Saints film room

The Saints used to be so good at covering tight ends that it was well-known in the fantasy world that you should sit your tight ends when they faced this defense.

New Orleans locked down these guys year after year, but those days appear to be in the past. The Saints’ inability to cover tight ends can no longer be dismissed as a hiccup. It has become a full-blown trend — and a troubling one at that.

Can the Saints defense find a way to be more consistent after struggles continue against Lions?Full Episode:⬇️https://t.co/oz33UiFAfd pic.twitter.com/jSk2OcmyL1— NOF (@nofnetwork) December 6, 2023

Detroit's Sam LaPorta became the latest tight end to light up the Saints, catching nine passes for 140 yards with a touchdown during the Saints' 33-28 loss to the Lions on Sunday. What's most troubling is that he won in a variety of ways.

The rookie tight end opened his day by scoring on a 13-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jared Goff. Detroit used some motion with LaPorta that showed the defense was in zone coverage, and from there, LaPorta ran a pattern over the middle that put him underneath the Saints defense for an easy touchdown.

Sammy's scoring touchdowns‼️#DETvsNO 📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/nKWy4Esd2J— Detroit Lions (@Lions) December 3, 2023

A little later in the first quarter, Goff connected with LaPorta on a 29-yard gain against man coverage. LaPorta ran a post route over the middle against Isaac Yiadom and beat him after the cornerback was slow to pick him up.

During the second quarter, the Lions split LaPorta out wide and got him lined up against Nephi Sewell. The tight end ran an in route and quickly got open for a gain of 11 yards. On their next passing play, the Lions had LaPorta in the slot against safety Jordan Howden. LaPorta won the rep at the top of his route and broke inside to make a 14-yard reception.

Howden later gave up another 10-yard reception to LaPorta.

LaPorta’s biggest gain of the day was a 48-yard reception that came against a busted coverage. The coverage was so shattered that’s it hard to properly diagnose who was to blame for the play. Sewell was initially on LaPorta and passed him off, but no one was around to pick him up.

Sam LaPorta wide open for a 48-yard gain to go over 100 yards for the day!#DETvsNO |📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/itZdTBSXNg— Detroit Lions (@Lions) December 3, 2023

To be fair, a handful of LaPorta’s gains came against backups, including Yiadom and Howden. who typically wouldn’t be on the field if everyone was healthy. But this is hardly a new issue.

The Saints gave up 11 receptions for 134 yards to Minnesota’s T.J. Hockenson, while Chicago’s Cole Kmet tallied six receptions for 55 yards against the Saints.

DOBBS TO HOCKENSON. @Vikings having a day!📺: #NOvsMIN on FOX📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/kECSNGbyLL pic.twitter.com/jBE1i5Ymqt— NFL (@NFL) November 12, 2023

A lot of the same issues showed up against Minnesota. Hockenson simply beat some of New Orleans’ players in man coverage, including one against Alontae Taylor for 21 yards. But his biggest play came when he found a soft spot in the zone coverage that allowed him to slip between the linebackers and safeties for a 28-yard touchdown.

The plays against Kmet are a little harder to categorize as troubling. He had an 18-yard touchdown on a ridiculous pass that required an outstanding catch against Tyrann Mathieu’s tight coverage. And Kmet’s 9-yard touchdown came after he shed a Zack Baun block and got open downfield. Neither one seemed to reveal a fatal flaw.

COLE KMET GOES UP TO GET IT 🔥📺: #CHIvsNO on CBS📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/d4RDZpcMkc pic.twitter.com/RwOQvuOyab— NFL (@NFL) November 5, 2023

Still, the Saints' inability to stop tight ends is becoming something a problem, and it’s hard to fully understand why. The defense never dealt with these types of issues before. And it's not like the problems are isolated to LaPorta, Hockenson and Kmet alone. Houston’s Dalton Schultz had four catches for 61 yards and a score. Luke Musgrave gave the Packers 49 yards on six receptions.

Overall, New Orleans has surrendered 644 yards to tight ends, which is a big uptick from recent seasons. The Saints only allowed 529 yards to tight ends last year (No. 1 in the NFL), 778 in 2021 (No. 8) and 712 in 2020 (No. 6). The thing to keep in mind here is that this year’s team has only played 12 games and is well ahead of the pace set in previous years. The Saints have also surrendered the most touchdowns to tight ends (seven) so far this season.

The fact that this aspect of the defense has fallen off a bit is a surprise, but not shocking. There’s been some deterioration across the board on things we used to take for granted from the Saints. They no longer defend the run well or create much pressure. Sacks have disappeared.

But if the Saints plan to reach the postseason, they have to find a way to defend tight ends better, or else everyone coming up against them is going to try to attack them in the same way.