NFL 2019-20: The Saints are marching, and they look like a complete team
With the Arizona Cardinals dispatched in dominating fashion, the New Orleans Saints are looking like real contenders. After years of heartbreak, will this be the season that results in the Lombardi trophy?
The Saints head into the bye week at 7-1, with a commanding lead atop the NFC South. They are playing great football even without their key stars, which is why this season looks like the best chance of getting Drew Brees and Co their second ring.
If you've followed the Saints these past couple of seasons or even the NFL in general, then you would have heard the media talking about a “different” Saints team. It's a team that no longer relies heavily on Brees and his ability to drag an average team on his own.
For a couple of seasons the Saints were in limbo; they were a team devoid of enough talent to make noise in the NFL. Still, with future Hall-of-Famer Brees still throwing the ball like a mad man, up-and-coming receivers like Brandin Cooks and future pro-bowler Cam Jordan on the defensive side of the ball, the potential was always visible.
The great talent in key positions meant that the Saints could be competitive, but the overall talent just wasn’t enough.
The main problem was on the defensive side of the ball, which is why the Saints had three consecutive 7-9 seasons from 2014-2016. While in each of those three years the offence never dropped below 9th in Points for, the defence could never reach higher than 28th in points against.
The blame typically goes to the QB for how a team plays, as the QB occupies the most important position in the game. But not even the most biased fans could put any blame on Brees. If he had played with a half-decent defence, the Saints would have made the playoffs and Brees may have even had an MVP to add to his HOF career.
But instead, the Saints had multiple bad and big contracts that limited the pieces they could fit in. They drafted okay but couldn’t find the pieces that could switch the tide.
Then the 2017 draft happened.
The Saints had an incredible draft which gave them a platform to build a future and allow Brees to challenge for another Superbowl Ring. Alvin Kamara (3rd round) and Marshon Lattimore (1st round) would be the building blocks of a better tomorrow. Other draft selections in-between years have also been key: Michael Thomas (2016 draft) and Ryan Ramczyk (2017 draft) have been integral to their improvement.
That 2017 draft turned the Saints around from a possible playoff team to a Superbowl contender. But the beginning of the season didn’t look too promising though. The Saints had signed former MVP Adrian Peterson and the first game was against his former team, but things didn’t go to plan and the Vikings embarrassed the Saints.
This was the catalyst for Peterson being traded, which allowed Kamara to fully become a part of the offence. The ensured the Saints would become so much more than Brees throwing it all over the yard.
On the other side of the ball, Lattimore quickly became a great cornerback, especially in man coverage. The phrase “Lockdown corner” gets thrown around a lot in today's NFL but Lattimore from the very get-go looked like a lockdown corner.
That helped build a new identity for the Saints, and they finally had some resemblance of a defence to go along with the offence. Players not named Drew Brees and Cameron Jordan started to make a real impact, and that started to translate into results.
The reason I have mentioned that draft class and the importance of the team playing well rather than just individuals, is because that is the 2019 Saints season in a nutshell. Players like Kamara and Thomas have matured and developed into All-Pro talent, and last season they constituted the core of the Saints, along with Brees.
This season however they have been forced to adapt and plug in different pieces. During the Week 2 loss to the LA Rams, Brees injured the thumb on his throwing hand after a collision with Arron Donald. While the initial replays didn’t show much damage, the camera cut away to Brees on the sideline dropping a football immediately after attempting to grip it.
This meant that back up QB Teddy Bridgewater had to step in. And while the Saints lost that game, they now knew that Bridgewater would be the starter for the next couple of weeks.
This off-season Bridgewater had the opportunity to sign with multiple other teams and be the starter for them but instead, he decided to stay on with the Saints and be Brees’ backup. The Saints in return made him the highest-paid backup in the NFL.
While they would have preferred not to have Bridgewater see the field, they’d be glad they decided to spend the money.
Bridgewater would have his first start against the 2-0 Seahawks, with a QB duel against early MVP contender Russell Wilson. That looked like a big ask for Bridgewater but he lived up to the occasion and the Saints played like a Superbowl contender, with the perfect mix of throwing the ball and running it.
Kamara left his stamp on the game in typical Kamara fashion receiving a touchdown as well as rushing for one. Thomas also had a receiving touchdown to help with Bridgewater’s 2 TD day.
It was a great start for the QB, and the balanced offensive attack helped set the tone early on and kept the Seahawks' defence on the back foot.
The Dallas Cowboys then made a visit to the Superdome and brought along a 3-0 record, Dak Prescott and recently paid Ezekiel Elliot. This was the game where the Saints' defence carried the team to victory - a sentence that has not been said many times in the past 5 years.
Bridgewater and the offence weren’t clicking and could not find the end zone, the 12 point instead coming via the leg of William Lutz. The story of the game though was the defensive effort from the Saints.
Going into the game many people wondered how the Saints would contain Elliott, but those questions were answered immediately. Elliott had 18 carries for 35 yards at an average of 1.9 yards per carry. He did manage to find his way into the end zone for a score but overall the Saints defence proved they were for real.
An NFC South matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was up next for the Saints, and this was the game in which Bridgewater showed why he was a former 1st round draft pick.
Now Tampa aren’t a defensive juggernaut but they still have good talent, and the intensity is turned up when it’s a divisional matchup. Bridgewater picked apart the Buccs defence with 316 yards passing, 4TD’s and a single interception. The interception can’t be placed on Bridgewater’s shoulders either as it was a very catchable pass that was tipped into the Buccs Sean Murphy-Bunting.
Bridgewater completed 76% of his passes, and if it wasn’t Brees as the QB coming back then some serious conversation would be had about keeping Bridgewater as starter.
The defence once again proved it belonged in the next game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. In a very hard-fought contest, the Saints kept the opposition to 2 field goals and the entire Jags side to 283 yards of total offence. As a quick side note, the Jags had more yards punting the ball than they did on offence, which tells you everything you need to know about the Saints' defensive effort.
The biggest challenge since Brees went down in Week 2 came against the Chicago Bears in Soldier Field. Kamara, who is such a big part of the Saints offence, had been ruled out with knee and ankle problems, and the team was going into battle against one of the best defences in the league that includes Khalil Mack.
This meant the pressure would be on Bridgewater and newly acquired Latavius Murray to perform in the cold against a great front seven, and boy did they deliver. Bridgewater threw for 281 yards and 2 TD’s while not turning the ball over, which is always so key when playing on the road, but it was Murray who stole the show. The Saints handed the ball off to him 27 times and he repaid them with 119 yards and 2 TD’s.
As I mentioned at the top of this article, the Saints recently played the Cardinals and handled them with ease. The Saints had Brees back at the helm and while Kamara still missed the game, he is scheduled to return after the bye week, fully recovered for the second half of the season.
In the Cardinals game, the Saints defence once again proved its worth and held the opposition to 9 points on the day. But while that is very impressive, I'd rather focus on the rushing defence that the Saints have produced this season.
In all the eight games the Saints have played this year, they haven’t allowed a single rusher to rush over 100 yards. Now I will add the caveat that the Texans managed 180 rushing yards via 3 players, but an individual didn’t break the 100-yard mark. It's very likely that the 180 yards given up against the Texans will be the most all season.
The likes of Todd Gurley, Ezekiel Elliott and Leonard Fournette have all tried but failed to reach the 100 yard mark, which is terrific validation of the Saints' defence. While the front 7 are responsible for closing lanes and gaps to deny the runner, you also need to credit the secondary who do such a great job of covering that teams don’t always want to throw the ball. That kind of a statement would have been laughable a couple of seasons ago.
This season really has been a team effort. While you are always going to need superstars like Brees and Thomas (who I will talk about more in a separate article) on offence and Jordan on defence, it’s a great sign to see that the Saints can rely on different players and positions to help the team win.
It takes so much more than individuals to win in the NFL; it’s a team game, and the Saints are fully understanding that. It really shouldn’t come as a shock if, on the 2nd of February, Drew Brees and Sean Payton are lifting the Lombardi over their heads once again.