Tyler Shough is keeping receipts.

The New Orleans Saints’ second-year quarterback wants to remind teams that bypassed him in the NFL Draft about the mistake they made. He added another notch in his belt Sunday by knocking off the Cleveland Browns 23-22 in overtime at the Superdome.

Shough isn’t a vengeful sort by nature. But he uses the perceived spite as motivation to fuel his performance and help his team. On Sunday, it worked yet again, as he drove the Saints to two key late touchdowns to banish the Browns and snap the Saints’ three-game home losing streak.

“I want to keep proving people wrong that have maybe doubted me in the past,” Shough said. “I have that chip on my shoulder. I may not show it all the time, … but I'm going to do my best every single week to show that and do my part at the end of the day just trying to do my job.”

The win was Shough’s second in as many tries against rival quarterbacks from the 2025 NFL Draft class. He outdueled Cam Ward and the Tennessee Titans late last season. And on Sunday, his late heroics clipped Cleveland and Shedeur Sanders.

The Browns, like the Titans, were one of Shough’s primary suitors a year ago, but they elected to bypass him for other prospects in the first and second rounds. When the Browns took linebacker Carson Schwesinger and running back Quinshon Judkins early in the second round, the Saints were relieved and happily selected with the No. 40 overall pick in Round 2. He’s led the Saints to eight wins in 17 starts and is the single biggest reason for optimism in the organization right now.

The Browns, meanwhile, continue to struggle at the quarterback position and probably regretted their decision mightily as they watched Shough rally the Saints from multiple late deficits. While Sanders made some clutch throws down the stretch to give the Browns a chance, he also took five sacks and struggled on third down and in the red zone.

Sanders actually won the battle on the stat sheet. He finished with 295 passing yards and two touchdowns compared to Shough’s 21-of-35 passing effort for 265 yards and a touchdown. But the eye test clearly showed the Saints had the better all-around quarterback. And in the statistic that matters most – won-lost record – Sanders is now 3-6 as a starter compared to Shough’s 8-9 mark.

“I haven’t been around too many competitors like Tyler,” said Saints running back Audric Estime, who has keen perspective on the situation, having just arrived in Saints camp from three weeks with the Browns. “He can do it all.”

Shough slogged through a fitful first three quarters that saw the Saints settle for four field goal attempts in their first five drives into Browns territory. Another potential scoring threat ended when rookie Jordyn Tyson fumbled near the Browns’ goal line at the end of a 9-yard reception.

But when it mattered most, Shough was money. He led the Saints to touchdowns on the final drive of regulation and on their only series in overtime, completing 8 of 11 passes for 92 yards and a touchdown in the two possessions. His beautiful 33-yard drop-in-a-bucket completion to Chris Olave set up the go-ahead touchdown late in regulation and gave the Saints a temporary 16-13 lead in the final minutes. And his 15-yard strike to Juwan Johnson in overtime proved to be the game-winner.

“He's done it since his first few starts in the NFL,” Olave said. “I feel like we go down to the end of the game, he gets even better and better. … He's calm and collective and we got the utmost confidence in Tyler. I feel like he's one of the best and he's showing that every week.”

Shough also displayed his underrated set of wheels. He ran for 51 yards, mostly on scrambles, as he eluded Browns pass rushers in the pocket multiple times to turn nothing into something and keep drives alive. He now leads the Saints in rushing with 162 yards on the ground.

“He’s a good player in the pocket, and he runs around well,” Schwesinger asid. “We got really close a couple of times, and he’s incredibly slippery.”

When asked about his will to win, Shough described it as a delicate, internal balancing act: Playing with unwavering self-belief while staying humble enough to know how much better he can be.

“I want to prove myself right, and I utmost believe in myself,” he said. “I feel like I’m the best in the league. But I also know I have so much more to grow, so it’s this constant yearning for, how do I keep getting better?”

Clutch quarterback play is something the Saints haven’t had since Drew Brees roamed the Dome. But Shough’s greatest strength might just be his ability to perform with the game on the line. The game-winning drive against the Browns was his fifth in 17 career starts. That’s more than twice as many as Derek Carr recorded (two) in the 27 starts he made during his three-year tenure here.

“There's an emotional stability (for a QB) and an ability to take away all the things that happened in the past and be present in the moment, and I think Tyler does a phenomenal job of that,” said Saints head coach Kellen Moore, who played the position. “… To clean the slate and say, ‘Hey, we got the ball with the chance to go take the lead late in the game,’ that's all you can ask for and he did an awesome job.”

The New Orleans Saints haven’t had a lot of things to feel good about this season. Even their win against the Browns left as many questions as answers. When Sanders’ potential game-winning two-point conversion pass fell incomplete, it felt more like survival than triumph for the Saints.

But if there’s one thing this season has revealed, it’s that the Saints have the answer to the most important question in football: Shough is their franchise quarterback. This team — and organization — will go as far as he takes them.