Time to give Haener a shot
It never made sense to start Rattler. Any QB taken on day three should be considered a developmental QB who is very unlikely to be ready to start that same year for any NFL team, especially not as early as week six (and considering the lack of help he would have).
We should have started the developmental QB we took last year—he actually had a year to develop.
Besides that, despite all the rationalization to the contrary, it made zero sense that Haener was the best backup to keep the offense running if Carr got injured mid game, but was not the best starting option to keep the offense running in the event of an extended Carr absence. It’s a classic case of overthinking the situation, and just one more blunder for DA to add to his list of HC mistakes.
Haener could very well be terrible if given the opportunity to start, but instead the team put Rattler in a position to get his confidence crushed (which would be true of any day three/undrafted QB this year). Now, the team is stuck in a situation where they let him continue to struggle or sit him, both choices that hurt his confidence further.
I think Allen has one of the same flaws Payton had as a head coach. Payton always tried to get his defensive coordinators to try to mimic the defenses that gave him the most trouble as an offensive coordinator.
Allen seems to be doing the same in reverse. He said in his introductory press conference that he wants an offensive that can run the ball and hit big plays over the top. Those are the offenses that Allen's defenses consistently struggle the most with.
I think Allen has given a general directive to Kubiak to try to take a lot of deep shots, even with the protection issues caused by the injuries to the OL. I believe Allen when he says that it was his decision to start Rattler. I think he chose Rattler becuase he's chasing those deep shots too hard.
The first two weeks the run game and deep shot combo was working very well with the starting OL healthy. They are not working as well now, but the offense keeps pressing for the deep shots anyway. I suspect that is coming more from Allen than Kubiak.
Rattler wants to take those deep shots, so he either forces it when it's not there or he waits too long to look elsewhere. Haener does a better job of quickly recognizing when the called play is not going to work and knowing where his opportunities will be.
I'm not saying Haener is a better QB or is the future QB. Right now, Haener's ability to quickly recognize where the openings will be and quickly get the ball to recievers is what the Saints need on offense more than Rattler's strong arm. Once the OL is healthy, then the advantage might tilt toward Rattler.
If Rattler starts Sunday and he hasn't learned how to better recognize pressure and adjust for it presnap, then he's going to get blitzed to death again and the Saints offfense will continue to struggle like it has in the last two games. Doing the same thing will lead to the same results.