The New Orleans Saints suffered a blow when veteran quarterback Derek Carr announced his retirement on Saturday. Due to another shoulder injury, Carr decided to hang up the cleats and call it a career after 11 years in the league.
As such, the Saints QB room is a big question mark. They have Jake Haener, Spencer Rattler and rookie Tyler Shough, who was selected in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft despite being 25 years old.
Both Haener and Rattler splayed in 2024, but Shough - who finished his college career at Louisville - reacted accordingly after the news of Carr's retirement, per John DeShazier of Saints.com.
"I think that's all you can ask for is an opportunity at any position, and I'm going to treat it the same way, as if, whoever was on the roster, I've got to continue to grow and get better and do my best to elevate the quarterback room," Shough said.
Furthermore, Shough says his mindset hasn't changed despite Carr's retirement.
"For me, I was going to come in regardless of him being here or not and try and continue to grow."
Now, first-year head coach Kellen Moore has an even trickier training camp approaching as he tries to figure out who to put under center. But, the Saints coach did say all three would be given the opportunity.
"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."
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