Spencer Rattler is QB1 - Did the Saints make the right choice?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Everybody, Welcome back to the podcast. Apologies for us being
out for a while. I got sick. That's the short
of it. We'll go to them as detail, but we
do want to talk about Spencer Rattler being named QB one,
whether we think that's a good decision, bad decision, and
different decision. Honestly, just going into that a little bit
of detail. I think y'all have opinions as well, and
then what we'll do from there is, well, you know,
we'll leave the floor open, but welcome. Alias is good

(00:44):
to see man, it's been about a month. Apologies for
being so long, but it is really good to see you.
How are you doing?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Pretty pleasant, man, It's nice to see things that I
thought come to fruition. Yeah, in a timely manner. So yeah,
I'm in a Yeah, I'm good.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
How did you really feel about the the choice?

Speaker 1 (01:08):
I'll be honest, like it's gonna feel like a cop out,
and I promise I'm not trying to say this is
like a cop out answer. I don't feel like there
was a wrong choice for New Orleans. I think the
advantagees of Spencer Rattler, he obviously has more experience in
the NFL, and people are going to debate who are
on like the Shuck side of things, like, oh, well,
that's losing experience. He wasn't very good, and I'll agree
that a lot of his tape last year wasn't good.

(01:29):
At the same time, there is something to be said
about NFL experience. And I'll be honest, I'd be a
huge hypocrite if I came out here screaming for Shuck,
Because what if I said on HUDA Professional for ten years,
I don't like rookie quarterbacks starting week one of the season.
I've said that pretty consistently for a long time. So,
like I think there's an advantage to Shuck not being
the day one guy, there is an advantage experience, And

(01:51):
there are things that I believe Rattler is better at.
He is better in the scramble drill right when things
break down, he needs to go out and make something.
He is better than Shuck at that. He is currently
better than Shuck, maybe not by a lot when it
comes to handling pocket pressure and pocket movement, and that
comes back to a little bit of that experience. Now,
there are things I believe Shuck is better at. Shuck

(02:11):
has way better ball placement based off just us previewing
it here in preseason, and look, that's something that we
talked about. We wanted to see from Rattler. We needed
to see his mechanics improve so that he would have
better instances. And the number one thing that a lot
of players are going or a lot of fans are
going to immediately point to that miss Rashid Shahid pass
here in the preseason. That would have been a touchdown

(02:32):
that was clearly behind him off target, and that comes
back in that whole acc receivers ball placement. Shuck has
the nod there when it comes to pre snap reeds
of defenses. I'll be honest, I was pretty impressed with
some of the adjustments that you saw Shuck make in
terms of identifying the nickel, getting in the buy into
things so that he could get them out of the
way and throw certain passes. I thought Shuck showed a

(02:54):
lot of good things. But at the same time, he's
a rookie. He's definitely on a top end talent coming
in in term he's ready to go right now. I
don't think it's a bad answer to go with Rattler.
What do you think.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
I think smart organizations like the Eagles, the Chiefs, the Packers.
They understand that this is a developmental league. You have
to develop player. Only terrible teams start rookie quarterback because
they're forced to. Shuck is far from a finished product.

(03:31):
He's got tools in the toolbox, but he's not someone
that you're gonna throw in the deep end of the
pool and expect him to swim without him kind of
splashing aimlessly for a while and then you have to
go back in and save him.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Now.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
The biggest issue with Shuck right now, and you can
see it. He still got panic in his game, that
intentional grounding, that old shit moment that he had, that's panic.
Try to sell that to a locker room that can
also see that, and you're saying, hey, we're gonna start
this guy day one and let him figure it out.
Spencer Ratler is not figuring out who he is and

(04:08):
what he can do in the league. He kind of
is who he is at this point, and that has
its own upside. Let's show take some time, or Shuck
take some time. I am convinced that most Saints fans
would grab a bowl of gumbo and eat it with
uncooked rice because they can't wait for it to finish.

(04:32):
Let the kids sit and just develop for a while.
Don't be so famished, don't be so thirsty. Wait for
a minute, because sitting behind and you know, holding a
clipboard is only going to help him. It's not going
to hinder him at all. We have four former quarterbacks

(04:53):
on the coaching staff. If they're gonna be good in anything,
it's gonna be developing quarterback. Give us some time to develop.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
That's one of the things Kellen Moore said is that
it was important for them to develop quarterbacks. And what
he said is the right way. And I think a
part of that is not rushing guys in again. And
when I say not rushing it in, because I'll be
very clear, I am not so into Shuck that I
believe this is all just like, Oh, Rattler's gonna have
six games look terrible and then it's just a guarantee
Shuck has it. If anything, hope Rattler has taken this

(05:23):
entire episode, put a chip on his shoulder and he
truly is going to use it to better himself and
become a better player. Right, So I'd also don't want
to write off Rattler, do I believe Shuck has shown
some better long term traits. Sure, but at the same time,
Rattler is also a guy who at one point was
touted as one of the top quarterbacks in his class,

(05:44):
and he has traits that you can want to develop
and Kellen Moore has to. Now we can argue all
day and long about how neither of them are maybe
the best picks, and everybody wants to tank for Archie
and all this other stuff, but kind of what you
just said, that's what bad teams do. Bad team's tank.
Bad teams are starting rookie quarterbacks just praying they find something.

(06:05):
And that's not what I want to see New Orleans do.
I want to see New Orleans rebuild their offensive line,
make it something consistent, which is what they're doing. I
want to see them slowly trying to find and I
know we hate the idea of slowly, but I want
them to find something that will work and benefit this
team long term. And that doesn't mean that I think
Rattler's coming in week one and surprising everybody. To be honest,

(06:27):
it's very possible we'll talk about this in another episode,
that the Saints start off like zero to four it's
very possible. I think. I think Week one is a
winnable game, even though Vegas Vegas being disrespectful. The line
was negative two and a half I think, and then
when Ratler got announced at the starter, they moved into
six and a half, So a little disrespect from Vegas
right there on Spencer Ratler. But at the same time,

(06:49):
like Arizona is not currently a good team either, right,
So let both of these guys get what is best
for them. I think Rattler, who has had an NFL
offseason and NFL starts the clipboard isn't good for him.
So if you do really want to develop him, his
development at this point comes on the field. Can he
make in game improvements? In game adjustments? Chuck? At this point,
his development comes running the practice squad and getting the

(07:12):
one oh one, which is what Kella Moore was saying,
is that the coaching staff is going to give him
one on one development time during the week. That's how
he progresses. It's the right choice in terms of what's
best for both of their development. Is that the right
choice for what wins the most games? I said on
X that I believe if I just had to pick
who gives me the best chance to win a game,

(07:33):
maybe Shuck. I would probably lean a little bit him there.
But in terms of what's best for New Orleans, this
is I mean, I think it's probably the obvious choice.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
There's two things about Rattler. One, life has a history
of repeating itself, and this situation reminds me of Ratler's
Oklahoma days. He's got a bigger, faster, stronger, more toolsy
quarterback that's just sitting behind him. It's almost like it's
inevitable before he's overtaken. Now, the same thing about life,

(08:05):
as you also get an opportunity to overcome a lot
of obstacles. So there's a chance for Ratler to kind
of stave him off for a while and prove that
he's able to overcome the circumstances. Now, the second thing
about Ratler, and I think it's the difference in why
I think Shuck has the higher upside, is Ratlers see

(08:28):
it throw it quarterback kind of like j Cutler. I
think you can see very clearly that on the other end,
Stuck very much has anticipatory qualities as the quarterback. He
can throw to spots. I think that's something that Ratler
needs to work on along with the ball location where

(08:49):
he does tend to throw it behind him at times.
But I don't think there is a rush to force
the situation because this is a winnable division. It's really
that simple. The team around Ratler. The Saints finish DVOA
about They should have been like a sixteen top sixteen team.

(09:12):
They got lucky and picked ninth or tenth, whatever it was,
but they were technically a better team than they showed.
They got hurt with injuries. They can have a healthier
team around Ratler. They should be able to win more
than five games. I know people are thinking that they can't,
but this is a division where you can beat each

(09:32):
team in the division at least once, and I'd argue
Atlanta and Carolina you can sweep. So as long as
you can win the division, even if it's an eight
and nine record, eight and ten record, you could probably
get the division with an eight and ten record and
make the playoffs. Let him sit to winnable division.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
I'm not willing to go out and give that many wins.
Yet I do agree what you're saying. I think it's fun.
I think that this team could win the division and
have a losing record. I think that can be said
for anybody in this division. And I know a lot
of people are still kind of high on the bucks
with what they have, and I think that's fair if
you are still high on the bucks. I just I
feel like the NFC South is the worst division in

(10:18):
NFL right now, and like I said, it's an opportunity
for both of them. I do want to say one
thing though, like I truly want Spencer Rattler to have success.
I don't want him to fail. And one thing, and
if this doesn't apply to you, don't get offended. And
if you get offended, maybe this is your wake up call.
One thing I've noticed about Saint social media. I'm not

(10:38):
calling out Santaport, X, Reddit, Facebook, anybody directly, because I'll
be honest, I think it's everywhere. One problem I've noticed
is so much of the fan base, now that the
glory days of Drew and Sean are gone, has become
these little clicks of like, you're Rattler, no matter what,
You're shuck, no matter what, guys and gals, it's supposed
to be the floor to Lee. I'm not going to

(11:01):
root for Ratler to suck, just because I thought Shuck's
a slightly better quarterback. We need to get back to
the day as we're rooting for the team, not for
individuals to supersede and have success because that's our guy.
And again, I'm trying to say is lovingly, but it
really sucks to see everybody fighting over what I believe
is kind of silly stuff. Think about what you're doing, guys,

(11:21):
and guys. You're arguing over second and fifth round picks
as if we're arguing, you know, Mahomes versus p Manning
and their primes and stuff. It's not what's happening now.
Can either of these guys develop? Sure, but let me
tell you you're not watching high end quality young quarterback
play this preseason. And if you thought you were, then
you need to take a step back and go look

(11:41):
at what high end quality quarterback play from out of college.
Looks like you've got two very developmental guys, And I
want to getybody back on the same page. Let's stop
fighting over whether Shuck or Ratler are better and start
worrying about can the Saints win games? And what's good
about the Saints? What is going to lead to me successful?
And in the same vein. If you are out there,
say and hey, you believe Tyler Schulte's gonna be the
future of this team. Cool, Please root for Rattler right now,

(12:04):
because I promise you there's plenty of things that Shuck
needs to get better at, including how he anticipates pocket
pressure and how he deals with it. Because you're completely right.
I love how he operates tight window throws, anticipatory throws,
even has better touch passes than the Rattler because Rattler
is in very similar mold to a smaller Taysom Hill,
where that dude wants to throw missiles everywhere, all the time.

(12:26):
Every pass is a heat seeking missile, even if it's
not a very well placed one. He doesn't throw with
a lot of touch on his passes, and then when
he tries, a lot of times will come out high
because as we've said, is his lower body mechanics aren't
that great. But let's get back loving this team for
being the team. Final words, Elias, Yeah, you were nice
about it.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
I think Saints fans of a bunch of low IQ
emotional people that don't think logically, and those are the
people that are flooding with the comments and the narratives
that are incorrectly formulated, and then they passed those narratives
over to other people that actually believe them, and then
you end up with a bunch of people who are

(13:08):
going off of improper narratives and developing an opinion and
then spewing that opinions and other people. Fan base needs
to smart en Nook stop being cry babies.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Fair enough, that was definitely the less nice but still
equally true. We love y'all, who that God bless well
who have a bigger, deeper episode coming soon. But we're back.
It's good to see y'all.