The University of Louisville may well have been "Last Chance U" for Tyler Shough.

His door likely wasn't being kicked in with clamor for his services when, in December 2023, the then 24-year-old quarterback announced his transfer to Louisville, after he'd already taken snaps at Oregon (2018-20) and Texas Tech (2021-23) and experienced enough valleys (beaten out for the starting job a couple of times, broken collarbone in '21, injury-riddled '22, broken fibula in '23) to last a football lifetime.

Shough wasn't even sure where the road would lead and was prepared for a dead end if that's where opportunity led. But what he was sure of was that he was going to empty his tank on the drive.

"My whole thing (going to Louisville) was, 'It's probably not going to work out but I'm going to give it everything I can and if it does, great and if it doesn't, I'm going to be fine and I'm going to make the most of it,'" Shough said.

Consider the most made.

Shough's one season at Louisville – where he completed 244 of 389 passes for 3,195 yards and 23 touchdowns, with six interceptions in 12 games – helped catapult him into the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft, where the New Orleans Saints and first-year head coach Kellen Moore selected him No. 40 overall.

"Kellen Moore has shown that he can work with any quarterback and that he takes the parts of his scheme and his playbook that fit the quarterback," said Greg Cosell, an NFL analyst and senior producer at NFL Films. "(Shough) definitely looks the part of an NFL quarterback. I thought he was a higher-level prospect based on his college tape. I said his tape was the second-best in my view of any of the quarterbacks coming out. Now you have to fit him into a scheme.

"I don't see a problem at all with Kellen Moore; he can do whatever his talent demands. This guy has all the traits and physical attributes to be a starting NFL quarterback. At his core he's a pocket passer, but he has enough mobility and athleticism to get outside the pocket, he can make throws on the move. For people who've seen his highlights, they've seen him make throws off platform. I really liked his tape a lot and I think he has a chance to be a really good player."

His draft position suggests New Orleans agrees. Shough is the Saints' highest-drafted quarterback since Archie Manning was selected No. 2 overall in 1971.

"My thing is I've always been confident in myself and that's my whole goal going into the NFL, is just to have fun with it," Shough said. "You've got to be prepared, you've got to go make every moment count but a lot of this stuff is in God's hands, it's out of your control, so you might as well just have fun."

That outlook helped Shough not only lead Louisville to an 8-4 record but also to climb the draft board and out of the shadows to become the third quarterback selected in the draft, behind Cam Ward (No. 1, to Tennessee) and Jaxon Dart (25, to the Giants).

"He wasn't the most highly recruited transfer quarterback by any means, but we liked what we saw," Louisville Coach Jeff Brohm said. "He had some question marks that people had on him. We researched him, we felt like we knew what we were getting but you didn't know for sure until you got him there.

"So, we got him here and right away he was an extremely hard worker, gave great effort, he was a good leader, he worked really hard and he was a good quarterback. And I just think that it wasn't too much longer after we saw him throw on the field and got to see him in a few practices that we felt we had a really good quarterback on our hands, and we felt as long as he continued to progress he could have a very successful year."

Attribute much of the success at Louisville to Shough's rocky path to the Cardinals.

Before joining Louisville, he'd started 20 of 30 games in six seasons and completed 355 of 562 passes for 4,625 yards and 36 touchdowns, with 17 interceptions. He'd had to heal physically from broken bones and mentally from being replaced in the lineup. He grew and matured into a calm leader who wasn't easily shaken, if he was shaken at all.

"We actually liked the fact that he had experience," Brohm said. "We liked the fact that he had adversity and handled it pretty good. He'd been a starter, he'd been benched, he'd been a starter, he'd been benched, he got injured, he got knocked out of games – and we just felt he was a hungry quarterback that wanted to make this last year work.

"You could see talent on the video tape, you could see size, you could see athleticism, you could see an accurate passer in our opinion. Once we got him here and got him going, we felt the same way. We felt that if we surrounded him with good players he could have a very successful year and I think for the most part the entire year, he played at a high level. He did a really good job in every game and he gave us a chance to win."

Like Moore, Brohm was a standout college quarterback. With the Saints, offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier and quarterbacks coach Scott Tolzien also were star college quarterbacks and Moore, Nussmeier and Tolzien spent six (Moore and Nussmeier) and seven (Tolzien) seasons on NFL rosters.

Shough believes the benefits of playing for Brohm will continue with the Saints.

"It was amazing, just because you're watching film and you're getting that lens that's behind the facemask," Shough said. "They analyze it as if they could make that play or they couldn't make that play, and how do you handle the locker room.

"Coach Nussmeier's been in every single position as a quarterback, (and) so has Coach Tolzien and Coach Kellen Moore. All these guys have been a starter, they've been a coach, they've been a backup, they've been a bridge guy. Being able to sit down and talk with them – they know what greatness looks like, and Coach Brohm was great for me in that right. From a film aspect to how do you come in and earn everybody's respect."

Brohm said Shough's ability to process information is a strength, and Saints officials agreed as they discussed Shough after he was drafted. That'll help the rookie as he prepares to compete for whatever quarterback role – starter or backup – that the Saints have in mind for him. That process starts this week with rookie minicamp at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center.

"I think any rookie quarterback – if you are starting or playing a lot – there can be some growing pains," Brohm said. "It's not going to be super smooth. But I think he's already had some.

"I think he can handle a big volume of offense that the coaches want to put on him in the passing game, protection game, running game, all those things. He takes care of the ball, he's an accurate passer, he can move and run when he needs to. And I just think that he has a good talent, skill level along with a great work ethic, that he'll work through those things and he'll give you everything he has."