METAIRIE, La. -- The New Orleans Saints weren't looking for a typical rookie when they selected Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough with the 40th pick in the draft.
Shough had traits that might have made other teams shy away. He'll be 26 at the beginning of the NFL season -- older than most of his draft class.
He's played for three teams across seven years of college eligibility -- Oregon from 2018 to '20, Texas Tech from 2021 to '23 and Louisville in 2024 -- long enough to have been teammates with Saints tight end Juwan Johnson, who is entering his sixth NFL season, at Oregon during Shough's freshman season.
"Tyler's experience, certainly there's value to that," Saints coach Kellen Moore said. "You can see it in the classroom aspect of this thing. His ability to process football at a very easy rate in the classroom. It's really, really good when you throw him up there and you're watching film and you're talking about plays and concepts. He's got great exposure, and he's got great experiences that he can lean on."
There's also a lengthy list of injuries -- a collarbone break and rebreak during his first two seasons at Texas Tech; a broken fibula that caused him to miss the end of the 2023 season as a result of a hip-drop tackle.
"A lot of this stuff is ... out of your control. You can't control getting hip-dropped. Breaking your collarbone, it's probably one of the most common injuries," Shough said. "And for me, it helped me out mentally more than anything and finding a way to add value to my teammates and the coaches."
The Saints didn't just ignore those issues -- they actually embraced them. Shough's maturity appealed to a team in transition, pairing him with Moore, who is the youngest current NFL coach at 36. As quarterback Derek Carr deals with a shoulder injury of unknown severity, Shough said his only goal for now is to compete and help the team in any way he can.
"I think it's a benefit when a guy's had a lot of experience and has a little maturity to him at that position," Saints general manager Mickey Loomis said. "You get a player that's a little older, so in some cases that might be a detriment, but I don't think it is at quarterback."
The Saints spent a significant amount of time on Shough through the draft process. Moore said the scouts already had evaluations done on him, noting "these guys knew his whole story."
"They were really on him for a number of years and so as coaches, we kind of joined this process as it goes and for those guys, they already had this thing building and for us to kind of come in and see all the work that had been done and then to continue to interact with Tyler again, momentum was definitely valuable to him," Moore said.
Moore and the Saints also spent a lot of time visiting with Shough in the months leading up to the draft. Saints assistant offensive line coach and running backs coach Joel Thomas saw him up close at the Senior Bowl. Quarterbacks coach Scott Tolzien spent an entire day with Shough at Louisville's pro day. New Orleans also brought him in to visit its facility.
Moore said they liked Shough more with each visit.
"He was ready, he was prepared. Obviously he's been through a lot, in a good way, so he's ready to compete in our quarterback room," Moore said.
The two appeared to bond over similar philosophies, with Shough admiring Moore's perspective about how to grow from negative plays.
Moore said because Shough had so much tape to go through, there was plenty to learn about him and the ways he could grow.
"That's a fun task is when you're evaluating quarterbacks is watch them screw up, watch them throw an interception, see how they respond in the next drive, see how they handle those different adversity moments and so certainly Tyler was one that he felt like he had plenty of examples like that," Moore said.
Moore and Shough will be tied together. Extensive homework was a must before drafting him.
While the Saints didn't take him with their first-round pick, he still impressed the Saints enough for them to use a second-round pick to get him -- the highest draft pick they've spent on a quarterback in decades. The last time New Orleans picked a quarterback in the first two rounds was in 1971, when they selected Archie Manning at No. 2.
Second-round picks have been particularly important to the Saints recently. Every second-round pick since 2016 -- with the exception of 2023 defensive end Isaiah Foskey -- has received significant playing time.
That list includes former players like wide receiver Michael Thomas and safety Marcus Williams as well as some current starters: center Erik McCoy, linebacker Pete Werner, cornerbacks Alontae Taylor and Kool-Aid McKinstry.
The Saints will probably want to get their second-round pick on the field as quickly as possible. But when is Shough expected to see playing time?
Whether that happens in the near or immediate future will be the main question as Shough joins a team with significant quarterback concerns.
"I'm just really excited to work with the coaches and see a lot of my close friends and teammates that are already there," Shough said. "So just super fired up for the opportunity and obviously a great franchise and a great history of quarterbacks."
A few months ago, it looked like the Saints were prepared to move forward with Carr, who signed with the team under previous coach Dennis Allen in 2022.
The Saints and Carr have both confirmed he has a shoulder injury. With just three weeks until the Saints hold their first full-team practices of the offseason, it's unclear who will be taking the first-team snaps.
"Derek's obviously dealing with his shoulder at the time and so we'll navigate that as it goes, but behind him ... we've got this really, really competitive group," Moore said. "We feel like we're in a really good space there to allow this thing to compete and go through this process."
If Carr retains the starting position, then Shough would be competing for a backup spot against the rest of the quarterbacks room, which currently includes Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener. The room included Ben DiNucci, but he was released Monday.
Loomis said that there will be a quarterback competition, but clarified that Carr is the starter if he's healthy. Moore said "obviously we felt great about Derek" when asked if Shough would compete with Carr.
"We've been pretty consistent as we went through this process that we felt great about Derek and so obviously we'll navigate the injury process," Moore said.