Who will be the New Orleans Saints’ starting quarterback when the team takes the field to face off against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 9?
For the first time all season, this is a real question that doesn’t have a clear answer. This still is the case after Saints head coach Kellen Moore was asked about the position on Monday, as seen in a clip shared to social media by NewOrleans.Football.
“Starting with the QB, no,” Moore said when asked if there is a decision yet on who will start against the Los Angeles Rams. “We just got done closing the book on this Tampa Bay game. We will now begin really starting here soon our plan of action for LA. We’ll make a decision shortly and just go down that path so we can maximize as many reps as we can moving forward…I think that for the individual game with Tampa, we just needed a spark. We weren’t playing well on offense and that had more to do with our entire offense than Spencer.
The Saints are at a cross roads after Week 8
“Spencer has had some turnover bugs over the last two weeks. He’s played plenty of good football to put ourselves in positions. I was trying to generate a spark. Trying to generate something to get us going collectively. I thought Tyler went in there and battled. I thought for, he really hasn’t taken reps with the No. 1s at all the last month and a half, so he got in there and he operated and did some good things. We’ll make a decision here shortly and allow ourselves to move forward with that plan.”
This arguably is the most difficult decision the Saints have had to make in a season that has been difficult, to say the season. New Orleans has an NFC-worst 1-7 record right now. But, do you make the change now at quarterback? Is Tyler Shough ready to go? Have the Saints seen enough from Spencer Rattler to keep him in despite the turnovers of the last two weeks?
Whatever decision the Saints make, they won’t have the luxury of going back on it. So, if they are going to make a change to the rookie, they have to know he’s ready to roll or it’s going to make things even worse.
Rattler has been the starter all season to this point and started on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but was pulled for rookie Shough. Before being benched, Rattler was 15-of-21 passing for 136 yards, one interception, and one fumble. Shough went 17-of-30 passing for 128 yards and an interception in place of Rattler.
New Orleans will face the Rams on Nov. 2nd and right now it’s still unclear who will start, but we should get an answer fairly quickly as the team tries to prepare to avoid a 1-8 start to the campaign.
