971?

In any event, for the Saints to crawl out of the 5-12 malaise they had last season, and the lack of postseason appearances since Brees’ retirement, that puts even more on the rest of the roster.

In the continuation of our “Hidden Gems” series, we look at three Saints Secret Superstars who will need to step up as well — one underrated veteran, one underrated (and very recent) free-agent signing, and one underrated draft pick.