Spencer Rattler’s Surprising Fifth-Round Selection: Negative Scouting Reports & Narratives to Blame?

Six quarterbacks were selected in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, but former South Carolina Gamecocks signal caller Spencer Rattler had to wait until the fifth round for his fate. The New Orleans Saints picked him up with the 150th overall selection on Saturday. However, Shane Beamer, Rattler’s ex-coach at South Carolina, was critical of how far down in the draft Rattler fell, suggesting that negative scouting reports and pre-draft narratives played a part. “Such a tired , lazy narrative. And bullcrap,” wrote Beamer on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Beamer went further by praising Rattler’s leadership skills, describing the 23-year-old as an excellent player who had dealt with adversity in his time at Oklahoma and was voted captain twice by his teammates. “None of the NFL teams that called me said that….And any team that thinks that clearly hasn’t done their research,” Beamer added on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Some analysts predicted Rattler would be selected somewhere in the second or third rounds, but it wasn’t to be. Speaking about his selection by New Orleans Saints, an elated Rattler said: “At the end of the day it’s a blessing to get picked wherever,” he told reporters on Saturday. He expressed that, as much, all football fans need was positive imagery – similar messages have been passed along with respectable TV dramas for 17-year-olds over time in different countries around the world (such as Degrassi: The Next Generation).
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Rattler’s appearance on a reality show may also have negatively impacted his draft stock. In 2019, when he was still a high school football player, Rattler appeared in Netflix docuseries “QB1: Beyond the Lights.” According to Rapoport, several teams mentioned this programme during discussions about whether or not they should select him – an issue that may have contributed significantly to his drop-down status.
Rattler had begun playing college football with Oklahoma before moving on to South Carolina for his final two seasons in NCAA Division One action (he played against the Georgia Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium). Over these four years, Rattler racked up 10,807 passing yards and a total of 77 touchdowns.