By Ross Jackson
NEW ORLEANS — With starting quarterback Derek Carr out against his former team on Sunday, the New Orleans Saints will turn to rookie passer Spencer Rattler for his fifth start of the season.
The decision is an obvious one, as New Orleans has clearly identified the development of Rattler’s talents as a core focus.
With four starts in the books for Rattler, there have been flashes but also growth areas that have come to light. Neither are surprising for a young rookie getting his first chances on a team that has lost the majority of its major weapons on offense and has trotted out a beat up offensive line in each game.
In Rattler’s four starts, he has seen only seven snaps overlap with starting center Erik McCoy, has been without wide receiver Rashid Shaheed and do-it-all tight end Taysom Hill for three games, has been without wideout Chris Olave and right guard Cesar Ruiz for a pair of contests and has been without starting left guard Lucas Patrick and running back Alvin Kamara for a game apiece as well.
That’s not ideal. But that’s been the Saints’ season in a nutshell.
Rattler has also been under pressure on 39.3 percent of his snaps, including the second half he led against the Washington Commanders. He’s fared about as well as Carr when under pressure in basic stats, which is promising. His 45.7 percent completion rate isn’t far short of Carr’s 48.8 percent. They’ve both thrown for 6.2 yards per attempt under pressure.
However, Carr has four passing touchdowns while Rattler has none and Carr has gotten the ball out .4 seconds faster than Rattler when under pressure. Which is why Rattler has been sacked 17 times on those dropbacks versus Carr’s eight when pressured.
Carr holds a 8.5 percent pressure to sack rate while Rattler has seen a whopping 24.3 percent of his pressures converted to sacks.
This is to be expected with a young passer. Opposing defenses are going to send much more pressure against a rookie quarterback than a ten-plus year veteran, especially when behind an injured offensive line.
Once Rattler gets more comfortable and is able to make defenses respect him more by countering the pressure, his game is going to open up explosively.
In order to get there, though, the Saints will have to remain patient. So far, they’ve proven willing to do that as they desperately work to get a reliable and full evaluation of their fifth-round rookie signal caller.
