The New Orleans Saints made the move to Tyler Shough against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, benching Spencer Rattler. While Kellen Moore hasn’t committed to who the Week 9 starter will be, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle at this point.
These aren’t Shough’s first snaps, but it did feel like his true debut performance. When the Saints were getting blown out by the Seattle Seahawks, Shough took some snaps at the tail end of the game. That’s nowhere near the same as Sunday. Shough entered the game when it was still at a winnable margin and threw 30 passes in an attempt to comeback. Quite frankly, felt like a changing of the guard moment.
Going from Rattler always felt inevitable, but now it also feels imminent. One could say Rattler was fighting the inevitable through the first two months, trying to play well enough to keep Shough on the bench. That time is over.
Don't backtrack! The Tyler Shough era is here for the Saints
Going back to Rattler only feels like delaying the inevitable, opposed to him fighting it. However, there is one key benefit many will pose to not starting Shough next week.
You don’t want his first start against the Los Angeles Rams. They have the second most sacks in the league despite playing only seven games. Byron Young already has 9 sacks on the season. He entered the week leading the league, but is one sack behind a two man tie for first place.
For that reason, I can understand the logic behind giving the start to Rattler. Throw him to the wolves to give Shough a more advantageous first start versus the Carolina Panthers. The decision would be made under the guise of giving Rattler a chance to bounce back from a benching.
Thing is, Rattler was benched in a game where he was trying to bounce back from an ugly game the week before. If you were worried about who Shough's first start would come against, then you should have thought about that before putting him in in the middle of the third quarter.
The moment is here, and Moore must follow through on what he's started. Give Shough nine games worth of evaluation. It also gives you two games before the bye week so you have a good amount of tape to build upon after an off week.