Shy Tuttle said it felt great to make the New Orleans Saints’ 53-man roster. But he by no means thinks his work is done.
“I feel like in this business you really can’t get too comfortable,” he said.
So the undrafted rookie free agent is planning to do what ever he needs to make sure he not only stays on the Saints roster but contributes as well.
He may get a chance to contribute right away as the Saints will be down three defensive tackles in their Monday Night Football regular season opener against the Houston Texans at 6:30 p.m. in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Sheldon Rankins is still recovering from an achilles injury, David Onyemata is serving a one-game suspension and Mario Edwards had been ruled out after missing practice this week with a hamstring injury.
Tuttle said his preparing for Monday night the same way he attacked the preseason.
“I’m just trying to have fun with it,” he said. “The stage is just bigger but I’m preparing the same. The coaches are just preparing the same. It’s just that the stakes are higher. I’m excited though.”
The former Tennessee standout made the Saints’ initial 53-man roster after impressing in preseason games where he proved to be a disruptive force on the defensive line. He finished the preseason with two QB hits and a pass deflection as well as seven tackles.
“We felt like he really came on towards the end of camp, (especially) the last two, two and a half weeks,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “I think all of us noticed that. It's a hard position to find, especially a position to find in college when you're not drafting them.”
The Saints, in recent years, have had luck finding undrafted defensive linemen as defensive tackle Taylor Stallworth made the roster last season as an undrafted prospect out of South Carolina. Tuttle said he leaned on his teammate during training camp as his goal was to do what Stallworth did.
“We are in the same meeting room, so I was picking his brain a lot,” Tuttle said. “So just seeing what he did and how he approached it. He gave me a bunch of help.”
Stallworth said he was happy to pass on the wisdom he’d gained from his rookie season which was mainly to try and prove yourself every single day.
“You know your path’s different from everybody else,” he said. “Basically you got to have a chip on your shoulder. You got to prove a lot of people wrong.”
Stallworth he and other defensive linemen noticed the work Tuttle put in and was glad to see him earn a spot on the roster.
“What he did was like me,” Stallworth said. “I just came in every single day and got better and listened to the vets, listened to my coach, whatever it took to make sure I knew what to do and play fast and get better every single day. He took that route too.”