Four years ago, after committing a pair of costly turnovers against a hated rival, Spencer Rattler was banished to the bench.
The man who replaced him in the lineup will be across the field from him Sunday when the New Orleans Saints travel to face the Chicago Bears and quarterback Caleb Williams.
Williams was the headliner of the 2024 quarterback draft class that featured a record six passers taken in the top-12 picks — and also one quarterback taken in the fifth round, Rattler, who has for the moment secured one of the 32 starting jobs in the NFL.
This Sunday they will meet as peers, albeit with some qualifiers. One was hailed as a “generational prospect.” The other has had to work to shed the label that comes with his draft position, and is by no means there yet. Still, they are peers. Two of 32. And that is the way Rattler looks at it.
“I like to put myself up with any of those guys in that (2024 draft) class,” Rattler said Wednesday. “I’ve been competing with those guys since high school ball, I’m still doing it to this day. I love to compete against those guys, and I definitely want to be mentioned in that group, because I feel like confidence-wise, I’m up there with those guys.”
But once they were teammates — and it may be fair to say rivals. There was a specific moment that altered the paths for both of them.
It was October 2021 and Rattler was the starting quarterback for an unbeaten No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners team. His play had been uneven that season, though, and against Texas it started to fall apart. An early interception led to a touchdown drive that put Texas up 21-7. A second-quarter fumble was followed by another Texas score. Down 35-17, Rattler lost his grip on his starting job.
Williams replaced Rattler and led a furious Oklahoma rally, outscoring Texas 38-13 during the remainder of the game in a wild 55-48 win.
A lot changed, and quickly. They both transferred the next year, Rattler to South Carolina and Williams to Southern California, where he followed coach Lincoln Riley and won the 2022 Heisman Trophy.
“Just how to deal with adversity,” Rattler said about what he took from the experience. “It’s not the first time a quarterback had to go through that, so I’m not the only one. But adversity, it’s the quarterback position, it’s what comes with the job. You’ve got to deal with it and move onto the next.”
Their paths from that day in Oklahoma presented both with challenges.
Ever since Williams won the Heisman, it felt like a foregone conclusion that he would go No. 1 whenever he entered the draft. That hype comes with pressure to perform, and Williams did not always deliver as a rookie in a city that is perennially starved for good quarterback play.
For Rattler, a couple of years of good but not spectacular football at South Carolina resulted in him lasting until Day 3 of the draft. He entered the NFL as a backup with intriguing potential. If it wasn’t for Derek Carr’s surprising retirement, that might still be what he is. Even after Carr’s retirement, the Saints drafted Tyler Shough in the second round, and Rattler had to beat Shough to earn the starting job.
The path matters, and not just from a narrative standpoint. The Bears are committed to building around Williams as a franchise cornerstone, treatment that comes with the draft investment. As a Day 3 draft selection leading a 1-5 team, the bar is much higher for Rattler to get the same consideration.
But what also matters is the opportunity. While Williams will have a longer runway, Rattler has converted some doubters with his play this season.
He has compiled modest statistics through six weeks, throwing six touchdown passes, averaging 202.8 yards passing per game and posting a 91.5 passer rating, all below league average for starting quarterbacks. But Rattler has avoided costly mistakes — his 0.5% interception rate and 5.1% sack rate both rank among league leaders — and he’s positioned a rebuilding Saints team to be competitive late in four of the five losses.
A win Sunday against the Bears with Williams on the other sideline may convert a few more doubters, even if Rattler isn’t willing to place any added significance on the who and why.
“We all have our own paths, and we’ve got to do our best with our own paths,” Rattler said. “The past is the past, and I’m focused on the present and the future.”