New Orleans Saints rookie quarterback Tyler Shough even-keeled in wake of Derek Carr retirement

'For me, I was going to come in regardless of him being here or not and try to continue to grow'

May 10, 2025 at 04:46 PM

John DeShazier

Senior Writer

New Orleans Saints players attended 2025 Rookie Minicamp workouts at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center on May 10, 2025.

There were reverberations around the NFL following Derek Carr’s retirement announcement Saturday morning.

Tyler Shough showed no sign of aftershocks.

Carr, the Saints' starting quarterback in 2023-24, retired hours before Shough and the team's draft picks, undrafted free agents, tryout players and a handful of veterans took the field in the third and final day of rookie minicamp practice at New Orleans' indoor practice facility.

Now Shough, the Saints' second-round pick (No. 40 overall) and the franchise's highest-drafted quarterback since Archie Manning was taken No. 2 overall in 1971, officially will be competing for the starting position with Spencer Rattler, who's entering his second year, and Jake Haener, who will be in his third.

And for Shough, the first steps to readying for the competition came during rookie minicamp.

"I think for me it's just going through the same process for minicamp, trying to learn the playbook and get to know my teammates as much as I can and do everything I can to continue to get better," he said.

"(Coach) Kellen (Moore) told me this morning (about Carr's retirement) and that was the extent of it, and we went out to practice and had a lot of fun."

Shough entered college in 2018, exited as the third quarterback selected in the 2025 draft and now has one less player to outperform in order to become the second rookie to start for the Saints in the last two seasons (Rattler started six games in '24).

"That's all you can ask for is an opportunity, at any position," he said. "And I'm going to treat it the same way, as if whoever is on the roster, I've got to continue to grow and get better and do my best to elevate the QB room and the team.

"For me, I was going to come in regardless of him being here or not and try and continue to grow. I think he's been such a high-level player for so long, I think it would be a great opportunity to learn from him. It's also a great opportunity to grow myself and be on this team with a lot of great coaches and guys on the team that we have already. I'm just excited for what's forward and the rest of our offseason."

New Orleans didn't enter the offseason with a mandate to draft a quarterback, but the notion intensified when the team learned of Carr's condition in March. He experienced pain in his right shoulder while throwing with significant volume for the first time since being injured Dec. 8; medical scans showed a labral tear and significant degenerative changes to his rotator cuff.

"As you went through the draft process, we felt like adding a quarterback to that room would have been very valuable under all circumstances," Moore said. "As Derek's injury became something, there's a little bit more awareness to it but we were navigating it originally with that plan of if someone fell into a situation and if the board fell and that player presented itself, we'd be ready to take a quarterback in a number of situations. We felt like it played out pretty well for us."

As for the quarterback competition, Moore said the three will split reps until one emerges.

"A lot of times in the offseason program you're kind of focused on building one guy up for the regular season and the young guys battle and see where those positions lie," he said. "We'll rotate all these guys, we'll give them all opportunities.

"I think this whole process, we'll be very patient with it and make sure all these guys get the chances to compete at a really high level."

Shough had a good showing in his first exposure to the Saints' offense.

"Tyler hopped in here and did an excellent job," Moore said. "For all these guys, a lot of times in rookie minicamp I'm not as concerned about the physical component – we've probably evaluated that, we see it on the field a little bit – but just how they're prepared mentally. I thought he's done an excellent job.

"For these quarterbacks a lot of times really what you care about is how they command the huddle, command the whole operation when they come in here. It's a new system, it's new language, all those things associated with it. He hopped in here and really did an excellent job just taking control of it."

Photos: Saints Rookie Minicamp 2025 | Day 2 Practice