Spencer Rattler starts hot, sputters in debut as Bucs wallop Saints in NFC South showdown

Making your NFL start against a divisional rival is a hell of a way to begin your NFL career, and finding yourself in a touchdown jailbreak is an even tougher challenge. Spencer Rattler made his professional debut Sunday for New Orleans, and a promising start ended under a deluge of Tampa Bay points. The Saints allowed the Bucs to go on runs of 17 and 27 unanswered points, and Tampa Bay easily snared the division rivalry in New Orleans, 51-27.

Rattler, a Rivals five-star recruit out of Arizona, played college ball at Oklahoma and later South Carolina, but never quite lived up to his billing. The Saints selected him in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL draft to back up incumbent Derek Carr. But when Carr suffered an oblique injury last week against Kansas City, New Orleans opted for Rattler over fellow backup Jake Haener.

Let the record show that Rattler's first play as an NFL quarterback was a 27-yard pass to tight end Juwan Johnson. And that record will show that Rattler fumbled the snap on his second play, and on his third, Chris Olave caught a Rattler pass, and then was injured on a helmet-to-helmet hit that turned into a fumble and a Tampa Bay scoop-and-score:

In other words, Rattler's first possession in the NFL was a whole lot like his college career — brilliance and catastrophe, maddeningly inconsistent because of both extremes.

After Tampa Bay ran off 17 straight points to start the game, Rattler and the Saints seemed to find another gear, scoring 27 points — 20 unanswered — in the second quarter alone. But whatever adjustments the Buccaneers made for Rattler at halftime, they worked to perfection — in the second half, the Saints punted four times, Rattler threw two interceptions, and New Orleans three-and-outed on three of its seven possessions. The Saints managed just 48 yards of total offense in the second half before some two-minute garbage-time yardage with Tampa Bay up 24 points.

The lowlight — or the backbreaker, pick your descriptor — came early in the fourth quarter, when Rattler threw a crucial interception to Tampa Bay's Zyon McCollum. The Saints only trailed by four points at the time of the interception, but one five-play, 63-yard drive later and the Bucs extended their lead to double digits, effectively ending the game.

Rattler finished the day with 243 yards on 22-of-40 passing, with one touchdown and two interceptions. He also scrambled for 27 yards on the day. Obviously, Rattler is leagues behind fellow rookie quarterbacks like Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels, but he did have that 20-point second quarter, and there's something to build on there. With Carr expected to be out several weeks, Rattler could get some more opportunities to prove he belongs in the league.