The Competition Increases for a New Orleans Saints QB
Throughout this recent offseason, the New Orleans Saints have had significant changes to their lineup of quarterbacks. The process began with using their turn in the NFL Draft to acquire 25-year-old Tyler Shough, who had recently finished his college football career playing for Louisville. A week later, Ben DiNucci was cut after only two months on the team, and two weeks after that, Derek Carr announced his retirement from the league. The list for that important position then consisted of 24-year-old Spencer Rattler and 26-year-old Jack Haener, who were carried over as quarterbacks carried over from the previous season. Then the Saints announced that 23-year-old Hunter Dekkers had been signed as an undrafted free agent for the upcoming season after he had been seen trying out in that weekend’s rookie minicamp. After being cut last week, which appeared to narrow down the list, Dekkers was re-signed to the team in time for the upcoming initial preseason game.
The drama resumes for Saints fans who are again amazed and bewildered by the number of alterations within this entire off-season. The changes have resulted in a lot more questions about the decisions made by the coaching staff and management, particularly to reverse this choice within a short time. There’s already a lot of uncertainty about the team’s future following every piece of news that shows up online. The analysts still have only the college stats of the three recently-acquired players on which to make their best educated guesses as to how they will perform this month. The debates among friends and podcasts will continue.
Filling the QB position with whomever they can sign and re-sign for one season isn’t the solution. Exchanging experience on their team for youth will be proven in the three games this August. However, it does create a reliable source of knowledgeable and well-trained replacements who can keep the opposing defense guessing as to what that player will do when the ball is snapped. The Saints have often proven that the outcome of the game can be determined by an unexpected maneuver by a suspecting player on the field. Perhaps the Saints' indecisiveness will prove to be one of their best characteristics before the official start of the season.
