There isn’t any question about who the New Orleans Saints want starting at quarterback — Derek Carr is who head coach Dennis Allen believes gives them the best chance to win each week. But Carr is still recovering from an oblique muscle injury and not expected back until Week 9’s game with the Carolina Panthers at the soonest, which means it’ll be one of his backups starting again in Week 8’s road trip to face the Los Angeles Chargers.
And Allen isn’t deviating from his path. Rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler is preparing to start his third consecutive game, not second-year pro Jake Haener.
“No, the plan would be to stay with Spencer. And I think Spencer has done some good things,” Allen began, “I mean obviously there are some rookie mistakes. Got to do a better job of protecting the football, that would probably be the biggest thing we have to do a better job of. But I feel when you go back and watch the tape and he’s got protection, I thought he did a good job of throwing the football and creating some things with his feet. He was accurate when he was outside the pocket. So I’ve seen a lot of good things from him. We’ve got to eliminate some of the negative plays.”
Through two games, Rattler has completed 47 of 75 passes for 415 yards with one touchdown against two interceptions. He’s also been sacked 11 times. Of the 28 quarterbacks with fewer than 100 dropbacks this season, Rattler is the only one with double-digit sacks. He’s also one of six quarterbacks with multiple interceptions on such a small sample size.
But so long as Carr is out dealing with an injury during the week, it’ll be Rattler preparing to start in his place. Allen and the Saints coaching staff want him learning from these mistakes and working to overcome adversity so he can develop into a better pro. Haener is waiting in the wings for his opportunity.
He certainly made the most of it against the Broncos. The Saints pulled Rattler after he suffered a hip pointer injury late in the fourth quarter, but Haener led the offense into its only scoring drive of the night, which ended with a touchdown pass to Cedrick Wilson Jr. He completed 3 of 4 passes for 38 yards after taking over at midfield.
For now, that’s all Haener can do. Until Carr is cleared to practice fully and lead the offense himself, all eyes are on Rattler. The rookie needs to keep working and improving and make sure his coaches’ eyes don’t start to wander in the meantime.
