With the Saints’ 2026 opener just two days away, the attention turns to a small number with a long and uneven history in New Orleans: No. 2. Spencer Rattler will wear it this season as he enters his third year, and he becomes only the seventh player in franchise history to do so.
The list starts with a rough beginning. Chip Lohmiller, a kicker who arrived after seven strong seasons with the Washington Redskins, was the first Saint to wear No. 2 in 1995.
His run in New Orleans lasted only eight games, and it went badly. He missed two extra points and converted just 57% of his field goals.
After that came Aaron Brooks, and the number found its most important home. The Saints traded for the former Green Bay Packers backup during the 2000 offseason, and by the end of that season he had taken over.
Brooks made his first NFL pass in the 11th game of the year after replacing injured starter Jeff Blake, then started the final five games and helped the team go 3-2 down the stretch. In the wild-card round, he threw for 266 yards and four touchdowns as New Orleans beat the defending Super Bowl champion St.
Louis Rams for the franchise’s first postseason win.
Brooks kept the job from 2001 through 2005, and his 85 games remain the most by any Saints player to wear No. 2.
His place in team history runs deeper than that. He stands second in Saints history in career touchdown passes and third in passing yards, and in 2002 he broke Jim Everett’s single-season franchise record for touchdown passes before Drew Brees later came along.
Brooks was inducted into the Saints Hall of Fame in 2014.
The jersey also made stops with kickers Olindo Mare and John Kasay. Mare joined New Orleans in 2007 after 10 seasons with the Miami Dolphins and lasted one year, making all of his extra points while hitting 58.8% of his field goal tries.
Kasay came to the Saints in 2011 after a 20-year NFL career and after Garrett Hartley was hurt in preseason. That season, he set Saints single-season records with 147 points and 63 extra points, while also making 28 of 34 field goals for an 82.4% rate.
Jameis Winston carried No. 2 more recently, first arriving in 2020 as Drew Brees’ backup before winning the starting job when Brees retired. Winston opened the 2021 season by throwing five touchdowns, then helped New Orleans to a 5-2 start with 15 touchdown passes and only three interceptions before a knee injury against the Buccaneers in Week 8 ended his year.
He came back in 2022 and sparked a comeback against the Falcons in the opener, but injuries hit again in Week 4, and Dennis Allen later stuck with Andy Dalton. With Derek Carr installed as the starter in 2023, Winston was pushed back to backup duty and appeared in three games as a replacement for an injured Carr.
In his Saints tenure, he completed 59.9% of his passes for 2,367 yards with 20 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Now the number belongs to Rattler, who wore No. 18 as a rookie in 2024 before moving to No. 2 last season. He started the first eight games of 2025 without much success before the Saints went to rookie Tyler Shough.
Rattler’s time in the system is a plus, but his trouble pushing the ball downfield and reading defenses remains an issue. Even so, he is expected to back up Shough for at least 2026.
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