South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler fell deep into the 2024 NFL Draft despite a pretty productive year with the Gamecocks this past season. But on NFL Network’s broadcast of the draft on Saturday, Ian Rapoport offered some interesting insight into why Rattler slid so far.
Rattler is regarded by most draft experts to have the best chance to succeed in the NFL outside of the six quarterbacks who heard their name called in the first round of the draft. Considering how highly quarterbacks were valued by teams early on in the draft on Thursday, it is particularly surprising to see someone like Rattler fall deep into Day 3 of the draft.
Ian Rapoport spoke about Rattler’s slide, saying that Rattler’s draft stock may have fallen due to his very public high school career that was on full display thanks to the Netflix reality series QB1: Beyond the Lights which showed his time at Pinnacle High School in Phoenix, Arizona among other top high school quarterback recruits.
“Spencer Rattler did a reality show in high school,” said Rapoport. “It did not make him look great. And it is unbelievable how many different teams mentioned to me the image of him in that show and how they can’t get it out of their heads, which I think would be a public service announcement to all 17-year-olds. But it is fascinating while teams weigh whether or not to draft him.”
"It did not make him look great. And it is unbelievable how many different teams mentioned to me the image of him in that show and how they can't get it out of their heads."
Ian Rapoport on how a reality show filmed in high school is hurting Spencer Rattler now. pic.twitter.com/51n8nZA070
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 27, 2024
Rapoport also mentioned that there were potential concerns about his upside in the NFL that could be keeping teams away. But considering he had slipped all the way into the fifth round at the time Rapoport mentioned this, it is certainly worth questioning how many teams potentially wrote him off entirely due to his portrayal on the Netflix series.
For those who didn’t watch the Netflix series, it showed how Rattler was suspended in his senior year of high school after violating a district code of conduct just before his senior night game. He was ultimately ruled to be ineligible for the rest of the season.
To this day, there are very few details about what Rattler ultimately did that warranted the ineligible ruling. But it wasn’t exactly a good look. Especially because Rattler and his family originally tried to play off the incident by instead claiming he was injured.
Regardless, you would think that this incident from his high school days would be water under the bridge at this point. Quite some time has passed since then, and you would assume that Rattler has done plenty of maturing in those years since his high school days.
Rattler did finally hear his name called on Saturday, being selected with the No. 150 overall pick by the New Orleans Saints.
"The drought is over."
Spencer Rattler is selected No. 150 overall by the New Orleans Saints. https://t.co/Wj6n5Gj1Vi pic.twitter.com/qaWQWeafAc
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 27, 2024
The end result for Rattler may not be all that bad after all. Yes, he will lose out on quite a bit of money in his initial rookie contract based on his slide in the draft. But the Saints are seemingly a team that could very well look to move on from current starting quarterback Derek Carr in the coming years if his inconsistent play continues in New Orleans.
