The New Orleans Saints went out on a limb and selected former Oregon, Texas Tech, and Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough with the No. 40 overall pick in the second round of the 2025 National Football League Draft.
Shough is the highest-selected quarterback for the Saints since Archie Manning back in 1972 and now he is trying to win the starting job in a competition with Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener with Derek Carr retiring.
The 25-year-old has a lot of promise and is in a unique position as one of the oldest prospects in the 2025 draft. He has seven years of college football under his belt. That isn't common. It could be looked at as a positive as he was widely considered to be the most pro-ready quarterback in the draft, but he's also going to turn 26 years old in September.
It's hard to project how he will be because there are questions with the competition and he isn't the typical second-round prospect. CBS Sports' Cody Benjamin recently put each quarterback into tiers and had Shough in his sixth tier: "Holdovers and Placeholders."
"Shough isn't a typical rookie given his age and seven-year college run, but he feels more like a starter by default for the overhauled New Orleans Saints," Benjamin said. "The second-rounder, who battled multiple injuries earlier in his NCAA tenure, at least has veteran talent at his disposal, including Alvin Kamara and Chris Olave."
The other quarterbacks in this tier were Russell Wilson of the New York Giants, Bryce Young of the Carolina Panthers, Michael Penix Jr. of the Atlanta Falcons, Joe Flacco of the Cleveland Browns, Anthony Richardson of the Indianapolis Colts, and Justin Fields of the New York Jets.
