PFSN’s Football Debate Club tackled the redraft question hanging over the 2025 quarterback class: how high is too high for Tyler Shough now?
Shough was the No. 40 overall pick in the second round last April, the third quarterback taken in the class. PFSN’s NFL Draft analyst Ian Cummings recently debated where Shough would go in a 2025 NFL redraft.
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Why Taking Tyler Shough Top-10 in a 2025 NFL Redraft Isn’t Crazy
“With a redraft, we have to take in a few factors. I think positional value is one that bears noting,” Cummings said on PFSN’s Football Debate Club. “And listen, he’s a QB. He had the prototypical talent, the arm talent, the athleticism.”
The numbers backed up the eye test. Shough completed 67.6% of his throws in 11 games and 9 starts, the third-highest completion percentage by a qualifying rookie in NFL history. He finished the season with 2,384 yards, 10 touchdowns, 6 interceptions, and a 91.3 passer rating. His 103.3 third-down passer rating led the entire NFL.
He also won. Shough went 5-4 as a starter on a 6-11 Saints team, including a four-game win streak that featured back-to-back upsets of the NFC South-leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers. He won the Pepsi Rookie of the Year fan vote and was named an AP Offensive Rookie of the Year finalist.
Cummings pointed to Shough’s QB Impact metric as well. “He had a 73.9 QB Impact rating,” Cummings said. “The average for rookies who became long-term starters since 2018 [is] 73.6. You take away the guys who scored over 80, it drops to 71.4.”
Translation: Shough already cleared the long-term-starter threshold as a rookie. He did it on a team that started 1-7 under Spencer Rattler before handing him the keys. Shough’s 73.9 QBi ranked 23rd in the league, beating out Baker Mayfield (73.6) and Jayden Daniels (71.8) among others.
The infrastructure around him is also better in 2026. The Saints used the No. 8 overall pick on Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson to pair with Chris Olave. They signed former Bills guard David Edwards to a four-year, $61 million deal to anchor the offensive line.
“With Jordyn Tyson, a better O-line, the sky’s the limit,” Cummings said.
What Holds Tyler Shough Back From the Top 10
Infante drew the line at top 15.
“I wouldn’t put Shough in the top 10 just yet, but I think the top 15 is totally fine,” Infante said. “Obviously he had an incredible year, but you’re looking at someone who only started 9 games this past year. That’s a pretty small sample size to definitively say this guy is a top-10 player in this draft class.”
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One thing worth noting about Shough’s nine starts is he played most of those games with a depleted supporting cast. Alvin Kamara missed the final six contests. Rashid Shaheed was traded at the deadline. Olave missed the season finale due to a blood clot in his lung. With that said, some of the production came against teams in disarray.
“When you’re looking at how many different players in this 2025 draft class were able to contribute right out of the gate on both sides of the ball, I think that Shough, as encouraging as the flashes were, the sample size wasn’t quite what it needed to be,” Infante said.
Age matters too. Shough turned 26 years old during his rookie year, making him the oldest first-year quarterback drafted since Brandon Weeden in 2012. That ceiling-projection runway is shorter than for the prospects he’d leapfrog in a top-10 redraft.
Regardless, it’s certainly seeming like the Saints got a steal by landing Shough in the second round.
