Josh Alper ,
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The Saints won’t be making the playoffs this season, but head coach Kellen Moore said on Sunday that they are still playing “really, really important football” because it is a chance for them to create the habits that will allow them to thrive in meaningful situations in the future.
Rookie quarterback Tyler Shough is showing good progress on that front. Shough led a pair of scoring drives to tie and win Sunday’s game against the Panthers in the fourth quarter and he did it despite missing players like Alvin Kamara, Devin Neal and DeVaughn Vele due to injuries. Shough completed nine passes over the course of those drives and then drew a key unnecessary roughness penalty while sliding at the end of a short run on the game-winning drive.
After the 20-17 win, Moore said “when your best is needed, [Shough] showed up” and went on to share some more praise for how the second-round pick performed in the win.
“Just his steadiness,” Moore said, via a transcript from the team. “His steadiness is really special. I think it’s really important when you play quarterback in this league. There are a lot of hard downs. You’re not going to convert every single one of them. Your ability to go from one to the next and take advantage of the opportunity presented, again, he made some big-time plays.”
No one from the Saints is talking about the 2026 season right now, but it seems safe to say that they will head into that year with Shough as their starting quarterback and settling that issue is a significant building block for Moore’s tenure in New Orleans.
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