Alontae Taylor is having a breakout season and we should be talking about it more

If you watch enough football, there have been a handful of quarterbacks over the years that, if asked, you could recite something close to their cadence.

Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers both barked something that sounded like "Green 19" or "Three 19." You know Peyton Manning's "Omaha," of course. Cadences also happen to be the talk of the NFL right now after Rodgers and Jets coach Robert Saleh had a little public face-off over the complexity of Rodgers' cadences earlier this week.

Patrick Mahomes has become one of those guys, too. We've all heard, "Blue 80. Set. Hut!" Sometimes these things change, but you hear it on the broadcasts, even more clearly on primetime productions where the microphones are even louder. And the players study their opponents every week. Anything to get an edge.

"You get to pick up on stuff like that, especially when they're at home," defensive end Payton Turner said. "Little tendencies, like some of the guys that jump the cadence a little bit, but you can't read too much into that until you get into the flow of the game."

How much value is there in studying those?

"All the value, right? For sure," Cam Jordan said, noting that they pay special attention to when someone is able to jump a snap. "Whatever he saw on tape gave him some sort of advantage, and I have to tap in."

Studying Mahomes' cadence is interesting. There are some plays where you get the standard snap on "set hut." But there are times when the ball gets snapped at different times throughout the process. Last year, against the Bears, it looked like the offense kept snapping the ball on the "B" of Blue 80," but Mahomes would continue his cadence even after the ball was in his hands — an attempt to keep the Bears off balance and give them more to think about.

That type of approach isn't uncommon.

"We can get a good source of, 'Hey, this is his cadence,' and what it sounds like on TV," Cam said. "Because you're trying to prep yourself for a guy like Aaron Rodgers, who makes everything sound like it. You know, when you go through just a Dak and his cadence and how he tries to do things differently, of course, you know, you're going to need that. So when you get down in, and they try and fake you out with a double cadence or whatever it is, yeah, that's the whole point of a TV copy."

Blitzing up

One of the things that fascinated me most last year was that down the stretch the Saints started blitzing more, and it looked like it was generating positive results. The numbers are back up a little bit so far this year.

2024: 27% blitz rate

2023: 23.5%

2022: 21%

And for the sake of reference, it was 39.3% in 2017. But as I've written before, I think that's more about the evolution of the game than anything. The league has gone to more two-safety looks, which takes a guy out of the box, and you need more people in coverage. Simulated pressures have taken the place of some outright blitzes. And they work, and it's fine.

What probably isn't a great trend is that these blitzes seem to be working significantly better than the standard pass rush. Alontae Taylor has 3.5 sacks, Demario Davis one. On the defensive line, Carl Granderson (three), Bryan Bresee (three), Payton Turner (one) and Chase Young (half of a sack) account for the rest of the pass-rush production.

The Saints have used three pass rushers or less on 15 passing plays this season, which is the third-highest rate behind the Cardinals (24) and Vikings (21). Granderson's forced fumble against the Eagles' Jalen Hurts actually came on one of those plays after Nathan Shepherd, the fourth defensive lineman, dropped into a zone.

I've been wondering if the lack of pass-rush production was anything to do with the approach, but it doesn't seem to be. I think the issue comes back to missed draft picks and just not having a player who is a true No. 1 defensive end. There's a good group of sidekicks here, but no one that is ready to lead a group.

Alontae's breaking out

The Saints' secondary has become a thing that is mostly taken for granted. We used to break down every snap of good play because we never really got to see good play. Keenan Lewis wasn't just a good player for this defense; he was a whole new concept. And then Delvin Breaux that first season — his pure talent and ability were so good that we were willing to overlook the miscues because acknowledging them might mean that the problem wasn't solved.

Then we saw Marshon Lattimore, and we knew how it was supposed to look, and there were no more excuses. Now no one is willing to accept anything less. At some point, high-level play and high standards became so normalized that we just sort of stopped talking about shutdown games and standout performances unless they featured turnovers, because simply being great is the standard.

And that's a good thing. But it's also allowed Alontae Taylor's incredible start to the season to fly under the radar. He quite simply has been one of the better slot corners in the NFL. His snaps in the slot are rated as the third-best in the NFL among players with 100 snaps at that position, according to PFF, putting him behind only Indianapolis' Kenny Moore and New England's Marcus Jones.

You know where Taylor rated last year? You can start guessing and keep guessing, but you'll never get close to the right number. So I'll just tell you. If you just isolate snaps in the slot — nothing else, no snaps on the outside — last year, Taylor ranked 106th on PFF's system among players who played at least 100 snaps in the slot. That's pretty bad, considering that only 118 NFL players logged 100 or more snaps in the slot last year, and most of the guys behind him were safeties.

Alontae said this offseason he locked in and really changed things, and it shows … so far, at least. He's dropped his passer rating against from last year's 100 down to 86. He's forcing more incompletions, allowing fewer yards (10 yards per reception vs. 7.6), and tackling better than ever. He's been an absolute asset.

All of this is interesting because it might change the trajectory. Playing in the slot always felt like it was going to be a brief stop for Alontae before he settled into his long-term role on the outside. Now, it's not so clear. If Alontae ends up being one of the best slot corners in the league, the Saints might choose to keep him there and have Kool-Aid McKinstry replace Paulson Adebo on the outside next year if Adebo doesn't sign a new contract.

Outside players are more valuable, so Alontae might eventually get there anyway, but it might take two players leaving to get him to that spot instead of one.

Big task

I'm absolutely fascinated to see what the Saints end up doing against Chris Jones. There are no easy fixes here, and I think we're probably still at least a couple of weeks away from seeing Cesar Ruiz back on the field. So, that probably means we'll see the same interior offensive line that we saw last week against the Falcons.

Those guys held up fine, Landon Young, Shane Lemieux and Lucas Patrick. But this is Chris Frigging Jones, and Chris Frigging Jones is a big frigging problem. The Chiefs defensive tackle already has three sacks and 21 pressures. He's going to find a way to keep himself in the backfield, especially against a banged-up offensive line.

New Orleans might need to send a running back or fullback into him on obvious passing downs and absolutely overdose on the quick game. Whatever it is, if Klint Kubiak passes this test, it'll be the most impressive thing he's done this season.

Adebo criticism

Bill Belichick was talking about the Saints' late-game issues and pointed out that sometimes some coverage busts are just something you have to deal with early in the season. He pointed out that it wasn't uncommon for his Patriots teams to allow a big play while they were learning how to deal with picks and other things.

When talking about the end of the Atlanta game, he had more criticism about how Paulson Adebo defended the deep throw that led to a game-changing pass interference than he did the defense the Saints called.

"That's a basic fundamental of when you slow down and you catch up to the receiver, you have to look back at the ball," Belichick said. "You can't panic and start swatting at the receiver. You'll get called there."

The thing is, though, the team does need to clean those things up. When you're playing as much man-to-man coverage as the Saints, you're going to see a lot of mesh concepts and pick plays that your defensive backs will need to sort through. The team did better after getting caught on one against Philadelphia. So that needs to keep up.

Random thoughts

Just some random thoughts to finish up here

We're probably at least a week away from seeing Kendre Miller active for a game. The team is going to need him. Having a second running back with some juice to his game would make a huge difference to this offense. … In previous years, I might suggest dropping a cornerback on Travis Kelce, and the team has the depth to do it, and Taylor has the size and strength to handle that matchup. But I'm not sure it's needed. … Would it make sense to maybe try Foster Moreau as TE1? The team needs more out of that spot. … Have you seen how low-scoring games are around the league? What happens when cold weather impacts field goals?