Is New Orleans Finally Building a REAL Foundation For The Future? | Saints-Giants PFF Grades

Is New Orleans Finally Building a REAL Foundation For The Future? | Saints-Giants PFF Grades

Awesome win. Found a way to get it done. Uh really really good job by our guys. Just resiliency obviously. It’s been a it hasn’t been an easy month for our guys. Um you know, missing on four opportunities and for uh for them to hang in there and compete this whole entire game. I thought it was awesome effort. The turnovers obviously was a huge part of this game. Uh five to zero and um you know, a lot of lot of positives coming out of this thing. Kell Moore after getting his first career win on Sunday. As we do every week, we take a look at what the folks over at Pro Football Focus had to say. As uh the caveat I always give you is that Pro Football Focus is not all it’s not the metric, it is a metric. It’s just something to consider amid the whole body of work and different things uh to assess performance. So, I like to jump into this because a lot of times they will be looking at things that you and I aren’t looking at. we are watching the ball, not necessarily what the left tackle is doing on a on a screen pass to the right. So, for reasons like that, I like to look at PFF and to see how things went and then we sort of boil it all down. Um, the and by the way, if you Ross Jackson every week over at louisianaports.net gives a breakdown of the PFF grades and that’s again everything at louisianaports.net always completely 100% free. No pay walls, no premium, no article limits. It’s just free. Go read it at louisianaapasports.net. Top five on offense. Rasheed Shahed, Spencer Rattler, Kendre Miller, Chris Alave, and then Eric McCoy. By the way, Talas Fuaga was next um at six. So, I love to see that five of the top six highest rated players are starters. And the other is Kendra Miller, who looks like a completely new player in this offense. New life, he runs with with uh intensity and effectiveness. Um, I I would love to see and I need to dive deeper into this for Kendra Miller on the season, but I don’t know um his how many plays that he’s had a negative rushing plays. I I’ll look into that ahead, but it feels like he’s always moving forward, falling forward, and not getting thrown for a loss, which is fantastic to see. Um, when you look overall though, offense or defense top five, the highest graded player for the Saints was Brian Brazie, then Kool-Aid McKinstry, Elante Taylor. So three, the top three highest graded players either side of the ball were defenders and the most impressive part of the top five on either side, Brazie, Kool-Aid, Alante Taylor, Rasheed, Shahit, Spencer Rattler, all are 27 years old or younger. The thing we keep hammering home about this team is you want to see the young players play well and establish a foundation. Brazed a first round pick on. Kool-Aid’s a guy used a second round pick on. Alante Taylor is a guy used a second round pick on. Rasheed Shahed got the the contract after being a UDFA. Like these are guys that you want to trust can be cornerstone players to build upon. Razie had the great strip of Cam Scataboo which Jordan Hen scooped and scored. Um you know Rattler and Shahed there in the top five connected for the 87 yard touchdown. Shahed went over 100 yards receiving. Alante Taylor had a big day. He was third on the team with eight tackles. did not have a missed tackle either. Very significant there. And Kool-Aid of course had two interceptions. Um I I want to pump the brakes on Kool-Aid’s day because the two interceptions do uh bump him up, but neither were like tight coverage interceptions. The first one was basically a punt. Um but he had a PI. He kind of got big boy on the touchdown with a big tight end like push him to the ground. Uh, I still think Kool-Aid’s got a long way to go, but let’s see progress. Um, the, by the way, this Kell Moore after the game did talk about about the day that Kool-Aid had with the two interceptions. Here was Kell Moore on on Kool-Aid. Just so so happy for him. Uh, you know, he is a phenomenal player. We think the world of him. Um, you know, he’s played some hard downs the first few weeks of the season and for him to come up with two big-time interceptions and made a bunch of plays throughout this entire game. Um, you know, I was so fired for Kool-Aid. deserved everything that’s coming his way this week. And so, uh, you know, we’re really excited for him. Um, the thing we’ll consistently say about Kool-Aid is remember if you fancy him as a number one corner, then every week he’s going to face the other teams number one. And that’s not gone well a lot this year. Marvin Harrison Jr., Jackson Smith and Jigba, he he’s had to he’s had to face dudes. And that’s that’s not going to stop ever. I mean, that’s that’s your lot in life as a number one corner. You’re going to be on an island against the other team’s best, and you’re going to give up plays at times, but there’s also got to be times that you can make plays. Your team can count on you when you need to get a stop. Um, at the bottom offensively, just overall, the bottom five, Toriselli Simpkins was the lowest graded player. Jawan Johnson, Alvin Chimera, Devon Gotcha, and Jack Stole. Those are your your bottom five either side of the ball. Whenever I look at the PFF grid though, um I always look for outliers. So I’ve explained this before, but um it’s like a colorcoded chart and like dark blue is like the 90s to 100, right? Dark dark blue is awesome and then it gets like to lighter blue and then to dark green and then to lighter green and then like to orange and then like to yellow and and then and then down to red, right? Red is bad. And so I always look at the at the color chart and I look for okay where’s the the blues or the dark greens and then where’s like the reds and the or like the bright oranges. Those are the ones that would be like the really good or the really bad and there’s one I’m looking at the offensive grades and there’s one red dot this whole chart of all the players. Pull this up. Of all the players there’s the chart if you’re watching there’s the chart and there’s one red dot there at the very bottom. It’s the pass block. It’s the pass blocking grade for Torelli Simpkins. It’s a zero. A zero. I understand that he is an undrafted rookie free agent and this is the NFL and it’s very hard. A zero. I look at this every week. for for LSU and for the Saints, so college and pro. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a zero. I He He gave up five pressures. He committed a penalty. Um a zero. I don’t even know what else to say. Like how how do you grade at a zero? He played 66 snaps. I’m so perplexed. He played 66 snaps. Does that just mean he didn’t win a single rep out of his 66 snaps? 35 of the 66 were pass blocking reps. He gave up six pressures, five hurries, one quarterback hit. He did commit a penalty. Uh he had the false start penalty. when you had first and goal at the seven and he committed the false start penalty. You ended up settling for a field goal there because you got behind the sticks. But a zero, a flipping zero. I I don’t know what else I don’t know what else to say other than let’s hope that he was in for Caesar Ruiz at Reich Guard. And Caesar Ruiz is terrible. Like every week, every week Caesar Ruiz is the bottom of this chart. Like if you look at starting offensive lineman in the NFL, like Caesar Ruiz, I I could actually do this if you give me two seconds. Like if I go look at blocking grades, uh you can look by position. I’ll look at guards. Here’s the block like seasonl long blocking grades by guards in the NFL. Uh Caesar Ruiz his blocking grade I’m looking for him. Hang on. is uh where are you Caesar? I’m looking. I’m looking. Might be easier to just search his name. Maybe. Is he pop? Is he not even on this list? Trevor Penning’s down there at a Oh, that’s why. Hang on. Um how about Ed Ingram? The second highest grade among guards in the entire NFL. Hell yeah, man. Shut up, big head. Um, Caesar is not on this, bro. Where is he? Bro, he’s not even on this list. How? Oh, wait. Oh, wait. I got to go beyond 50. That’s There it is. It might just be easier to search his name. That’s why. No, but it wouldn’t show up on this thing like where he’s ranked in. Yeah. Uh, I’m still going. There he is. 91st. Toroselli Simpkins is a hundth. How about that? Caesar Ruiz is 91st. This is among guards. Not all offensive linemen, just guards. Just guards. Caesar’s 91st in the NFL in Pro Football Focus. When you’re just rating the guards, and you replace him with a guy who is a hundth, I like you have to have a better option, right? I’m not I mean I’m not trying to kill him. He’s a young guy UDFA trying his best. But Toriselli Simpkins is literally literally the lowest graded offensive guard in the entire NFL. And Ruiz is just nine spots ahead of him. What? A zero? How do you do that? Literally, you don’t win a rep. That’s That’s the only way. How do you do that? That has to be the only way. I I I mean, you said six pressure. How many pressures did the Saints give up all day? Did he have was it six? Did he have all six? Like I’m I’m genuinely curious. I think it was 10. Now I got to get back to that page. So he had 60% of the pressures given up. Also, it’s more of an indictment on Caesar Ruiz. You were a first round pick, bro. That guy’s, you know, he’s awful. Nine spots, mind you. He’s a UDF. Ruiz is is objectively he might be a great guy. I’ve never met Caesar. I don’t know. But he is objectively a an awful start. like he’s in the NFL, so good for you. But as a starter, he is objectively an awful starting guard in the NFL. Like he legitimately is the worst starter starting guard in the NFL. Um Simpkins gave up six of the pressures, five of the 10 hurries, and gave up the only quarterback hit. There you go. Man gave up 50% of the pressures and 50% of the hits. No, 100. And 100% of the hits. There was one hit he gave. Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Of the uh Hurries. Hurries. Hurries. My My apologies. Hurries. Yeah. I mean, zero. I’ve never seen it. Uh how about Alvin Chimera and Jawan Johnson though being at the bottom of this list? Well, Jawan Johnson dropped a pass. Chimera dropped a pass going across the middle. Um God, like right when they were going in to score, putting behind the sticks. Um, in any event, I think Chimera has been really good this year, but a tough day for for those two guys, but bolstered by the fact that you got Foster and Taesm back. So, uh, a little look at, uh, PFF for the Saints in their win against, uh, against the Giants. Now, the Patriots coming on in. Hey, thanks so much for watching. Please leave your comments. I love to interact. And be sure to hit the red subscribe button below. at my stone. After you. After you. After you.

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Matt Moscona breaks down the Saints’ big win — and dives deep into the latest Pro Football Focus grades that reveal which players are truly carrying this team. From a dominant defensive performance and emerging young stars to shocking numbers on the offensive line, this week’s PFF breakdown tells a story of progress, promise, and a few major concerns. Matt explains how Kellen Moore’s squad might finally be forming a real foundation for the future, which young players are stepping up, and why the guard play continues to be a glaring issue. Can this Saints team sustain its momentum heading into the next matchup? Tune in for full analysis, PFF insights, and what it all means moving forward.

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