Who won the Saints' backup QB competition? Dennis Allen has a plan to keep it going. (2024)

The competition isn’t over.

Jake Haener and Spencer Rattler each made the New Orleans Saints’ initial 53-man roster, but coach Dennis Allen isn’t ready to say which young quarterback won the right to back up starter Derek Carr.

They're still competing, Allen said. And that’s something that will be continuously evaluated over the coming season, he added.

“It’s a healthy competition,” Allen said. “Both those guys have done well and so, I’m not in any way going to make any statement or comment, declaration or anything of that nature. We’ll let those guys keep coming out and working and practicing and getting better.

“Here’s the deal: With both of those players, both of them, we’ve got to develop.”

The Saints, of course, could tip their hand when they eventually must declare inactives on gameday, starting when they host the Carolina Panthers to open the season on Sept. 8. Teams with three quarterbacks on the roster rarely keep all three active on gamedays, especially because NFL rules allow an inactive third QB to play in an emergency if he’s declared as such ahead of time.

In the Saints’ case, whoever is declared the emergency QB — or who is inactive — will be the tell that that person is the third-string quarterback.

Even then, though, New Orleans reserves the right to change that on a week-to-week basis. In the preseason, the Saints alternated between Haener and Rattler, so that Haener would work with the 2’s one day and then Rattler would get his turn the next. It evened out so that Haener backed up Carr the first preseason game, Rattler did so for the second contest and both took close to the same number of snaps in the finale (when Carr didn’t play).

After the preseason ended, Allen said he felt that Haener had taken a “real big step forward” in practice over the last seven to 10 days — but Allen added that progress didn’t translate to Sunday’s 30-27 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

In three exhibition games, Rattler was slightly more productive than Haener. The fifth-round rookie, drafted out of South Carolina, had a 76.9 passer rating to Haener’s 74.8. Rattler’s stints also included engineering a game-winning two-minute drive against Arizona and a flashy 21-yard touchdown strike against the Titans.

But Haener held his own and was even better than Haener in other categories. The 2022 fourth-rounder threw for more yards (270 to Rattler’s 202), held a higher completion percentage (55.8% to 52.6%) and took fewer sacks (one to three).

Neither player outright seized the job, but both showed enough to be worthy of roster spots. The Saints chose to lean on their youth at the position this offseason rather than try to sign an experienced veteran quarterback to sit behind Carr.

Carr’s last backup, Jameis Winston, left New Orleans to sign a one-year deal with the Cleveland Browns.

“We’ve got to find ways to get reps for these guys whether it be on the show team, whether it be extra sessions with some of the young skill guys, things of that nature,” Allen said. “We’re going to have to continue to work to develop (them). That’s probably the most unique thing, and probably the bigger challenge with all this, that we have two young guys that need work, that need to develop.

“There’s only so many snaps you can get throughout the course of a week.”

That, as Allen said, will be a challenge for the Saints. Teams rarely draft quarterbacks in back-to-back years as the Saints did, especially with the intent to develop both.

If the Saints are grooming either Rattler or Haener to replace Carr in future seasons eventually — Carr is the clear No. 1 this year — New Orleans’ brass will let that process play out.

Haener and Rattler will have to earn it — no matter who begins the season as the backup.