Six days out from the Saints’ 2026 regular-season opener, the No. 6 jersey belongs to the most important man on the roster: Tyler Shough.
New Orleans heads to Detroit to open the year, and Shough enters his second season as the unquestioned starter. After a promising rookie campaign, he’s expected to take another big step forward. He’s also made a little franchise history along the way, becoming the 10th player to wear No. 6 for the Saints and the first quarterback to ever do it.
That number has had a strange life in New Orleans. The Saints didn’t use it at all until 1987, when punter Tommy Barnhardt put it on and eventually turned it into a familiar sight over three separate stints with the team.
Barnhardt spent eight seasons with New Orleans across those runs, and his 110 games rank second among Saints players who wore No. 6.
He averaged 42.5 yards per punt with the Saints, landed nearly 27% of his kicks inside the opposing 20-yard line, and led the NFL with 3,743 punting yards in 1991. Only Thomas Morstead has more career punt yards or a better career average than Barnhardt.
Before Morstead became the standard at the position, Dirk Johnson wore No. 6 for one game in 2002. Then came the run that really defined the jersey.
New Orleans used a fifth-round pick on Morstead in the 2009 NFL Draft, and he went on to become both a fan favorite and the best punter in franchise history. His 190 games are the most by any Saint to wear No. 6, and his name is tied forever to “Ambush,” the onside kick that opened the second half of Super Bowl XLIV.
Morstead was more than one iconic moment, though. He posted a 46.5 gross average and a 41.6 net average with New Orleans, while 36.3% of his punts were downed inside the 20. He gave the Saints a real field-position edge for years, and he owns the franchise records for punts, yardage, and average.
Then came the 2021 kicking carousel. When Wil Lutz went down with an injury, the Saints cycled through four different kickers, and all four wore No.
6: Brett Maher, Brian Johnson, Aldrick Rosas, and Cody Parkey. Together, they hit 83.3% of their field goals but missed seven extra points.
Maher lasted the longest at eight games, while Rosas and Johnson each appeared in four, and Parkey lasted just one.
After that, the jersey shifted to defense for a stretch. Safety Marcus Maye wore it in 2022 and 2023, but injuries limited him to 17 games in two seasons.
He finished with two interceptions, four passes broken up, a fumble recovery, and a sack. Linebacker Willie Gay took over in 2024, but his year never really got going; he played in 15 of 17 games, logged only 27% of the defensive snaps, and didn’t make much of an impact.
Now the number sits on Shough, a second-round pick in 2025 who went 40th overall out of Louisville. He’s the second-highest-drafted quarterback in Saints history, behind only Archie Manning, who went second overall in 1971. Shough didn’t get on the field until midway through 2025, but once he did, he gave a much-needed jolt to an offense that had been both injured and ineffective.
For New Orleans, the No. 6 jersey has spent most of its life with kickers and punters. Now it’s on the quarterback the Saints are banking on to shape what comes next.
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