Saints Head Coach Kellen Moore Praises Backup QB: 'Really Good Player'

How does New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore feel about the Saints’ backup quarterback, Spencer Rattler?

Saints fans got some insight into that on Tuesday as Moore discussed Rattler with reporters during the NFL Annual League Meeting.

“Really good player,” Moore said.

“Tons of tools. … He played in some challenging circumstances, and I think that's an important context as we kind of evaluated it. You wanna make sure he's going through the right process … is he making good decisions? Is he going through his progressions? Is he hanging in the pocket?”

“You saw a lot of those things. Results can be … (dictated by) uncontrolled variables … in his circumstances … we’re excited to continue to build and develop him as he goes through his second offseason … that second offseason for a lot of guys is a huge jump.”

“Your first year, you're just swimming. … It is your first offseason; you go right from your college season to training, draft, (etc.).”

“It's just like, ‘Holy cow, when is thing gonna slow down for me?’ and it doesn't through that whole first year for all these players. And then you get to that second offseason, it's like, ‘Okay, I've had a chance to breathe.’”

“I think there's huge jumps for those guys always.”

Rattler, 24, was selected at No. 150 overall (fifth round) in the 2024 NFL draft by New Orleans.

In a five-year college career that started at Oklahoma (three years) and ended at South Carolina (two years), Rattler tallied a 28-14 record as a starting QB to go along with 10,807 passing yards, 77 passing touchdowns, 32 interceptions, and a 68.5 completing percentage. He also rushed for 410 yards with 16 rushing touchdowns in his college career.

When Moore spoke of the “uncontrolled variables” associated with Rattler’s six starts for the Saints in 2024, it was a polite way of saying that New Orleans around Rattler wasn’t very good.

Rattler went 0-6 as a Saints starter last season with four passing touchdowns, five interceptions, and 1,317 passing yards.

It’ll be interesting to see if New Orleans takes a quarterback in the upcoming 2025 NFL draft, and if so, how that impacts Rattler’s position on the depth chart.

Some have speculated that Rattler would still be higher on the depth chart than any incoming rookie QB not named Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders, or possibly Jaxson Dart.