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Film Study: 3 plays show Spencer Rattler’s progress

Sep 16, 2025 | 12:02 PM

Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

By Ross Jackson

One of the highlights coming out of the New Orleans Saints’ loss to the San Francisco 49ers was the performance and demonstrable growth of quarterback Spencer Rattler. While the 49ers were dealing with injuries on the offensive side of the ball, their defense was mostly healthy throughout the matchup and presented a big challenge for the second-year passer. 

Three factors where Rattler made some noticeable strides are his pre-snap operation, processing speed and decisiveness. Head Coach Kellen Moore’s system requires the player behind center to manage all three of these qualities throughout a matchup, and Rattler has shown so far that he can do exactly that. He has some significant tests on the way, but so far things are going well for the signal caller.

With three factors, three plays make it easy to see his progress.

Pre-snap Operation:

Rattler complete to wide receiver Rashid Shaheed for 39 yards on second-and-10

Before the snap, the 49ers are showing a split-safety look matching up with the Saints’ 11-personnel 2×2 formation. 

As tight end Juwan Johnson drops from lining up near the line of scrimmage to the backfield, the boundary safety cheats down into the intermediate area, while the field-side safety gets more depth. This signals a single-high safety look could be on the way post-snap.

If that’s the case, Rattler sees before the snap that the field-side safety has a lot of ground to make up to get across the field and over the top of speedy wide receiver Rashid Shaheed, who is lined up on the boundary side along the numbers.

After the snap, the boundary safety indeed does crash down, aided by the play action to running back Alvin Kamara. The field safety rotates to his deep assignment, but as he reaches the hashes on the opposite side, Rattler already has the ball out for Shaheed along the left sideline. 

That’s good pre-snap work by Rattler, and the ball placement on the pass deserves noting as well. The quarterback places the pass over the top and to the outside of Shaheed, who reels it in through contact, which drew a declined pass interference call. The throw and catch resulted in a 39-yard gain. Protection by the offensive line deserves a highlight here as well. 

Processing Speed:

Rattler complete to Kamara for five yards on third-and-six

It wasn’t a big pass or even a first down, but this third-and-six play is a good example of Rattler’s continued progress reading the field after the snap. 

The play begins as a 2×1, again in 11-personnel, which the Saints fielded 73.1% of the time in Week 2.

It became quickly clear after the snap that the receivers were well-covered. Rattler scans from the right side of the field to the left, where he finds Kamara breaking toward the sideline against a linebacker with inside leverage.

Rattler wisely dumps this pass off to Kamara, who comes up just one yard shy of the first down. It could have been tempting to try to drive the ball between the two defenders near the left hash to Shaheed as he breaks inside, but instead he avoids the risk of the converging middle-of-field defender and takes what the defense gives him. 

Rattler would convert the resulting fourth-and-one with a three yard run.

Decisiveness:

Rattler runs for nine yards on third-and-six

On this play, Rattler drops back and both tackles, Kelvin Banks Jr. and Taliese Fuaga, quickly give up pressure around the edge. This is a third-and-long situation that the defense reads as an obvious throwing down, for which the edge rushers pin their ears back and look to aggressively attack the backfield. 

As Rattler rears back to throw — presumably to Kamara, who is crossing the formation — he pulls the ball down and takes off up the cavity in the middle of the field. His decisiveness doesn’t pick up the first down immediately, but after fighting through contact, he gains the yardage needed to keep the drive moving.

Rattler fights through for additional yardage, earning a fresh set of downs. Three plays later, following the two-minute warning, the Saints put points on the board with an 18-yard touchdown pass from Rattler to Johnson. 

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