Tyler Shough graduated high school in 2018, ranked as a top-10 prospect in the same class as Trevor Lawrence. Then he backed up Justin Herbert at Oregon before getting a crack at the starting gig in 2020. Come postseason, Oregon entertained a quarterback rotation that sidelined Shough for parts of the Pac-12 championship and a large chunk of the Fiesta Bowl.
He transferred to Texas Tech, where he suffered serious injuries in three consecutive seasons, the last being a fractured fibula that required him to be carted off the field.
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His next and final stop of his seven-year college marathon was Louisville. There, he finally played a complete, 12-game regular season and established himself as a rather unorthodox NFL prospect.
Shough went through the good, the bad and the ugly in college, and not necessarily in that order.
So, as he prepares to compete for the QB1 role in New Orleans, the 25-year-old second-round pick feels ready to handle the unforgiving pressures that come with being a rookie starting quarterback in the NFL.
“I think for me and what I’ve been through: I’ve been carted off the field, I’ve been booed, I’ve been an MVP, I’ve been a starter, I’ve been a backup to Herbert — I’m like, throw some s*** at me, you’re not going to faze me if we start off 0-2 or I f***ing suck,” Shough calmly yet confidently said Wednesday on the “St. Brown Podcast.”
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Shough continued: “It’s going to be fine. That’s why I was excited about that opportunity, or any opportunity.
“And I think, going into it, I’ve got to continue to get to know the guys. I’m still a rookie. I may be older, but I got to earn the respect of everybody and do my job.”
Shough has a clear path to starting for the rebuilding Saints, who are now coached by former Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
That path suddenly appeared when veteran Derek Carr surprisingly retired on May 10 due to a surgery-requiring shoulder injury. Carr, a four-time Pro Bowler, was approaching his third season with the Saints after nine seasons with the Raiders. Without his presence, New Orleans’ quarterback room consists of an unproven foursome, headlined by a rookie in Shough, a second-year signal-caller in Spencer Rattler and a third-year signal-caller in Jake Haener.
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Shough told Amon-Ra and Equanimeous St. Brown that learning from Carr “would have been great.” But Shough, who will turn 26 in September, knows the kind of opportunity that’s in front of him now.
It’s an opportunity that arrives after a journey that’s been far from seamless.
“You look back, and it’s like, what are you willing to sacrifice to get to that position?” Shough said, via “The St. Brown Podcast.” “If you would have told me as a 20-year-old, you’re going to get drafted, but you are going to have to wait four or five years and you’re going to break your bones three times and you’re going to think about not playing football again and you’re going to be depressed and you’re gonna have all these emotions, but if you just stay at it, then I would have done it, and I did. At that time, you’re thinking, ‘Why is this happening? What is going on? There’s a lot of unknowns.’ But that’s literally the NFL, that’s the game of football.”
There are more unknowns on the way for Shough, especially if wins the starting job.
He believes he’s ready to handle it all.
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