The New Orleans Saints could have a big decision to make at quarterback, and all options remain on the table.
The Saints still aren't ruling out Derek Carr for Week 15 as he works through the concussion protocol and manages what is reportedly a fractured left hand. But it's unlikely he practices early in the week, meaning they'll have to come to some form of a decision between Jake Haener and Spencer Rattler as to who will be the presumptive starter if Carr can't go. So who will it be? Interim head coach Darren Rizzi broke down some details on the process this week on WWL Radio.
"It might be a situation where we say ‘hey, we’re gonna make this a competition through the week and get reps and see who kind of gives us a better chance to win,’ or we may say ‘hey, listen, we’re gonna go with this guy’ and that’s what we’re trying to determine between now and Wednesday when we go out and how we’re gonna play that out," Rizzi told WWL's Mike Hoss and Bobby Hebert, "but it could be a situation where both guys get a shot here and we see which guy performs better, make it a competition, but both those guys, like I said, have handled it very maturely."
Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
If Carr can't practice, both young QBs are expected to get reps in some capacity, though the common practice would be to pick one as the starter and give them the lion's share to make sure they are as ready as possible in the event they have to start.
Making it a true competition would certainly be an interesting approach this late in the season, and if nothing else underscores the fact that the team has very much not made up its mind yet whether to turn back to Rattler or give Haener a shot at his first NFL start. The pair was in a competition throughout the offseason to determine the backup role. It appeared close throughout, with the second-year pro out of Fresno State being turned to as the gameday backup for all 13 of the Saints games thus far, but it was the rookie Rattler taking over as the starter for the three games Carr missed due to an oblique injury earlier in the year.
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The Saints went 0-3 in that stretch with Haener finishing out two of the games and leading scoring drives in both. The Saints were down several key playmakers in both of those games and facing a trio of potential playoff teams in the Bucs, Broncos and Chargers during that stretch. Dennis Allen was also the head coach at that point, so it's unclear whether Rizzi would have made the same decision under the circumstances.
New Orleans will also be signing QB Ben Dinucci to the practice squad in a depth role, as reported by Dinucci himself on social media.
"Both [Haener and Rattler] have handled it well, both guys have a lot of different, you know, attributes that are positive and both guys are very, very, very competitive," Rizzi continued. "That’s probably the best thing I could say about both of them, so we’re trying to, like I said, keep all options here on the table. We’re not putting our foot down and saying this is the plan yet, we’re gonna kind of see how the next couple days unfold.”
MORE FROM RIZZI
Could Derek Carr play with a broken hand?
"I saw those or heard about some of the earlier reporting that he was out for the season, blah, blah, blah, going onto IR. Listen, I don’t know where that stuff came from, that’s a little bit aggressive as of this moment. Like I said, that’s not the case. It’s not season-ending. It’s not an IR stint and so yea, listen, even more recently than that, I think if I’m not mistaken I think either Justin Herbert or Josh Allen or maybe both played with injuries on their non-throwing hand so yea, exactly, it all depends on how it responds and whether he can function. Now, listen, there’s obviously different ways you can do it. You can go shotgun ... pistol, all that kind of stuff and still hand off with the other hand and that’s what other teams have done with quarterbacks that have had a similar injury, so listen, we’re just trying to keep everything on the table and not rule anything out and let’s see how he responds. Again, I don’t want to keep saying it, but we’re also dealing with the concussion part of it so that’s also gonna be a factor. We’ll see how that responds as well for this particular week and then we’ll kind of play it from there, but yea, there’s been many guys that have played with injuries to their non-throwing hand, whether it be finger, you know, hand, wrist, whatever it is, it’s certainly possible, no doubt.”
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On eliminating negative offensive plays/what happened
“That’s something we’ve got to get better at. It’s something that was a focus coming into the game, you know, I look at it, really break it down. I think our perimeter run game was really where we had the majority of the negative plays. I thought we had some good downhill runs, you know, between Alvin and Kendre, in between the tackles, but I thought our perimeter, you’re right. We’ve got to do a better job of blocking on the perimeter, both tight ends, receivers, everybody. We’ve got to do a better job on the perimeter, because a lot of our perimeter plays ended up … going backwards a little bit and become a negative play, so – and that didn’t help us out, put us into some second and third and longs, you know, kind of put us behind the chains.”
On facing Commanders
“Yea, the NFL has a sense of humor. We have the bye, bye, bye schedule with Cleveland, and the Giants and now Washington, so we’ve got, what was that NSYNC or Backstreet Boys with Bye, Bye Bye. Yea, we’ve got a good sense of humor up there in New York, so I guess we’re the team that gets everybody coming off the bye, but hey, listen, we’ve got to make this week, you know, about us and we’ve got to fix a lot of the things we’ve got to get fixed, but at the same time Jayden Daniels is doing a heck of a job for Washington. Obviously Dan Quinn has those guys rolling right now and maybe the most impressive thing that Jayden Daniels has done for a rookie quarterback is he’s looking at a 70% completion percentage and a guy that doesn’t turn the ball over. That’s usually the two things that a rookie quarterback is known for, right, a low completion percentage and turnovers and so they’ve done a phenomenal job, Kliff Kingsbury has done a really good job with their offense. They’ve got it going right now. It’s going to be a heck of a, certainly a challenge for us. We’ve got to, like I said, we’ve got to regroup quickly … they’re coming off a bye, they’re gonna be fresh and they’re coming off of a win, a big win, meaning by score and so again, very very – like it is every week in this league, we’re gonna have a challenge in front of us but certainly a very talented group coming in.”