Saints Rookie Kelvin Banks Is Going To Be A Star | Film Review

Saints Rookie Kelvin Banks Is Going To Be A Star | Film Review

All right, welcome back to another one of our film reviews. Today we are talking New Orleans Saints rookie tackle Kelvin Banks. Banks is very quickly becoming a top flight offensive lineman in the National Football League. He had a tough challenge against a really good Giants edge rush and he handled them with ease. We’ll break down everything he did so well in the Saints first victory of the 2025 season. As always, in the comment section below, give us any feedback you might have. If you’re a fan of these film reviews and want to help support us so we can do more of them, consider becoming a member of our channel. There’s a link in the description box below that will take you right there. But without further ado, let’s jump right into the film. All right, let’s open up with some pass pro. And there’s Banks right there, of course, at left tackle for the New Orleans Saints. So, this is going to be standard protection here called Call for the New Orleans Saints. So, we’re going to get the play side. That is the center right guard and right tackle on this particular play. They’re all going to take the gap to the right. So, the right tackle is going to take this gap. The right guard’s going to take this gap. Center’s going to take this gap. What that means over here on the back side, the left side on this play is we’re going to get one-on-one there and we’re going to get one-on-one right there. Banks one-on-one on Brian Burns, a really good defensive end for the New York Giants. He’s been a good defensive end for a long time in the National Football League, but Banks shuts him down with ease. Burns has a lot of wit there, a lot of opportunity to get after the quarterback. No problem though for the rookie tackle. Let’s check it out. There’s a snap. Rattler has some time. Throws it. Incomplete pass. Let’s look at Banks here on the left side. Patience, patience, engages, locks him down. I tell you what, guys, the more I watch Banks, the more he reminds me of Tyron Smith, the former allp pro tackle for the Dallas Cowboys. Smith, when he played for Dallas, was known for his patience and his massive grip and his strength inside. You talk to defensive ends that played Smith, they’d say, “Listen, we’d run into him and our momentum would go to zero.” That’s what we see here. Now look, it’s early in Banks’ career, so I’m not going to say he’s going to be as good as Smith was. But boy, guys, I mean, this is against a really good edge rusher. Burns goes to a little speed to power. This is a great pass rush move. This is my favorite pass rush move. Threat speed, go to power, and he just goes to zero miles an hour instantly on contact. Look at this, guys. Full speed. Full speed. Full speed. Zero. That’s so good. So good. No, technically, you know, do you love the fact that he’s leaning so much? Probably not, but his grip, his strength, and his base is so powerful. Banks is I I again you you talk about a first round pick that’s living up to and exceeding the hype. I don’t think there’s another first round pick in the entire National Football League that’s been as good as Banks has been for the New Orleans Saints. And I know of course the Saints had a has they’ve had a rough start. So obviously he’s not getting a lot of publicity, but New Orleans fans, you got to be excited by 71. I’m from the wide copy. Watch Banks here at the top of your screen. Watch them just negate this momentum and just shut him down. I mean, this is comical, right? This is the stuff you normally see when it’s like a a five-star prospect in high school going against a defensive end who who just got out of a really tough math test in, you know, the final period of the day, right? You don’t see this in the National Football League where really good pass rusher runs into an offensive tackle speed to power and just loses all momentum and just stops. And here’s what I really love about it, too, is 71 Banks. He stays with him the entire time. He’s running up left field. He’s not let him off the hook. He’s sticky. He plays with great effort. What a nice rep right here from the rookie tackle. All right, how about some running game? There is Banks right there at left tackle, of course, for the New Orleans Saints. So, we’re going to get a standard zone running scheme concept, working to the right side of your screen, the right side of the Saints offense. Number 10 right here, he’s going to come in motion pre- snap to try and get some flow from the linebackers and safeties that direction. But everyone else up front, they’re just taking normal zone track. Zone track here. Zone double team here, working up to the next level. Base reach here. Zone double team right here, working up to the next level. On the backside, we’re going to get scoop techniques where we’re going to get a scoop here, trying to get a little tight scoop action to get this defensive tackle to stay in this gap. So that way, Banks can take him over and they’re going to have this guard trying to work up to the next level to get the full the flow player, excuse me, flowing over the top. Normally a safety or corner, sometimes it’ll be the backside linebacker right there. But interestingly enough, what happens is this defensive tackle, he flows with the guard. And what they teach offensive tackles in this situation, if you’re taking a wide scoop track and this defensive tackle flows inside, you got to work up to the next level. Banks does a really good job here. He helps get movement right here as this defensive tackle goes away. He goes up to the flow player. Does a really good job. Let’s check it out. There’s a motion. There’s a snap. There’s his own track. Not a whole lot there. Good job by number five just getting what he could. But let’s look on the backside here. Let’s look at Banks number 71. Again, taking that wide scoop track. Gets some momentum there. Gets some movement there. Right. But you can see this defensive tackle, he flies across number 70’s face, right? So at that point, what do you do? You go up to the next level. That’s what Banks does. and gets on the backside linebacker. Winning football, right? Movement, help, go up to the next level. That’s awesome. And the best part is there’s temptation right here to maybe hold and linger. He lets him go. Now, I would love in a perfect world to completely reach and seal off this backside linebacker. That would be like an A+ play. This is like a minus, right? To make it an A+. You could completely cut him off and pin him, but this is more than good enough, right? If they do any sort of decent blocking here on the play side, that linebacker isn’t making the play. The running back number five, he’s scoring through this if they block anybody. Now, they don’t block anybody, so it’s kind of a dead play, but Banks right here does a really nice job. Nice play by the rookie. Yeah. And again, I think that’s what we’ve seen Banks do well this season. Has great size, 6’4, 320 lbs on this Saints roster. He is a massive human being. He’s able to use that in the run blocking game. Really great grade, 61.9 compared to what the Saints offensive line’s been doing this year. That is a good grade. showing really great skill in the run blocking game. I think he’s able to utilize that size and be very, very effective. All right, going back to some pass protection. There’s Banks, of course, right there at left tackle and he’s got the rookie phenom himself from the New York Giants, Abdul Carter. Really nice player, great pick for the New York Giants, selecting him in the first round. One-on-one here in this situation. The play side in this protection in this instance is the left side here. The center’s going to take this gap. Left guard’s going to take this gap with a heavy hand inside right there to help. left tackle is going to take this gap, which basically means he’s one-on-one with help if the defensive end flashes down inside. That doesn’t really end up happening here. It basically becomes a one-on-one block. Abdul Carter does a really good job. He does a little speed, little power, and then tries to transition to speed at the very end. But 71 banks, he does a great job once again shutting it down, protecting his quarterback. Let’s check it out. There’s a snap. Pretty good protection across the board. Unfortunately, Camaro drops it. Now, I don’t think it would have been a big gain, but still want to hold on to the football. Let’s look at Banks here, right? See how he sets out there much more horizontally? It’s because he knows he has inside help or theoretically has inside help. Right? Pinning’s there. Number 70’s there. He’s got heavy inside hand, but he’s looking to give inside help if needed. That’s why Banks is so aggressive with the horizontal set. If he’s normal one-on-one with no inside help, he’ll be a little bit more vertical. But right here, he sets horizontal, resets himself, and he catches here a little bit. He misses with his hands right there. Not a good position, but he anchors himself down, gets his base, runs him up field, pushes him past the quarterback right there. Number two, Spencer Rattler. He can step up into the pocket if he wanted to. He decided not to. That’s okay. That’s his prerogative. But running the defensive end, the pass rusher around the hoop just like this is winning football, right? Abdul Carter. And look, some people may say, “Is this holding? Is this grabbing?” I don’t think so. Right? This looks pretty theatrical from 51. The hand is outside. I don’t love that. But when you move your feet the way Banks does, refs don’t call it very much, right? Holding is much more of a penalty with your feet than it is with their hands. I know that sounds a little counterintuitive, but the reality is refs are looking to see tugs. And you only really get tugs when you’re not moving your feet and a defensive end goes away from you. In this situation right here, Banks keeps moving his feet, runs 51 up field, gives the quarterback the protection he needs. Now for the wide copy, you see Banks right there at left tackle. Again, doing a really good job, a much more horizontal set at the snap. There it is. Engages 51. Again, absorbs the contact a little bit. You can see right there he catches. That’s not great, but he keeps working his feet and runs him past Spencer Rattler. This is winning football, guys. I don’t care what the analytics say. I don’t care what PFF says. I don’t care what any of those sites say. This is winning football. This is what you need out of a left tackle. And this is what Banks gives every single snap for the New Orleans Saints. Now, look, he’s not perfect. He does have things to work on, right? Especially in the run game. I like to see a little bit more at the point of attack, but in terms of pass pro guys, I mean, he’s probably one of the better left tackles in the NFL right now. He’s the best rookie tackle by far. There’s some good ones like Aranti Ursery for Houston. He’s having a good season. But Banks right now, he’s in a league of his own already playing like a Pro Bowler. All right, sticking with the pass rush. There’s Banks, of course, at left tackle. And now he’s going to be matched up against Thibido, the third really good edge rusher that the New York Giants have. He’s really wide on the outside edge of your screen. You may barely see him here. And right here, the New York Giants are trying to create this one-on-one matchup with the rookie because they have this defensive tackle lined up so wide right here and this defensive end lined up so wide. When you have this defensive tackle so wide, as an offensive left tackle, you have to be worried for a a stunt or a slant where this guy could come out to you and the defensive end could drop into coverage. So you can’t aggressively pass that because otherwise this guy will come through and get to the quarterback. So what you’re trying to do here is hold 71 here to give your guy with all the space and opportunity to rush the quarterback. But Banks again does a great job. Wins yet again another good Giants Ed Rusher. Let’s check it out. There’s a motion pre- snap. There’s a snap. Good protection. Hit the checkown. Decent little play. I guess it’s not really checked down. It’s a receiver working over the middle of the football. Still a good little play. All right, but let’s look at Banks right here. left tackle, right? See how he has to stay a little bit tighter, right? He can’t get too far up field because he’s got to watch his defensive tackle. And now the moment he knows Thibido is coming, engages. I love that one-handed punch right here to try and slow momentum right there. Momentum slow. Now run him around the hoop. Dibido tries a spin move. You’re right there to handle them. This is so good, guys. I mean, you talk about feet. Just don’t watch anything but watch his feet right there. Look at this. One of the things that sometimes we forget because these offensive linemen are so huge, right? They’re 6’6, 67, 330 lbs, right? And listen, they don’t have washboard abs or anything like that, right? But their footwork, their athleticism is off the chain. And Banks is next level. I mean, watch his feet the entire time here. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. The entire time. I mean, this is so good, right? When you move your feet and you use your hands like this, you know, we saw him miss the punch against Abdul Carter earlier, but when he lands his punch and lands his hands, it’s game over, right? Even when he misses, his footwork allows him to recover. Here, you can see with good hand placement and good feet, number five has no chance. I think one overlooked thing is if you check out Banks’s pass blocking grade, it’s kind of so so nothing too special, nothing to write home about. But when you look at what matters, his pass blocking efficiency grade, which is great, it’s a 95.5 there, as well as he’s only let up one sack this season so far. I think he does great in the pass blocking game as well. This is an offense that, you know, been struggling a little bit this year, but I think we’ve seen Banks do a great job with all the circumstances surrounding him. All right, quick break in the film review. Look, I was taught to break down film by my college coaches at the division one level. All the players are. It’s just a fact of playing football at that level. And I want to take this opportunity to give you guys, the average fan, more opportunities to get that insider knowledge of how the game is taught at that highest level called football. I created a checklist, a step-by-step guide for you guys, 100% free that’s based on how I was taught to break down film by my coaches and that I use today to create these film reviews. There’s a link in description box below that’ll take you right to it. I really appreciate it if you guys decide to get it. Again, 100% free. Just trying to share information to you guys, stuff that was taught to me by my coaches. But without further ado, let’s get back into the film. All right, going back to the running game. There’s Banks lined up at left tackle. You can see Taesm Hill right there. This kind of makes me feel like it’s a few years ago. Feels like 2020, 2021 right now. Got a little Taesm Hill Wildcat action. Boy, were those the glory days or at least a lot of eight and eight Saints seasons. I tell you what, but Taesm Hill doing his thing. That was fun times. Good to see it again. We’re going to get just a power concept here for the New Orleans Saints. So, everybody is going to block down, block down, block down, block down across the board. Backside guard’s going to pull and lead for the linebacker. We’re going to get motion here pre- snapped and he’s going to kick out the inman on the line of scrimmage right there. And Taesm Hill is just going to follow or try to follow at least right through this crease. Now here, the Giants play it pretty good defensively. Banks in this situation, he’s going to do what’s called an anchor down technique. He’s going to secure this gap first. Whether it’s this defensive lineman or a linebacker or a safety firing or zero firing side, he’s going to secure the inside gap and then turn out. He does a really good job cuz immediately this guy’s a chance to really get some penetration, potentially blow up this play completely. But Banks recovers with a really athletic play. Again, his feet are off the charts. Let’s check it out. There’s a motion. There’s a snap. Ta running. gets north and south, gets what he could. Pretty good defensively. But let’s look at the New Orleans Saints here. Let’s look at Banks left tackle, right? Look at this athleticism working down the line of scrimmage right here. His job is to secure this gap, but he feels 93 slant and he just pounds his feet inside. Look how he pounds his feet. I mean, it’s so good. So fast to the ground. Bam. I mean, it’s so good foot speed, guys. And I’m going to keep harping on it, but it’s very, very impressive when you hear these scouts or these these draft guys on TV talk about, you know, ballerina feet. And you know, I hate that saying, but this is what they’re talking about, right? Look how he gets his feet in the ground. Good little punch there. Load up shock 93. That’s really good because sometimes, I think we’ve all seen it. These backside defensive tackles when the guard’s pulling, they can follow the guard here and blow the play up from behind every once in a while. And I don’t know if 93 is a good enough player to do it, but Banks right here makes sure he never stands a chance. And there are some defensive tackles that are good enough to do it. And there’s a lot of defensive tackles that do do it all the time. But Banks does a really good job. He recognizes the threat, pound his feet, secures the backside. Nice rep from the wide cop. You can see banks at left tackle. Again, move his feet down inside and just secure it. No penetration. That’s the other thing, too. You want to make sure no ground is given up. You can see how a lot of these saints get blown off the football. Who is this? The center. I mean, that’s not great. Getting walked back two or three yards, that’s not ideal. But right here, Banks, despite working basically horizontally. That’s what’s really impressive here. He gives up no ground. That’s a sign of good pad level. That’s a sign of a good base. That’s a sign of just being a strong joker. Banks isn’t perfect in the run blocking game. It’s certainly an area where he could improve, but there are enough flashes to make me think he could very quickly become a quality run blocker as well as a pass protector. All right, going back to some pass protection. There’s Banks, of course, right there at left tackle. He’s going to be matched up 101 again, of course, with Thibido. And again, 101 pass rush right here. Situation Banks has to again get it done like every left tackle has to. Here’s the thing. It’s a bad play for Banks. He misses with his hands. He’s kind of all over the place with his feet, but the beautiful thing about it is he still finds a way to get it done, right? He finds a way to anchor it down and survive and win even though it’s far from his best play. This is a sign of a really good tackle. Let’s check it out. It’s a pretty snap motion. There’s a snap. Pressure in his face. Has to unload it. Still a pretty good play. Let’s look at Banks at left tackle right here. One-on-one pass. Misses with his hands flailing all over the place. Guys, that’s not a great punch if your hands are like that. Now, I know Thibido is knocking his arms that way. Of course, that’s not a great position to be in. And right there, he’s going backwards. He’s kind of giving up a lot of ground. Not great. But he settles himself down. Gets in his base. Ends up winning the rep, guys. Again, the initial surge off the rip. He’s losing. He’s losing. Not in a good spot. Anchors his feet, drops his hips. Look how he lows his pad level and drops his butt. What teach him to do right there? Not great. Drops his butt. Wins. Goodness gracious, guys. Technically, athleticism, he is so freaking good, guys. I mean, I am just impressed. There’s some really good rookie tackles and really young good offensive linemen. Like I look at, of course, Ursery, I’ve already mentioned his name for Houston. I think he’s really good. The guy for the Jets isn’t bad. You know, even the guy for the Patriots, Campbell, he has flashes, but there’s no one at Banks’s level. Like, he’s at like 400 level to use the college analogy, offensive tackle. The rest of the guys are like 100, 200 level. Plus, he’s such a good athlete. I mean, you talk about a top 10 pick living up to the billing. Saints fans, I I know it’s not a sexy position. I know some of you guys maybe were hoping for a quarterback, but just in terms of the quality of the player, my goodness gracious, what a rep, what a job right here by Banks. What a future he’s going to have for the Saints organization. One thing I think Banks could work on from this season, and we’ve already seen him start to get back to the norm here, but had a couple of mental mistakes this year. I think that stands out for me. We saw week three did have one really egregious game as far as the penalty goes. three penalties in that game. Didn’t have any penalties before that. Has not had any penalties in the games after that, but sometimes those mental mistakes really can make mess you up as an offensive lineman. So, so far so good. He’s in the back in the right direction. But working on those mental mistakes, no penalties, clean football, I think it’s going to be a really big thing for Banks going the rest of the season. All right, let’s end on another pass rush win. You can see, of course, Banks right there at left tackle. And you can see the Giants, they got a bunch of people walked up on top of having four guys on the line of scrimmage. You have all these people walked up and all these defensive linemen lined up out. Why? Because you’re trying to create one-on-one matchups. You’re trying to sit there and say, “Okay, we’re going to have these three guys and the running back right there have to find a way to handle these three guys right there.” Right? That’s basically the structure. And you’re going to say, “Okay, one-on-one here, one-on-one here, and we’re going to have oneonone there.” Right? That’s basically what this alignment is trying to do from the Giants perspective. And when you get a one-on-one matchup, you think you’re star veteran edge rusher against a rookie, you’re going to win. But Banks again does a great job. This is a good player number zero, but he does a pretty solid start, but the way he finishes burying number zero into the turf, just caving the top down on him. It’s another really good play. Let’s check it out. There’s a snap. There’s the one-on-one. Buries him. Nice rep again. Patient, patient, patient. Again, catches a little bit. Hands a little high, but still finishes the entire time. Again, look at his feet, guys. Always moving his feet. Pop, pop, pop. Runs him by the quarterback and it just buries the top down on him. If you got a defensive end who tries to go low here at the very end, you just cave the roof down on him. This is really good. Again, veteran stuff. He’s a tough dude. He’s a physical guy, right? We talk about pass protection, it ain’t passive, right? That for the best tackles, pass protection isn’t a passive exercise, it’s a physical exercise. And even though Banks isn’t the most aggressive puncher in the world, his grip is powerful and he will layer you into the ground. Like he will bodys slam you when the opportunities are there. We saw that on film in Texas and we see this right here. Just running his feet and just caving down on the defensive end. Look, we know Banks has some things to improve on the run game, but he has flashes like we showed during this cutup. And it doesn’t matter who he’s blocking the pass protection game. Veteran in Brian Burns, veteran in The Thibido, rookie sensation in Abdul Carter. He just wins and wins consistently. You’re looking at an allp pro, not just in the future. I think he’s playing at that level right now, Saints fans, and I think he may only get better. You got a great player here in Kelvin Banks.

The New Orleans Saints have a superstar offensive lineman in Kelvin Banks. Banks is already looking elite for the Saints offense, and will only get better. The selection of Kelvin Banks was clearly a great move by the New Orleans Saints.

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