This Report About Tyler Shough Proves Jaxson Dart-Saints Hype Was Bogus

The mock drafters were wrong again

Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough during Pro Day at the UofL Football's Trager Indoor Practice Facility Tuesday, March 25, 2025. | Matt Stone/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In the lead-up to the 2025 NFL Draft, how many times did you read or hear that Jaxson Dart was the quarterback the Saints really wanted?

One report said New Orleans was "hot and heavy" after the Ole Miss product. Another said the Saints would try to trade back into Round 1 to take Dart. A particularly egregious report even claimed Dart wouldn't slide past New Orleans at ninth overall.

Well, when the dust settled, the Saints took Kelvin Banks Jr. with the No. 9 pick, and Dart went 25th overall to the New York Giants, who did trade back into the first round. The Saints waited until Round 2 to select Louisville QB Tyler Shough, who saw his draft stock rise after the NFL scouting combine.

As it turned out, the Saints didn't even have Dart as the No. 2 QB on their board.

"The Saints were one of a few teams that had Tyler Shough graded as the second-best QB in the draft behind Cam Ward," Jeff Duncan of The Times-Picayune wrote on the X platform.

New Orleans clearly believes in Shough. In fact, Shough is the first QB ever drafted by the Saints in the second round and the franchise's highest-drafted quarterback since Archie Manning went second overall in 1971.

So, yeah, all that Dart-Saints buzz was total nonsense. The only thing experts got right about the Saints' QB plans was their lack of interest in Shedeur Sanders.

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