After Painful Loss to the Bears, Spencer Rattler Returns to Work Before Dawn. He Arrives at the Saints’ Facility at 4 A.M. — and Finds Young Talen Wide Receiver Already There: “He Looked Like He’d Never Left.”
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After Painful Loss to the Bears, Spencer Rattler Returns to Work Before Dawn. He Arrives at the Saints’ Facility at 4 A.M. — and Finds Young Talen Wide Receiver Already There: “He Looked Like He’d Never Left.”
New Orleans, Louisiana – October 21, 2025
A day after the 26–14 loss to the Chicago Bears, there were no cameras, no excuses—just two players chasing redemption. Quarterback Spencer Rattler arrived at the Saints’ Metairie facility before dawn, determined to fix what went wrong. But when he opened the gym door at 4 a.m., someone was already there.
It was Chris Olave, headphones on, sweat dripping as he worked through route-running drills in silence. The sight stopped Rattler in his tracks.
“I thought showing up this early would make a statement,” Rattler said later. “But Chris was already there, moving like he hadn’t left since last night. That told me everything about the kind of player he is.”
The two spent nearly three hours side-by-side—re-running missed plays, adjusting footwork, and dissecting the red-zone sequences that doomed New Orleans in Chicago. Rattler replayed film clips on his tablet while Olave rehearsed releases against imaginary defenders.
“Stats don’t matter when you lose,” Olave said quietly. “If we want to be great, it starts with mornings like this—before anyone’s watching.”
Their loss to the Bears exposed the same problems that have haunted the Saints all season: penalties, stalled drives, and an offense that can’t finish. Rattler completed 73 percent of his passes but managed only 189 yards and no touchdowns. Olave caught five passes for 48 yards, often double-covered with little separation.
Head coach Kellen Moore praised their response:
“That’s the mentality I want in this locker room. We can’t rewrite yesterday’s score, but we can decide how we show up today.”
At 1–6, the Saints sit at the bottom of the NFC South, their playoff hopes fading. Yet in that quiet gym before sunrise, with two players refusing to quit, there was a flicker of something familiar—the same fire that once defined the Drew Brees era.
“We know we’re at rock bottom,” Rattler said. “But sometimes that’s where you start building something real.”
Next up, New Orleans hosts the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 8—a game that could determine whether this season still has a heartbeat.
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