The New Orleans Saints have been a mess all season long. With Derek Carr announcing his sudden retirement, the team could not find a proper replacement for the most important position in the sport. As a result, they walked into the season with Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough as their two main quarterback options. Unfortunately, things haven’t gone well for them, and they stand at 1-7 after Week 8 of the 2025 NFL season.
The focus across the NFL is centered around the trade pieces that could be shipped out of New Orleans, rather than the talent on the roster. As the team shifts its attention to the 2026 NFL Draft, it hopes to get good returns on its players, which makes the situation around Rashid Shaheed in the fourth quarter all the more inexplicable.
What Happened to Rashid Shaheed?
Trailing by 20 in the final period, the Saints had made a ton of changes on the roster, including substituting starter Spencer Rattler with Tyler Shough. However, with less than a minute remaining in the game, Shaheed was still out on the gridiron.
As one of the more valuable players on the roster and a trade piece for other teams to add to their wide receiver core, keeping him in the game felt like an eyebrow-raising choice. And it may have come to bite them back.
Falling hard on the ground, it seemed like the talented wide receiver was immediately shaken up. As he held his hip and tailbone, it seemed he might have been injured. Even though he got up and jogged off the field on his own, he did not return for the rest of the game.
An undrafted free agent in 2022, Shaheed was a revelation for the Saints right off the bat. A strong rookie season paved the way for an explosive sophomore campaign, where he had 719 receiving yards and eclipsed that number with his return totals.
Earning a Pro Bowl and All-Pro selection, he looked like a true steal for New Orleans. However, a torn meniscus in 2024 limited him to just six games played that year, as he chose to undergo surgery to repair it.
This season, he was off to a strong start, tallying 356 receiving yards and two touchdowns coming into the game, ranking 33rd on PFSN’s WR Impact, before adding 75 against the Buccaneers.
As a returner, though, he was having his least productive season, with just 120 yards on eight punt returns so far this year.
