There probably isn't a person outside of the New Orleans Saints' building happier about Tyler Shough's performance than ESPN analyst Louis Riddick. During and after the game, Riddick let off a handful tweets endorsing Shough.
Possibly the most emphatic tweet included "f'n" and a whodat hashtag. Riddick came back the next day to repost Shough's 52 yard pass to Juwan Johnson. It's kind of funny to remember that Riddick used to play for the Atlanta Falcons, because you won't find an analyst more passionate about Shough.
Riddick went on to predict what future analysis of Shough will look like. Riddick tweeted "there definitely will be those twisting their words like a pretzel trying to discredit everything good he does because of their negative bias. It’s already happening …" This may seem like a lot after just one win, but this falls right in line with Riddick's well documented commentary on the Saints rookie.
Louis Riddick has been on record praising Tyler Shough since before the Saints drafted him
A large section of the Saints fan base is going to have get on the Shough bandwagon. Not Riddick. There's an argument that could be made that he is the conductor of the Shough hype train. Riddick has been praising Shough and his ability since before the draft.
In Febuary, Riddick went on the Rich Eisen Show and said Shough will be the steal of the draft. That's a big statement when talking about quarterbacks. At that time, Shough was barely even being talked about.
On an episode of Get Up, Riddick boldly proclaimed that Shough was "the one." Riddick highlighted the size, speed and arm talent of the future Saint, while quickly dismissing the injury history as unlucky breaks. The ESPN analyst when on to point out one of Shough's throws by saying, "if that was Patrick Mahomes we'd be sitting here running it on Get Up over and over again."
Riddick didn't stop telling the world how good Shough was right there. On the morning of Day 2 of the NFL Draft, Riddick called Shough "maybe the throw-for-throw most talented thrower in this draft" before closing by saying Shough "will shock the entire NFL in 2025."
Riddick has a long track record of unapologetically pushing Shough to the forefront of any rookie quarterback discussion. Clearly, Riddick is a huge believer in Shough. When looking at everything that's been said, Riddick's flurry of tweets could, in some ways, serve as a victory lap of vindication. It's still early, but that never stopped anyone before.