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Katherine Terrell
NEW ORLEANS — The Saints signed quarterback Hunter Dekkers on Tuesday following a tryout at rookie minicamp over the weekend.
The Saints now have 4 quarterbacks below the age of 27 following Derek Carr’s retirement announcement Saturday. Additionally they chosen Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough, 25, within the second spherical of the 2025 draft, and have Spencer Rattler, 24, and Jake Haener, 26, within the room as effectively.
Shough is the one unsigned participant from the Saints’ nine-person rookie draft class.
The Saints confirmed curiosity in Dekkers early within the draft course of this spring, and quarterbacks coach Scott Tolzien frolicked with Dekkers throughout his professional day at South Dakota in late March.
Dekkers misplaced his NCAA eligibility in 2023 after three seasons at Iowa State following an Iowa Felony Division investigation into sports activities playing. He was one in every of 35 folks at Iowa and Iowa State who confronted legal prices or the lack of eligibility attributable to sports activities betting. He would finally plead responsible to a decreased cost of underage playing.
Dekkers made roughly 366 bets on a DraftKings account belonging to his mom over the course of three years, together with one $15 win guess on the Iowa State soccer group in 2021 — a recreation through which he didn’t play. As a result of he was on the roster for that recreation, he misplaced his remaining eligibility.
“I wasn’t throwing video games, I wasn’t shaving factors, and I might by no means do this,” Dekkers advised ESPN in March. “There was by no means any intent behind any of those bets. We weren’t making an attempt to generate income. We have been simply treating it like a online game, in a way.
“It was only a mistake that I made, and I’ve to stay with it for the remainder of my life.”
Dekkers didn’t play soccer in 2023 and spent the 2024 season enjoying for junior school Iowa Western. He began 12 video games for Iowa State in 2022, finishing 66% of his passes for 3,044 yards, 19 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
