Time spent with Drew Brees beginning to bear fruit for Tyler Shough

New Orleans Saints quarterback Tyler Shough. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Time spent with Drew Brees beginning to bear fruit for Saints QB Tyler Shough

By Clark Dalton | Last updated Aug 27, 2026 11:51 AM ET

New Orleans Saints second-year quarterback Tyler Shough spent time with Hall of Famer Drew Brees this offseason. That's paying off.

The former Saints QB held a throwing session for Shough and teammates in the San Diego area this offseason to help them master the playbook and improve their timing and accuracy. Now, Shough is beginning to look like Brees in practice, shredding New Orleans' defense with pinpoint passing.

Eye-popping stat shows how time with Drew Brees is bearing fruit

On Wednesday, Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football shared that Shough has completed 76.5 percent of his passes (88-of-115 attempts) since Day 12 of training camp (Aug. 13). This stat line includes joint practices with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Cowboys.

He's not just taking checkdowns to inflate his completion percentage, by the way. Underhill noted Shough has gone 6-of-10 on passes of 20-plus yards.

Since Day 12 of camp Shough has completed 76.5% of his passes (115 attempts), and is 6-of-10 on throws of 20+.

That includes joint practices against Jacksonville, Dallas and the Rams.

The man is on a crazy run.
— Nick Underhill (@nick_underhill) August 27, 2026

Shough to Austin Jr for the touchdown ⚜️ pic.twitter.com/nygcwvAPv9
— Nader Mirfiq (@Nader723) August 27, 2026

The Saints secondary is expected to backtrack after it ranked fourth in the league in passing yards allowed last season (179.2 yards per game). Pro Football Focus ranked the unit No. 25 in the league in its preseason rankings, noting it will rely more on third-year cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry.

Shough, however, is dicing up the secondary without two of his top weapons, running back Alvin Kamara (knee) and rookie wide receiver Jordyn Tyson (hamstring). Tyson may miss the first two months of the season, while Kamara may miss New Orleans' regular-season opener against the Detroit Lions on Sept. 13 (Fox, 1 p.m. ET). The bad injury luck is one reason the Saints will likely sit starters in their preseason finale against the Cowboys on Friday (8 p.m. ET).

Plus, it's good Shough's building on a surprising rookie season. The 40th pick of the 2025 NFL Draft ranked 10th in the league in completion percentage (221-of-327 attempts, 67.6 percent) and 12th in yards per attempt (7.3), ahead of Los Angeles Chargers QB Justin Herbert and Houston Texans QB C.J. Stroud. He also went 5-4 in nine starts and was named a 2025 Offensive Rookie of the Year finalist.

Shough's doing his best impersonation of Brees — who ranks second all-time in completions (7,142) and attempts (10,551) — in practice. Now, he must do it when the games matter to lead New Orleans to its first playoff appearance since 2020 after it went 6-11 last season. There's plenty of reason to believe he may.

Clark Dalton

Clark Dalton is a 2022 journalism graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. He gained experience in sports media over the past seven years — from live broadcasting and creating short films to podcasting and producing. In college, he wrote for The Daily Texan. He loves sports and enjoys hiking, kayaking and camping.

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