EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsON THE FINAL Monday before the Saints' 2026 season opener against the Detroit Lions, the entire team gathered at a local Italian restaurant in Metairie, Louisiana.The "Captains' dinner" is an annual tradition for the Saints, a chance to mingle, laugh, and look ahead to the season. It's where the Saints announce their team captains -- in this case, all nine of them."It's kind of that official start of the regular season, Monday night, just having a dinner together," Saints coach Kellen Moore said. "And then we announce the captains, and they have an opportunity to share a message with the rest of the team."Zach Wood, Justin Reid, Cameron Jordan and Erik McCoy had all been captains before. Others, such as Chris Rumph II, David Edwards, Kaden Elliss and Chase Young are new.Quarterback Tyler Shough, 26, was perhaps the most significant addition. Saints captains are determined by a player vote, and only one year before, the team's 53 players declined to name a quarterback to the captain's group.Shough, who took over for Spencer Rattler as the starter midway through the 2025 season, has spent this offseason proving he has earned a permanent role. He has immersed himself into the culture of New Orleans, aligned with Saints legends such as Pro Football Hall of Famer Drew Brees and worked to get to know his teammates on-and-off the field. Shough has shown he can be the face of the franchise, and the players' vote of confidence backs up that statement."Everybody in the room knew from OTAs on who the leader of the team was and he's done a really great job," Elliss said.Shough later called being named a captain one of the biggest things he has accomplished in his career so far."The NFL is such a hard business because there's so much fluidity," Shough said. "... I felt like with this business and the guys that come in and out, you have to be really intentional about getting to know all of your teammates ... and it means a lot. But I also know that there's more work to be done."As the Saints prepare to face the Lions Sunday (1 p.m. ET, Fox) in their first of two road games to start the season, the true test of his leadership and his abilities start now. For Shough and the rest of the team, the bar has been raised from last season. Can Shough prove he's capable of translating all the momentum from the end of the 2025 season into 2026 and lead the team back to the playoffs for the first time since Brees retired five years ago?He's certainly going to try."He's mature beyond his years, especially beyond his years in the league being a quarterback," Elliss said of Shough. "He speaks much more like a Year 6-7 type of guy and he's going to have a great year."THE LEADUP TO the captains' vote didn't happen overnight.Over the past eight months Shough has juggled all the things that come with being a starting quarterback. Once a backup whose sole job was to run the scout team, now Shough is being pulled in different directions. He and his wife Jordan had their first child, son Grayson, in February. More is asked of him off the field from family obligations, to media and appearance requests, and from his coaches and teammates, who look to him to set the tone for the team.His time is carefully structured to make sure nothing slips through the cracks."It's very routine based. I've built out a system ... that I try and stick to and have a lot of time, maybe on an off-day to go do charity stuff or maybe a shoot or some family time. But throughout the week it's very much detailed as far as built-in media time, built-in meetings, and obviously have my own time. A lot of time I just get in early to do a lot of prep work and then stay late to do it," Shough said.Shough has operated with intentionality and looked for ways to coordinate responsibilities while also connecting with teammates.In early February, he rode on a Mardi Gras float with teammates like McCoy. With McCoy's second child being born around the same time as Shough's a weeks later, parenting topics became a common thread between them and Edwards, whose fourth child was also born this past winter. "Just knowing that we're all kind of in the same season, like, 'Oh, how'd your kids sleep last night? Oh, mine was up at 1, 3, 5, and 7 [a.m.].' It's fun to talk about, and I feel like that gives you a way to bond even just outside of ball," McCoy said during camp.Shough didn't take much of a step back once he became a dad. On the contrary, he appeared to be everywhere in the spring. Brees and Shough made a guest appearance during the Savannah Bananas stop in New Orleans. In April, Shough went to the Hondo Rodeo Fest in New Orleans and golfed in the Zurich Classic Celebrity Shootout.And during all the engagements, Shough has been a cheerleader for each new Saints player, taking free agents such as Travis Etienne Jr. to dinner and posting on social media his excitement with each new draft pick New Orleans selected."He was the first guy on the team to text me after I signed," Elliss said.But the biggest effort -- and the one that further shows the leadership gains the young QB has made -- was when Shough organized a week-long trip to California, offering to pay for his teammates' accommodations to entice them to participate. Some of the attendees included Etienne, running back Audric Estime, tight end Noah Fant, wide receivers Chris Olave and Devaughn Vele. Rookie wideouts Barion Brown and Bryce Lance went as well.Shough and tight end Juwan Johnson stayed in the same house that week with their families. The two men have known each other since they played at Oregon and have reconnected since Shough was drafted No. 40 overall by the Saints last year. But the California adventure was another way to strengthen their bond."It was a full house, three kids, two dogs. Oh man, it was a lot, but it was extremely fun," Johnson said. "When you have that camaraderie and you're able to be around people, even staying in the same house, I feel like you learn a lot about people. And that translates on the field, believe it or not."Johnson said riding roller coasters or eating breakfast together might not seem like big moments, but it builds friendships that make teammates want to fight for each other."I'm going to do whatever I can to make plays because we took that trip to San Diego or we started throwing routes in February or we went and did some things together. ... You spend time together, you find ways to dig a little deeper because you know that person on a more intimate and deeper level," Johnson said. SHOUGH WOULD BE one of the first people to admit he is still a work in progress. He has described himself as "light years ahead" of where he was at this time last year in training camp, when he was not quite ready to be the starter yet.A year ago Shough didn't truly push Rattler in camp until the Saints held scrimmages with "call-it" periods from both coordinators. When the scripted part of practice was taken away to raise the competitive stakes, Shough rose to the challenge.In November, with the Saints struggling to a 1-7 start, the coaches felt confident enough in Shough to start him over Rattler based on the progress they'd seen in practice."You always worry about that transition from scout team to playing in games," Saints offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier said. "But we'd already seen that. We knew his eyes were in the right place. He was seeing things. It just wasn't happening fast enough. But I think probably Week 4 or 5 you really started to see like, OK, he's starting to get it."A similar step forward happened this offseason. The Saints' offense didn't automatically gel in the first few weeks of camp. The Saints ran an unscripted red zone session on Aug. 11 in which the defense clearly won, with Shough throwing two interceptions and almost going for a third. Multiple false starts were also an issue for the unit.Shough said those perceived struggles can be misleading because early practices are focused on installation of the offense or a specific point of focus. The end of camp is where the real football begins, he said."It's not always the perfect look and that's always fun because you get to train what might happen in the game," Shough said. "And then once we get rolling in scrimmages and towards the end you start playing call-it periods. And I always love that because now it's not necessarily scripted and you can operate that way. So it starts getting you towards game-like mentality."The Saints held three joint practice sessions beginning a few days after that red zone period, looking almost like a different unit. They opened up their downfield passing game against the Jacksonville Jaguars and then headed to California for a practice against the Dallas Cowboys that turned into a backyard brawl.While that particular practice might be remembered for multiple fights, Shough quietly had one of his best days, completing almost every pass, including at least seven or eight passes to Olave.In between fights, trash-talking and helmets being tossed, Shough was having the time of his life."We were competing the whole time. We were getting after it," Shough said. "I think that you felt the juice. I was going out there talking crap to the guys, talking a bunch. We were out there competing every single down. That's what we want. We also have to manage the ebbs and flows of the game too. And it felt that way. "There is a common saying in sports that some players "play best when the lights come on," meaning they rise to the occasion when the stakes are the highest. Shough said for him, it's a "different sense of energy" when the stakes are raised.It is a trait that can't be taught, but Saints quarterbacks coach Scott Tolzien thinks Shough has it."That was a hostile environment in Dallas ... I was super fired up about how they had the balance of in that situation, you can either burrow or you can puff your chest out and those guys puffed their chest out but remain poised and executed the offense properly," Tolzien said. "Some guys can lose their minds too and negatives start happening, but I was impressed with how they handled both of those joint practices [in California]. ... You always say all the really good ones play their best in the clutch times and that was in some ways a clutch time just because it was so chaotic."The Saints chose not to play any of their starters in the preseason, so those three joint practice sessions against the Jaguars, Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams will have to be enough for Shough and the team to handle what he knows will be a hostile environment in Detroit."I love it," Shough said. " ... It's a good challenge for us as a team right off the bat against the playoff team, probably the highest-caliber players all across the board. So we're going to be ready to go." THE SAINTS HELD their final practice of training camp at Tulane University in front of fans.The quarterbacks took a break in between periods and walked around the stadium throwing footballs to fans. At one point Shough peeled off to the other side of the stadium, tossing back and forth with kids until someone had to retrieve him for the next segment of practice."QB of the people," the Saints posted on X later.The fan reception at Tulane showed how far Shough has come. In the 2025 practice session, kids were screaming for Alvin Kamara. This year, the veteran running back sat out this Tulane practice with an injury, and the kids focused on Shough.In turn, he embraced the attention just like he has embraced his role with his teammates."I got here last year around the time where he just started to roll and he was more kind of quiet and really, I think he was still learning himself, but now you can see the confidence in the spark and the juice he had this offseason," Estime said. "He took it to a whole 'nother level and then during camp I'm like, he was a night and day of a new guy. But I always saw it in him last year, but just to see him grow is just amazing. I'm excited."There is a sense of hope that comes with a young quarterback. The Saints showed a glimpse of those possibilities last season in their four-game win streak at the end of 2025, and Shough's offseason efforts have resonated with fans and teammates."I was going to do everything I could to go out there and perform," Shough said. "That showed with me staying here in New Orleans and working out every single day. ... I said before, I wanted to be in New Orleans. I wanted to learn more about the city and I've just come to really enjoy it and love it here."And then also come to really know and embrace the whole team and my teammates. And it was an honor to obviously be named captain by them. And I think that's just another piece in the puzzle of what we're building."All of those efforts won't mean much if the Saints and Shough don't improve. New Orleans ranked 28th in scoring, last in red zone offense, and fourth in pre-snap penalties last season. The Saints have work ahead of them with significantly higher stakes in Year 2 under coach Kellen Moore.That's not a secret. In that Monday captains dinner, Reid stood up and talked about championship culture in his speech. He said last season was about building foundations, but 2026 is about spring-boarding to winning the NFC South.They'll need Shough to be at his best if they want to accomplish those goals. There are no guarantees any of the work put in will equal wins, but Shough is undaunted by the challenge."I feel like it doesn't faze me. It doesn't faze us as a team because ... there's so many different things that can happen and so many different things in the offseason that have happened. And I'm just really excited to come together with this group of guys. I feel like this is the most fun that we've been having. I feel like that's the best part about it. Expectations are going to change, but we have high expectations for ourselves."
