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METAIRIE, LOUISIANA - AUGUST 03: Spencer Rattler #2 of the New Orleans Saints and Tyler Shough #6 of the New Orleans Saints participate in a training camp drill at Ochsner Sports Performance Center on August 03, 2026 in Metairie, Louisiana. (Photo by Morgan Simmons/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The first preseason game for the New Orleans Saints gets underway this Saturday afternoon, as the Jacksonville Jaguars come to town for the only home preseason game that the Saints will host this season. The game will feature a matchup of Tyler Shough vs. Trevor Lawrence.
Now, it’s not known as of today how much either starter will play or if they will play at all. So, with that thought in mind, we will look at both starters and their primary backups. The Saints will also be hosting the Jaguars this week for a joint practice , and those two will definitely be trying to break down the opposing defense.
Lawrence is coming off a season that saw the Jaguars finish 13-4, and he had a really solid year himself, finishing the season with just over 4,000 passing yards and completing just under 61% of his attempts. He had 29 touchdowns and 12 interceptions and also added 359 yards on the ground to go along with 9 rushing touchdowns.
What was alarming for Lawrence was the number of times he was sacked. He was sacked 41 times in 2025, the sixth-most in the NFL.
Lawrence is backed up by veteran journeyman Nick Mullens. He appeared in 5 games last season and attempted only 3 total passes, completing all of them for 19 yards with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions. Over the course of his career, Mullens has a 66% completion percentage but has 34 touchdowns to 31 interceptions in 39 games. Mullens may be getting the bulk of the work on Saturday afternoon for Jacksonville.
For the Saints, however, this will most likely be the first preseason start of the 2026 season for Tyler Shough. After having the keys to the franchise turned over to him during the latter part of last season, Shough is looking to come out and build on the success he started having to close out 2025.
Shough started the final 9 games, finishing with a 67% completion percentage and just under 2,400 passing yards, 10 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions. He also added 186 yards on the ground along with 3 rushing touchdowns.
Shough is exploring this young core of receivers that the front office has added around him, and if he gets the opportunity to start, it will be interesting to see if he can link up with some of the explosive playmakers the Saints have added. The offense has started to find its rhythm as of late in training camp, even though the defense had its number early on.
Now, if it’s not Shough starting, then it will be a very familiar face and fan favorite in Spencer Rattler under center for the Saints.
It’s hard to think of a better team guy and professional than Rattler. He came into last season as the starter, was replaced midseason, and has taken everything in stride while doing all he can to improve himself and the team. Those results are showing up in camp, as he has been looking pretty good while running with the backup unit.
Rattler finished last season with eight starts, 67% completion percentage, just under 1,600 passing yards, 8 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions. Rattler added 167 yards on the ground and 4 fumbles, with 2 of them resulting in turnovers.
Either way, this will be a very intriguing matchup of quarterbacks for the first preseason game, no matter who gets the start.
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