New
Orleans Saints
2018 Record: (13-3) 1st NFC South
2018 Season Recap:
Offense
Points: 31.5 (3rd)
Yards: 379.2 (8th)
Pass Yards: 252.6 (12th)
Rush Yards: 126.6 (6th)
Defense
Points: 22.1 (14th)
Yards: 349.1 (14th)
Pass Yards: 268.9 (29th)
Rush Yards: 80.2 (2nd)
After the Saints lost in heart breaking fashion in the
2018 postseason to the Minnesota Vikings, coach Sean Payton vowed to return
believing his squad was good enough to make another run at the super bowl.
Trading his future first round pick (2019 Draft) to secure the services of
Marcus Davenport, it suggested the Saints were going all in for the 2018
season.
With the regular cast of characters returning for
another campaign, Drew Brees would be tasked with providing another remarkable
year with hopes of once again hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
While the season started with a shocking loss to the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers and journeymen quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, New Orleans
regrouped to win the next 10 contests, displacing some of the top teams in the
NFL. While their winning ways eventually came to an end, it was the Dallas
Cowboys in week 13 who provided the blue print to absolutely shut down this
high-octane unit. Dallas managed to stifle every aspect to the Saints offense which
gave other teams the leg up on how to appropriately game plan against Brees and
the Saints. While some viewed this contest as a mere letdown, we saw this as a
clear turning point to how the season would conclude.
New Orleans finished the season with a 13-3 record and
secured the top seed in the NFC including home field advantage. As the Saints
hosted the Eagles in the divisional round, that game script given from the
Cowboys nearly led the Eagles to a monumental upset victory. Nevertheless, the
Saints moved on to the NFC Championship match against the high-powered LA Rams.
Though this contest didn’t provide the shootout the viewing public expected, it
was shear controversy which filled the headlines when this game ended.
With the Saints driving the field to ultimately close
out the contest on 3rd and 10 with less than 2 minutes left in the
game, a sideline pass to intended for Tommylee Lewis was derailed by a clear
early hit from the Rams Robey-Coleman. With no flag on the play, and the entire
viewing public in utter dismay, the Saints settled for a field goal when that penalty
would’ve ended the game. When all was said and done, the Rams managed to push
this one into overtime and stole the victory with a 57-yard field goal.
This was the second straight season which saw the
Saints loss in debilitating fashion.
2019
Offseason WorkBook:
The
Coaching Staff
With extreme frustration over the way the 2018 season
concluded for his club, Sean Payton will have to grow thicker skin and regroup
in hopes to again find his way back to the Championship match.
Getting back to business and knowing with a 13-3
record comes the potential for other teams to pilfer his staff, Payton received
good news in that his staff would remain intact for the 2019 season. Both the
Saints offensive and defensive coordinators received heavy interest this offseason
but didn’t mange to get their shot at leading a team.
Staying the course, New Orleans will have Pete
Carmichael (offensive coordinator) and Dennis Allen (defensive coordinator)
return for possibly one more kick at the can with their hall of fame
quarterback Drew Brees.
The
Offense
While it’s utterly inconceivable to understand how
anyone can manage to play in the NFL for 19 seasons at the ripe age of 40, and still
put up sound numbers, we look no further than the great Drew Brees. While this
was his worst season in terms of passing yards since his 2005 campaign with the
San Diego Chargers, Drew still managed to throw a healthy 32 touchdowns on one
of the best offensive groups in the entire league. When comparing these
statistical marks from the season prior, there was a clear letdown in both the
run and the pass, but efficiency is where these Saints made the most damage.
With Brees coming back for yet another season, its hard not to expect a similar
type of output.
New Orleans has found good fortune with Mark Ingram
and Alvin Kamara equally carrying the rock, and creating that mismatch level of
smash mouth, and speed finesse styles. Though seeing Ingram lose games to
suspension to start the year, you could see that something was missing form the
offense. When Ingram returned to action, it was as if these two didn’t miss a
beat and returned to form. Not having Ingram done the gold and black could be a
reality come the 2019 regular season, one that could make this offense quite
different. There’s no question that we feel Kamara could run this offense on
his own, but that change of pace would be sorely missed.
When reviewing the Saints receiving core, there is an
obvious disconnect of talent after we talk about reception king Michael Thomas.
When the Saints lost Ted Ginn to injury, we truly didn’t believe it would’ve
left as big of a hole as it did. With no viable option to pull pressure form
Thomas’ side, Tre’Quan Smith was leaned upon to provide that punch. We at ADF
are believers in Smith and what he can bring to this offense, but he clearly
disappeared at times leaving a lot to be desired. New Orleans truly needs to
find adequate depth on top of what they currently have to lift this pass game
back to higher levels.
While the offense continues to chug along, we can’t
forget to mention how good this offensive line actually is. Keeping Drew Brees
jersey clean to the point of only seeing him hit the turf a mere 20 times last
season, this is the oil that moves this engine.
The
Defense
When we review this defense of the Saints, it truly is
a group that has shown sound improvement over the past two seasons, but still
has opportunity to grow.
The defensive line which is led by Cameron Jordan and
Sheldon Rankins, have improved the run defense exponentially to sit atop the
league. Marcus Davenport and Alex Okafor have been solid complimentary pieces
to help this Saints group eat up opposing quarterbacks to the tune of 49 sacks
this past season. With a few of these members heading to free agency, and
injuries affecting the group, depth pieces should be added in a draft class
ripe with defensive linemen to make them that much stronger.
While on paper, the prospects of this line backing
core being an absolute force this past season was the goal, they were quite sound
after all was said and done. Losing Manti Te’o to injury early on left New
Orleans lighter in terms of depth, but the overall production was solid. Led by
Demario Davis who was the Saints top tackling machine with 110 takedowns, his
supporting cast allowed for him to move all over the filed. There is no
question this front seven has the ability to bust opponents game plans, but we
would like to see more talent here to push them over the top.
Perhaps the glaring weakness for the Saints rests on
the defensive back end where they saw a large letdown in terms of overall production.
It could be argued that Marcus Lattimore saw a slight regression after his
stellar showing in his rookie campaign, but still managed to secure good production.
While the Saints allowed Kenny Vaccaro to walk free on the open market last
offseason, it was clear the safety tandem in Williams and Bell saw their
struggles in coverage.
With that said the glaring need on this secondary is
the second defensive back position; as that was truly the achilles heel to this
backend. Trading for former Giants cast off Eli Apple during the year didn’t materialize
the way the Saints had hoped. We could see a better situation this year if
Apple is moved into the slot, and the Saints draft a player more capable of
handling top receivers.
While losing Patrick Robinson was a gigantic loss for
this defense and this secondary, his injury history is becoming a concern and the
Saints would be well advised to shore up these inadequacies.
Either way, this defense again will be good enough to
do their part in helping the Saints get back to glorious pastures, and
potentially get back to the super bowl in 2019.
Team
Free Agents / Team Salary Cap
When reviewing the books for the Saints, it’s easy to
see that they are still in full blown super bowl or bust mode given the lack of
funds they have to spend. With Drew Brees having maybe one or two quality years
left in him, the Saints need to take advantage of this window.
As of today, the Saints hold a meek 9 million
(+$9,091,653) in available funds and hold a list of 21 team free agents to
review for new contracts. Mark Ingram headlines the list of top free agents and
will surely be difficult to bring back to the team. This will be his last shot
at securing big money for the remainder of his NFL career, and we really wonder
if he would give the Saints a hometown discount.
Other notable names that will be in search of finding
their way back to the Big-Easy are; Teddy Bridgwater, Alex Okafor, Manti Te’o,
Ben Watson, and Tommylee Lewis. While Okafor is the biggest name outside of Mark
Ingram, the other may have to take slimmer deals if they want to participate in
the chance to hoist the Lombardi Trophy this season.
It’s no secret to how good the Saints offensive line
has been, and it’s clearly a point given how much this starting group is being
paid by Saints ownership. Still seeing the discounted rate for Ryan Ramczyk
(rookie deal), the other four members eat up a whopping 23.55% of the total cap
for this team.
While we look for any avenue for clubs to gain money
on the books, we can’t envision any situation where the Saints release any of
these offensive line talents but perhaps extending Andrus Peat and Max Unger
would help lower their cap numbers.
Some players that could be viable cut candidates to
bring extra dollars back to the club; perhaps Cameron Meredith finds his way
off the team saving a decent 6.4 million with only 2.7 heading to dead money.
Outside of that one roster move, others would bring in substantially less to
help this salary cap crisis which is in front of Sean Payton and company.
The
NFL Draft
As mentioned above, the Saints have been fairly fluid
in trading away their draft capital seeing them currently hold only six picks
in this year’s draft. Losing their first overall pick in the Marcus Davenport
deal from the previous draft will certainly leave them a little hamstrung.
The Saints are missing their 1st, 3rd,
and 4th round picks for this class as all capital was shipped out
for players currently on the roster. While this may limit the Saints in this
draft, they have proven to make the most of their selections in the past two seasons
and will require that type of arrangement once again.
Could we potentially see New Orleans trade next year’s
1st round selection to add yet another playmaker to help get them
that title shot? With Sean Payton and the Saints literally minutes away from
seeing Brees retire, anything is possible in our minds.
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