Being a Saints fan is basically a lesson in extreme emotional swings. You've got the decades of "Aints" history where the paper bag was the unofficial team uniform, and then you've got the 15-year Brees era that felt like a fever dream of 5,000-yard seasons. But honestly, if you look at the full timeline of New Orleans Saints quarterbacks, it’s a lot weirder than just "Drew Brees was good and everyone else was bad."
Right now, as we head into 2026, the vibe in the Crescent City is... actually okay? For the first time since Brees hung it up after that 2020 playoff loss to Tampa, there’s a sense that the spinning wheel of signal-callers might have finally stopped. Tyler Shough, the guy they grabbed in the second round last year, somehow turned a messy 2025 season into a legit audition for the future.
But to understand why Shough matters, you have to look at the wreckage he’s standing on.
The Drew Brees shadow is a real problem
We have to talk about the elephant in the room. Every single guy who has taken a snap for this franchise since 2021 has been compared to a first-ballot Hall of Famer. It’s not fair. It’s also unavoidable.
When Brees signed in 2006, he was coming off a shoulder injury so bad the Dolphins wouldn't even touch him. He ended up throwing for 68,010 yards in a Saints jersey. Let that sink in. He didn't just play; he lived at the top of the stat sheets. He led the league in passing yards seven different times.
The problem? He made it look too easy.
Fans got used to 70% completion rates as the baseline. So when Jameis Winston or Andy Dalton or even Derek Carr came in and looked, well, human, the city went into a tailspin. Carr, who just retired before the 2025 season started, actually finished his Saints stint with a 14-13 record. That’s not terrible! But in New Orleans, "not terrible" feels like a disaster when you spent a decade watching a guy who could hit a moving target 20 yards away 10 out of 10 times.
What really happened with the post-Brees carousel?
Since 2021, the Saints have started more quarterbacks than most teams do in a decade. It’s been a revolving door of "what-ifs."
- Jameis Winston: The 5-2 start in 2021 was a tease. He had 14 touchdowns to only 3 interceptions before the ACL tear. People forget how much promise was there.
- The Taysom Hill Experiment: Kellen Moore still uses him as a Swiss Army knife, but the "Taysom as a full-time QB" era was a fever dream we all just collectively moved past.
- The Spencer Rattler/Tyler Shough Era: This is where it gets interesting. 2025 was supposed to be the Derek Carr "prove it" year, but he retired. Spencer Rattler got the nod early, and man, it was rough. He went 1-7 as a starter. The kid has a cannon, but he was seeing ghosts behind a shaky offensive line.
Then came Shough.
Tyler Shough: The 2026 reality
Nobody expected much when the Saints took Shough at No. 40 overall in the 2025 draft. He was 25 years old. He'd been at Oregon, Texas Tech, and Louisville. He was the "old" prospect with a long injury history.
But then he stepped in for a struggling Rattler in Week 9 against the Rams.
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He didn't just play; he won. The Saints finished the 2025 season winning four of their last five games. Shough ended up with 2,384 passing yards and 10 touchdowns in just nine starts. More importantly, he only threw five interceptions. In a city that has seen a lot of "high-risk, high-reward" passers lately, a guy who actually protects the football is a godsend.
General Manager Mickey Loomis is trying to keep expectations in check—calling Shough a "building block" rather than a savior—but the 6-foot-5 kid from Louisville has the locker room. Kellen Moore basically confirmed it last week: Shough is the guy for 2026.
Why Archie Manning still matters in this conversation
You can't talk about New Orleans Saints quarterbacks without Archie. It’s a rule.
If Brees is the gold standard, Archie is the soul of the franchise. He played from 1971 to 1982, and his win-loss record (35-91-3) is frankly depressing. But if you ask anyone who watched those games, they’ll tell you he was a magician behind a line that barely existed.
He’s the reason the Saints even survived those early years. He gave the city a reason to show up at the Tulane Stadium and later the Superdome. It’s funny—Shough is actually the highest-drafted quarterback the Saints have taken since they picked Archie at No. 2 back in '71. That’s a 54-year gap of mostly mid-round flyers and free-agent veterans.
The stats nobody talks about
We love the flashy numbers, but the real story of Saints QBs is in the efficiency.
| Quarterback | Era | Key Fact |
|---|---|---|
| Bobby Hebert | 1985-1992 | The "Cajun Cannon" actually had a 49-26 record. People remember the playoff heartbreak, but he won a lot of games. |
| Aaron Brooks | 2000-2005 | He led the team to their first-ever playoff win against the Rams. He gets a bad rap for the "backwards pass," but he’s still 3rd all-time in franchise passing yards (19,156). |
| Jim Everett | 1994-1996 | A weirdly productive era. He threw for over 10,000 yards in just three seasons. |
It’s easy to look at the list and see a massive gap between the legends and the "guys who were just there." But the Saints have always been a team defined by their QB. When the quarterback is stable, the city is electric. When it’s a mess, the whole region feels it.
The 2026 roadmap: What’s next?
So, where does this leave us? The Saints are currently sitting with a top-10 pick in the upcoming 2026 draft. In years past, we’d be screaming for a quarterback.
But Shough’s late-season surge changed the math.
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Instead of chasing another rookie signal-caller, the front office is looking at protecting the one they have. They need offensive line help—badly. They also need to figure out the post-Alvin Kamara era, as the run game struggled to take the pressure off Shough last year.
Honestly, the "quarterback of the future" might already be in the building. It’s not the flashy, 21-year-old Heisman winner people wanted. It’s a 26-year-old journeyman who finally found a home in the Dome.
Actionable insights for Saints fans
If you're tracking the QB room this offseason, watch these three things:
- The Backup Battle: Don't count Spencer Rattler out. He's on a cheap rookie deal and has way more upside than a standard backup. If Shough's injury history flares up, Rattler is the only insurance policy.
- Kellen Moore's Evolution: Year two of this system should be much faster. Look for Shough to have more "kill" shots downfield to Chris Olave now that the chemistry is set.
- Free Agency Moves: If the Saints bring in a high-priced veteran backup, it means they don't fully trust Shough's health. If they stick with the young guys, they're all-in on the youth movement.
The era of the "Aints" is long gone, and the Brees era is a beautiful memory. We're in the Shough era now. It might not be as record-breaking as what we saw in 2009, but for a franchise that has spent years searching for an identity, "stable and winning" sounds pretty good.