METAIRIE, Mo. — The New Orleans Saints prepared rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler in an unusual way for Monday night’s game against the Green Bay Packers in Wisconsin. Temperatures are expected to drop below 30 degrees and a chance of snow at Lambeau Field.
Quarterbacks coach Andrew Gianocco took Rattler and the rest of the Saints quarterbacks to a walk-in freezer in the team’s cafeteria on Saturday to practice plays.
“This morning Janocco took us to the freezer in the cafeteria, and it was like 10 degrees. We just read the whole script there, and just doing that helped a lot. ” Rutler said. “I hope it doesn’t get to 10 degrees, but I’m ready.”
Yanocco joked that he got the idea after watching “Cool Runnings.” In the film, the characters sit in an ice cream truck preparing for the situations they will face as Olympic bobsledders.
But Yanocco also said he had a lot of ideas for preparing for the cold after coaching in the NFC North from 2015 to 2023.
“I think you said something about just getting ready.” [the cold]”So I’m not shocked, I’m not surprised,” he said. “It’s something you can handle if you prepare for the opponent and prepare for the venue.” So I thought it would be a good idea to try something a little different. It’s fun to do a lot of things this time of year. The season is long, and you’re not only attending meetings day in and day out, but you’re also doing something different and changing scenes. Everyone thought it was interesting. The cafeteria workers think I’m crazy. ”
Rattler will start his first game at Lambeau, replacing the injured Derek Carr (hand), who was sidelined Saturday. Alvin Kamara (groin) was also ruled out. Both players missed practice for a week.
Rattler started in the second half of last weekend’s 20-19 loss to the Washington Commanders after the Saints benched Jake Hoerner at the end of the first half.
This will be Rattler’s fourth start of the season. The rookie started the first three games of the year when Kerr was sidelined with an oblique strain.
Interim coach Darren Rizzi said Kerr’s rehabilitation this week was not progressing enough to return to practice. Rizzi suggested earlier this week that Kamara’s play was questionable after tests showed his groin injury was worse than initially expected.
“The last few days have definitely been encouraging,” Rizzi said. ”[Carr] My grip strength is starting to return little by little. Talking to him and the medical staff, it certainly felt like he was getting closer to that situation, but given his current situation, he didn’t have enough time to get out there and perform. I didn’t think it was there. I wanted to perform. I just feel like I’m better now, but he’s improved.”
Receiver Chris Olave practiced limitedly this week after returning from a long injured reserve stint with two concussions, but is not yet ready to play.
“He’s been all smiles the last few days, which is a great story,” Rizzi said. “…He’s a guy who six, seven weeks ago had no idea where he was going, what was going to happen to him, about his career. To see him come back, it’s funny. I’m just moving forward to see him run around.’ It was so heartwarming for me to be in the locker room laughing with everyone. Because there was a question of what was going to happen…He was moving around like the Chris Olave that I knew. ”
