Tyler Shough has the most upside of any 2nd year QB
Yahoo Sports NFL analyst Nate Tice and fantasy analyst Matt Harmon go into the reasons why they expect more out of the Saints QB than any other 2nd year QB in his class. Check out the full conversation on “Football 301” - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
The third quarterback drafted and another rookie starter, that was Tyler Shuck, the 40th overall pick for the New Orleans Saints.
And I would say, my little one-liner before I kick it to you, he had a nice pleasant rookie season.
it was very pleasant to watch, and I can-- I'll, I'll start parsing more into that.
The guy is older.
The guy, Shuck, is older, and he kinda plays like an older rookie and that was maybe my little too long, didn't read of, describing Tyler Shuck.
But Matt, when you're watching Olave, watching this Saints offense, watching Shuck, what did you think about Tyler and his rookie year?
Yeah, we joke often that, you know, we're like the Bears-Jags podcast of, you know, the National Football Media.
I'm, I'm gonna try to push us into being the Saints podcast of, of National Media here because I, I think I've made my feelings pretty clear here that I really like this offense, and I-- that includes the quarterback.
I, I liked a lot of what Tyler Shuck did last year.
you know, it obviously was not a full season.
I, but, you know, I, I But I was watching the Saints a lot last year, even when it was Spencer Rattler, 'cause I am such a Chris Olave guy.
And to me it was like, I thought Spencer Rattler did a lot to keep the offense on schedule, and I thought it was well-designed, and he was really good on kinda those out-breaking routes, especially like quick out routes to Chris Olave.
They had a really good connection there.
But then when Shuck got in, to the starting lineup, I thought he immediately activated the middle of the field a lot better.
That bears itself out in the stats among quarterbacks with 200 plus dropbacks last year.
Spencer Rattler, 35th in EPA per dropback thrown between the numbers.
Tyler Shuck, seventh.
Like, th- these are the quarterbacks ahead of Tyler Shuck in EPA per dropback between the numbers: Drake May, Jared Goff, C.J.
Stroud, somebody put a pin in that one, Dak Prescott, Matthew Stafford, Mac Jones, Shanahan, Tyler Shuck, and then it's Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson's ninth.
Like the, the-- Pretty good company there.
And, and in terms of volume too, like it wasn't, you know, nothing.
140, excuse me, 100, 35 pass attempts there for Tyler Shuck as well.
So yeah, I mean, I think that he certainly out-kicked my expectations, and in addition to those like middle of the field stats, I thought anecdotally, I've said this a lot about Shuck's rookie year, like he would just g- he would be in the gun, throw the ball from the far hash outside the numbers as well.
Like I thought he d- I thought he did really well at that too, so like activating all levels.
Not gonna say it was perfect by any means.
I'm not trying to get too out o- over my skis here on him, but I thought he checked a lot of boxes, looked really good in a well-designed offense, and they only got better on paper from this year to last year.
So like right now, he is the guy I would have the most confidence in going into, year two out of these, rookie quarterbacks from 2025.
