In six NFL starts he has helped generate at least one song, innumerable plays on his name, a near cult following in New Orleans, a hill of walk-backs over prognostications and, possibly, a few yet-to-be-born Tylers who'll owe their names to the New Orleans Saints' rookie quarterback.
But, best, Tyler Shough has helped generate three wins, and the strong belief that what the Saints – 4-10 entering Sunday's game against the Jets (3-11) in the Caesars Superdome – thought they saw before drafting him, very much is what they saw.
"I just say steadiness, composure, experience," Saints Coach Kellen Moore said Wednesday. "He has played a lot of football over the years and I think his resiliency shows up."
It has shown up most in the last handful of games: New Orleans is 3-2 over the last five, with a two-game winning streak that has come over NFC South Division leaders Tampa Bay and Atlanta. The two one-score victories – 24-20 on the road against the Buccaneers and 20-17 over the Panthers in the Caesars Superdome – both were second-half comeback wins, from 17-14 down to the Bucs in the third quarter and 17-10 down to the Panthers in the fourth.
Shough credited the work week with the game day production.
"In college, you maybe can get through multiple parts of your progression," he said. "I think that's the case in the NFL sometimes, but I think you have to be really dialed pre-snap on where you're going with the ball and then operating post-snap and being great with your feet and eyes and tying those together.
"If you feel prepared – I think those last couple drives (against Carolina), the whole offense was prepared for every single scenario, so it's just another rep of doing it."
Shough's statistics haven't sent tremors. He has completed 144 of 216 passes for 1,484 yards and six touchdowns, with five interceptions, and has run for 138 yards and two touchdowns on 36 carries.
But the clutch-ness of his second-half performances has generated buzz.
In the first half against Tampa Bay, he completed seven of 11 passes for 76 yards, with an interception, and ran once for 11 yards. In the second half he completed six of nine passes for 100 yards, and ran six times for 44 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winning 13-yard run in the fourth quarter.
He completed eight of 11 for 79 yards in the first half against Carolina, then stepped up and completed 16 of 21 for 193 yards in the second half, and threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Chris Olave to tie the score at 17 with 2:29 left, before engineering the game-winning field-goal drive.
"His ability to just kind of stay steady and stay through an entire game and when the opportunity presents itself, deliver," Moore said. "Trust yourself, let it rip – I thought that showed up a bunch in those last couple of drives (against Carolina), with him just trusting it and truly just letting it rip.
"You do your best to simulate those things in practice but ultimately the circumstances of end-of-game drives, two-minute drives to go take the lead – those things are best performed, they're best evaluated in the moment."
So far, that stage hasn't appeared to be too big for Shough.
Even with a lineup in flux – receiver Rashid Shaheed and left guard Trevor Penning were traded and running back Alvin Kamara, running back Devin Neal, right tackle Taliese Fuaga, center Erik McCoy are among the starters who have been unavailable due to injury for varying amounts of time – Shough and the Saints have been able to create paths to victory.
Shough credited his scout team work. He was the backup quarterback for eight games.
"Without scout team I wouldn't have had any of the success or any of the learning lessons that I've had," he said. "I continue to do everything I can to make every single rep live.
"I think what I learned the most from that time: There's not any reps that you're going to get that are going to be a full-game like rep, but if you can make it 99 percent like it, then that's going to be better off and you have to take advantage of it. Operating with (center) Luke (Fortner), (receiver) Kevin (Austin), (receiver) Dante (Pettis), sometimes (receiver) Devaughn (Vele) would hop in there for a little bit, it helped me out so much."
The payoff is that the Saints have an opportunity to win three straight games in a season for the first time since Weeks 15-17 of 2022.
And a quarterback who has roughed up up a couple of opponents, with more on deck.
"I'm just trying to embrace the city and the culture as much as I can and do my job and have fun," he said. "I don't put too much stock in peoples' opinions of me, because I know it's going to change. But I think whenever we come to work you should have fun doing it and get people to watch the Saints. That's my whole goal."
