Quick take: Loss to Raiders carries shades of 2017 Week 2 loss to Patriots
LAS VEGAS – There have been other low points early in the season. The last time a game felt like this, where it felt like there was a disconnect, where the summer led to the fall of the Saints instead of the promised Fall of the Saints was back in 2017. Sunday’s loss to […]
‘You want to be like a quarterback’: Why Saints wide receivers have more to learn than most, and what it takes to understand the offense
LAS VEGAS – Emmanuel Sanders got caught off guard. The wide receiver spent his career playing in complex offenses. Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh, Peyton Manning in Denver. Kyle Shanahan’s offense in San Francisco also has some moving parts. But what the Saints were doing last week was like nothing he had ever seen before. The […]
The Rundown: Inside Deonte Harris’ offseason process to improve his route running
PJ Quarrie thought Deonte Harris was bluffing. When the Saints wide receiver told Quarrie he wanted to start working on his game after the Super Bowl, the trainer thought he had maybe two or three weeks before Harris showed up. Tuesday morning, Harris was there, ready to get to work. There was no time to […]
Some QBs are impatient perfectionists. Drew Brees chooses to take a different approach, and here’s why that matters now more than ever
Jared Cook knows quarterbacks. The Saints tight end has played for five different teams and been thrown a pass by 18 different players. He’s played with multiple Super-Bowl winning quarterbacks, even more Pro Bowlers, and two sure-fire Hall of Famers. All of them come with a unique acclimation process. All good quarterbacks are demanding, especially […]
A look at how the Saints have used wildcat plays the last three seasons, and how those plays could fit into offense now
The play comes and goes and then comes again. Each time the Saints run a wildcat play, it sparks imagination and wonderment. When will Sean Payton use it next? Is a wildcat package coming? How would it co-exist and integrate with how the team uses Taysom Hill? Could Kamara throw a pass? But nothing much […]
Getting by without Michael Thomas won’t be easy, but Saints can do it by raising level of play, getting creative
After Drew Brees went down with a thumb injury last season, coming up with a new plan was simple. The new plan was to stick with the old plan: Throw the ball to Michael Thomas as frequently as possible. Which, really, is the same as saying play it safe and don’t take risks. The wide […]
Saints-Bucs film room: Offense wasn’t great, but the issues are fixable
If you turned on the TV at any point on Monday, you probably heard someone raising significant concerns about the New Orleans offense and Drew Brees’ arm. Some of the analysts seemed to suggest that it was over, that he couldn’t push the ball down the field anymore, that his arm doesn’t have enough to […]
How Saints’ fast-rising secondary spoiled Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay debut
Janoris Jenkins was waiting on the concept. He saw the play repeatedly while studying Tampa Bay’s offense. There it was last season Week 1 against San Francisco. There it was again against the Rams, the Saints, the Steelers, the Seahawks, the Cardinals, the Lions, and on and on it goes. It only takes a couple […]
Quick take: Saints drop Bucs, but dissatisfaction with performance shows what this team is really about
The tone after Sunday’s win tells you everything you need to know about the Saints. Bad and mediocre teams are just happy to win. Good teams demand excellence, and that’s why it almost felt like New Orleans was talking about a loss after beating the Bucs, 34-23. There is a lot to work on. Sure, […]
Source: Alvin Kamara agrees to extension with Saints; here’s what it means
The Saints now have their building blocks on offense once Drew Brees retires. After signing Michael Thomas to a lucrative extension last year, New Orleans locked up offensive weapon Alvin Kamara to a new deal that will keep him with the Saints for the foreseeable future. The running back will make $75 million in new money […]