METAIRIE, La. -- New Orleans Saints rookie quarterback Tyler Shough has gotten used to checking his phone first thing in the morning.
That’s when he’ll see responses to text messages he sent to Saints coach Kellen Moore the previous evening. Moore, a self-admitted night owl, tends to stay up after his family goes to sleep, watching game film and texting his thoughts to his starting quarterback at late hours.
“Whenever I wake up in the morning, 5:30 or 6 and it’s like [a response at] 1 a.m.,” Shough said. “It’s kind of weird because I’ll send it usually around 8 or 9 o’clock and I’m not getting a response. And I think hearing from the other coaches on staff, he’s been that way the whole time.”
This has become the new routine for Moore and Shough. Shough said that early in the week they’ll bounce ideas off each other before the staff puts together a game plan. Sometimes that includes incorporating things from Shough’s college teams, things they saw around the NFL or a new version of something previously used in the playbook.
“Obviously everyone runs similar plays, but how can you build it into what we’re running this week? ... That’s what he’s really good at,” Shough said.
As the week goes on, the conversation will turn to what they specifically like and dislike about particular plays.
“There’s constant dialogue and sometimes you might get to game day and we might run something we haven’t run yet just because we see something,” Shough said. “... That’s the best part about Kellen too, just he’s one of the best I’ve been around as far as the communication factor and ... running what the players are really good at.”
The relationship between them has strengthened in the two months since Moore named Shough the Saints’ starting quarterback for the rest of the season. When Moore benched Spencer Rattler for Shough, he was looking for a spark to ignite a 1-7 team.
He got a fire instead.
When the Saints play at the Atlanta Falcons (1 p.m. ET Sunday, Fox), it will be the finale of a nine-game starting stretch for Shough, who has led the team to a four-game win streak. He has thrown four touchdowns, run for two TDs and thrown just one interception in that span.
Shough’s success has not only given the team momentum heading into the offseason, it has also put a spotlight on him for potential NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. According to DraftKings and as of Friday, Shough (+150) sits behind Carolina Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan (-175) on odds for the award.
All of that seemed improbable when, despite Shough coming on strong in August, Rattler won the Week 1 starting job after a lengthy training camp competition.
But Rattler couldn’t translate that consistency into September when the Saints played three playoff-bound teams (the San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks and Buffalo Bills). The Saints’ offense struggled, and the switch was made in the second half of an eventual 23-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 8 -- a game in which the Saints had only 81 net yards of offense in the first half. Shough was named the permanent starter the next week.
“I felt like [he] was ready,” Moore said in October. “... Offensively we’ve got to find a little bit more success, a little more consistency. I think that doesn’t have only to do with Spencer, that has to do with everyone associated with the offense.”
Shough had been quietly developing, learning to navigate the pocket and use his legs when going up against the starting defense as the scout-team quarterback, skills that would prepare him for situations he’d see as the starter.
“When you go against starting defense on scout team, it’s not going to be pretty pockets. ... You’re going to have to stay within that pocket and you may have to deal with some scrambling, but that puts you in those different environments that will ultimately be your test on game days,” Moore said.
Shough also used that time to develop chemistry with the scout-team offense, something that would prove useful later on in the season. The Saints would lose wide receivers Rashid Shaheed (traded to the Seahawks on Nov. 4), Brandin Cooks (waived on Nov. 19) and Devaughn Vele (placed on injured reserve on Dec. 19). Running back Alvin Kamara was injured on Nov. 23, and Devin Neal was placed on IR on Dec. 18.
“Without the scout team I wouldn’t have had any of the success or any of the learning lessons that I’ve had to this point,” Shough said.
The Saints won’t have No. 1 wide receiver Chris Olave in the season finale either after he developed a blood clot this week. Shough will likely be throwing to quarterback/receiver Taysom Hill, tight end Juwan Johnson and wide receiver Kevin Austin Jr. on Sunday.
It’ll be one more change for Shough, whose maturity and ability to adapt on three different college teams impressed offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier.
“He’s been through a lot. ... So he’s used to being around different casts. He did it a couple times in college, but we do it in the middle of the season. It’s obviously a little more challenging,” Nussmeier said.
Winning with lesser-known players has been just one factor in his potential chase for Rookie of the Year, as well as his fourth-quarter heroics in three of the past four wins.
If he leads the Saints to a season-ending win against the Falcons, the clamor for Shough will likely only get louder. But it has also led some to wonder if the Saints, who were eliminated from the playoffs, might have generated more wins had Shough been starting earlier.
Moore recently was asked about whether he questions the decision to wait to play Shough with any regret. Moore said Rattler earned the starting role coming out of camp, and the timing was ultimately right for the team.
“Behind the scenes, I felt like Tyler was progressing really, really well,” Moore said. “There were a ton of growth opportunities through being a scout-team quarterback, being around the NFL, experiencing this thing a little bit from behind for a few weeks. And obviously I thought he took tremendous steps through that journey.
“And so as we got in the middle of the season, felt like just the way our team was playing, it felt like an opportunity to present itself, felt like Tyler could potentially create a spark, but also felt like he was ready to play most importantly,” Moore said.
Shough said it’s hard to know if he would have been ready had he been thrown into a starting situation in Week 1. But as the season has gone on, and his bonds with Moore and his teammates have strengthened, he’s just thankful to be in this position now.
“I think everything goes exactly how it’s supposed to. And obviously that wasn’t my decision to make, but my job is to make sure I’m ready and compete as much as I can,” Shough said. “So there’s no way of knowing really, but I do know I have learned a lot from that time, not starting, just naturally and having learned a lot from starting and kind of being able to play. I think ultimately you learn the most when you’re kind of playing and you get to receive those light bulbs.”
