Canal Street Chronicles
Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, it’s time to get into the potential that Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler has shown in his brief NFL career, how his teammates and coaches are responding, and what it all means for Rattler’s future — especially when the wins start coming.
I’ve always believed that the quarterback win is the dumbest statistic in football, and it’s right up there in any sport. The alleged metric does nothing to drill down and truly reflect the quarterback’s performance, and while winning is obviously the end goal at all times, calling a quarterback a “winner” or a “loser” with no additional analysis is a good way to get me to mute you with a quickness.
One person who would probably agree with me in this regard is Spencer Rattler. The 150th overall pick in the fifth round of the 2024 draft out of South Carolina (by way of Oklahoma) has a record of 0-8 as an NFL starting quarterback after Sunday’s 26-21 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, but if we’re talking about the development and improvement of a young quarterback, Rattler did a lot to impress a lot of people in that game.
Overall, Rattler completed 25 of 34 passes against San Francisco for 207 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 118.1 — which puts his 2025 numbers up to 52 completions in 80 attempts for 421 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 90.7.
Maybe I was early on the Rattler bandwagon, but it was my belief that he could end the Saints’ post-Drew Brees quarterback purgatory sooner than later with his explosive potential, as long as his coaches could rein in Rattler’s YOLO tendencies. Rattler has met Kellen Moore at least halfway as a more efficient and managed thrower of the football this season, and the results are starting to show up in a credible sense. The idea of this franchise selecting Tyler Shough in the second round of the 2025 draft might be one of those “Oh well, whatever, never mind” things if Rattler continues at this pace.
So far this season, Rattler’s success has been less about the unexpected play, and more about his ability to play within the structure of Moore’s offense. Per Next Gen Stats, Rattler completed 11 of 14 quick passes for 77 yards against the 49ers, throwing all three of his touchdowns in fewer than 2.5 seconds. He also completed 14 of 20 passes for 130 yards on passes over 2.5 seconds. so it’s not as if Moore and his staff have turned Rattler into Captain Checkdown — this is really about Rattler unlocking the entire playbook.
Which he very nearly did.
First, the good stuff. Rattler’s first touchdown of the day came with 1:20 left in the first half. The Saints had third-and-6 on...
