The New Orleans Saints' QB competition was the talk of the offseason, and it was Spencer Rattler who got the first shot at leading Kellen Moore's offense.
There have been some strong opinions on the second-year QB's performance in the hard-fought 20-13 loss to the Cardinals that saw Rattler throw 46 passes. Count Saints QB legend among those that was pleased with the performance.
"I think he did a lot of things well," Brees told Mike Detillier and Steve Geller on SportsTalk. "I mean, at the end of the day there’s always ebbs and flows throughout the course of the game and there’s a lot of things that are outside of your control and you always hope that you just have a chance at the end of the game to make a few plays to go down and win it, and obviously the Saints had that chance."
Hear the full, exclusive interview with Drew Brees in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
Rattler's final numbers don't jump off the screen: 27-46 (58.7%) for 214 yards. He did avoid turnovers and only took one sack, with one interception negated by a defensive penalty. The most impressive part of the day was the finish, leading a field goal drive followed by an effective 2-minute drill that brought the Saints into the red zone with a chance to tie the game in the final moments. The best opportunity came on the penultimate play, a high ball to Juwan Johnson that the TE had in his hands before a pair of Cardinals defenders combined to strip it out.
"I think Spencer Rattler made a great throw at the end of the game ... unfortunately we weren’t able to come down with," Brees continued.
In the end it was an understated performance as a young player executed a conservative gameplan, but one that was effective enough that the noise to potentially replace Rattler with rookie Tyler Shough has remained a dull roar in the background.
Related
"As I sit there and evaluate the QB position throughout the course of the game, there’s always going to be mistakes," Brees said, "but at the end of the day were you there to make the plays, did you put your team in a position to win and in that case would’ve been tied up and send it to overtime. ... I thought he made some nice plays down the stretch."
Rattler will be asked to deliver again against the 49ers in Week 2, a team that will be playing without starting QB Brock Purdy and star TE George Kittle, both of whom suffered significant injuries in their season-opening win over the Seahawks. That game kicks off at noon inside the Caesars Superdome. Catch all the action on WWL and Audacy.
MORE FROM BREES
About Alvin Kamara
I think what’s amazing about Kamara is he’s been able to stay so healthy throughout his career. Not to say you’re not battling things each and every year or each and every week, but I mean, Alvin has found the ability to stay healthy and contribute in so many ways, which has been really remarkable. I mean, we all had high expectations when we first drafted him, but I think he's been far and away as great as we could’ve hoped for, so when you have a back like that, I think to the Darren Sproleses and I think even to the Pierre Thomases and Mark Ingram became this way, too, where you have so — your ability to affect the game because of how dynamic you are, both in the run game between the tackles, outside the tackle box, catching the ball on the perimeter, the choice routes, the screen game, all that stuff, it makes it to where it’s really hard to take you off the field, just because you’re such a weapon and your a defensive coordinator’s nightmare as they sit there and think of all the different places that you could line up and how they have to defend you.”
On Thomas Morstead's Superdome return
“I had a chance to see Thomas at one of Steve Gleason's events around the Super Bowl and, I mean, he looks as good as ever. He’s obviously a guy who keeps his body and his mind in great shape, and … he’s probably going to be able to kick for 20-plus years, he’s still getting the job done. So I’m excited for him. I’m sure it’ll be an emotional moment for him, stepping foot back in the dome with all the great memories he has as a Saints, so yea, Thomas is a stud and I know he still makes Louisiana home, spends a lot of time in New Orleans, so that’s awesome.”