The biggest story of training camp for the New Orleans Saints will be the quarterback competition, but it's about more than just the three names involved with rookie Tyler Shough, and returners Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener.
Another major question that gets answered over the early days of camp practices, which kick off on Wednesday, will be how exactly practice reps are split up. Particularly at the QB position, those reps are incredibly valuable and there are only so many to be had with strict limits on practice time.
“It’s gonna be tough ... the reps are a big part," former Saints LB and Super Bowl champion Scott Shanle told WWL. "Obviously in practice the starter or there’s co-starters, the 1 and 2 guys are going to get most of the reps and after that you’re fighting for the last few plays of each practice and each series, whether it’s red zone or 7-on-7, so you really have to impress in those limited reps you can get."
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It was an even split during OTAs and minicamp between Shough and Rattler, with UDFA Hunter Dekkers running a handful of plays at select practices. The major question comes with Jake Haener, who missed most of those sessions with an oblique injury. He was seen throwing late in minicamp and is expected to be ready to roll for training camp, and head coach Kellen Moore has insisted that the battle for the starting job is a three-way competition.
But is it realistic to have a three-way QB competition with evenly split reps? Shanle says, eh, not really.
“I think as a coach you kind of, sometimes you have to say those things and listen, you can jump from the third spot to become a starter, but in those few reps you get in practice and the preseason games, you really have to wow and make the coaches say, hey, we need to start getting this guy some more reps," Shanle said, "but if you don’t do that, you don’t have enough time to filter through three guys at really any position, let alone the quarterback position."
Things might start off evenly at first, but at some point you'll begin to lean toward the expected starter. The question is the timeline, with Shanle expecting a QB decision to be made by the end of the second preseason game. The exception would be if one of those players was performing so far above the others through Game 1 of the preseason, and coaches felt comfortable making a call at that point.
“I would like to see one of the guys get a lot of reps in preseason Game 1, another guy get a lot of reps in preseason Game 2, give them an entire half, maybe 2.5 quarters, especially at that position, you need a lot of reps and I think after the second preseason game you’d have to have a good idea. ... Your team also has to have time to rally around that guy before the regular season starts.”
The Saints are scheduled to kick off practices on Wednesday in front of fans at the practice facility in Metairie. They'll hold 10 practices at home before traveling out to California where they'll host multiple practices around the preseason opener with the Chargers. The team will return home on the 15th for the rest of the training camp slate leading into the season.
