Rattler, Shough, Haener continue clash for QB1 in Day 2 of 2025 Saints training camp

METAIRIE, La. (WLOX) - The average age of a starting quarterback in the NFL last season was nearly 29 years old.

Entering the 2025 season, the oldest quarterback on the New Orleans Saints roster is just 26.

Early on, 24-year-old signal caller Spencer Rattler appears to be the leader in the clubhouse to start Week 1 as he battles for first-team reps with Tyler Shough and Jake Haener.

“I think it’s similar to any competition, you know?” Rattler described. “I feel good coming into this, felt good coming into OTAs, mini camp, and I feel good right now. Obviously, there’s a lot of stuff to clean up, but everybody looks good... I’m loving our QB room. I think it’s been great. We love building with each other, and then we go out there and compete, so I think it’s great for all of us.”

“These competitions aren’t won with one rep,” said Haener. “Just like I told those guys out there, number one: it’s a long camp. Number two: I’ve just got to do everything I can to focus on what I can control.”

“It’s been awesome,” stated Shough. “I think the best thing is that we’re all kind of around the same age. I feel like we all kind of have a really unique experience, you know? Yeah, I’m a rookie, but I’ve also seen some stuff in college. Jake’s seen a lot of stuff in the NFL and had to battle through some stuff. So has Spencer. I think we kind of have that great mindset of we’re competing, but we’re having fun and we’re trying to get better.”

There’s a good chance the Saints don’t have a long-term solution for the quarterback position on their current roster, but they certainly are going to do their due diligence to find out. Rest assured, the Saints have a coaching staff full of former quarterbacks who know what it takes to thrive in the NFL.

“I think at the end of the day, they’re going to be able to give us a lot of insight and a lot of things on, you know, ‘Hey, we see it this way; you might want to see it through this lens,’” added Haener. “I think those are all perspectives that can be beneficial to young quarterbacks.”

“These guys all played the position, have coached a lot of good quarterbacks themselves, and if we’ve got questions, we can ask them, and they’ve been a great help so far,” noted Rattler.

“I think Scott [Tolzien] does a really good job of making it understandable in the language that we’re speaking in the offense because he’s been in it before,” explained Shough. “Kellen [Moore] is really impressive as far as he’s not really worried about certain gameplan-specific plays that maybe or may not come up... Then Coach [Doug] Nussmeier, he’s seen it all as well, just from being a quarterback coach so long, being at all different levels, so I really enjoy just being in the room with him.”

Entering his third season, Jake Haener, the oldest guy in the QB room, has approached the season with immense confidence. Having been under scrutiny throughout his time in New Orleans. Haener is blocking out the noise and focusing on the task at hand.

“It’s hard,” Haener said. “It’s not easy, and I think in a day and age where distraction is everywhere, you’ve got to do such a good job of being able to limit this, putting this down, not going to Twitter, not going on Instagram... I can’t go on my phone without seeing Saints notifications, you know what I mean? My biggest thing is when I’m here at the facility, I text my close friends and family, let them know how practice was, and I am so focused on the next thing. It’s just living in the moment. I know it sounds cliche, but if I can just be super prepared at what I’m doing next, I give myself the best chance to take advantage of that.”

Undrafted rookie quarterback Hunter Dekkers has been very limited throughout his participation in the first two days of camp. It appears that Rattler, Haener, and Shough will battle it out to be the Week 1 starter for the New Orleans Saints.