ESPN 28 – Lesson learned: Scoring touchdowns will be a season-long problem.
Tight end Taysom Hill gave the Saints a boost by scoring from the 1-yard line against the Patriots, but the past two weeks have been a collection of field goals by the Saints, who attempted 10 (making eight) versus just two touchdowns. Failing to get in the end zone will continue to lose the Saints games, and drives have stalled for a variety of reasons: turnovers, penalties and sacks being some of them.
SI 28 – The Saints feel like a stock you should be buying. Outside of one game, there have been no blowouts, few egregious coaching errors, developing younger players, non-embarrassing quarterback play. If Kellen Moore can pull this and the No. 1 pick off somehow, I’d treat that as an unbelievable coup.
I never imagined Spencer Rattler would play this well.
Ringer 28 – Passing Offense 18th 0.05 EPA/dropback Rushing Offense 23rd -0.1 EPA/rush Passing Defense 29th 0.24 EPA/dropback allowed Rushing Defense 3rd -0.19 EPA/rush allowed
I never imagined Spencer Rattler would play this well.
as a rookie last season, there’s no way you could have predicted the efficiency and decisiveness he’d be playing with six games into his sophomore year. What we’re seeing now is a guy who is unfazed by pressure or having to play from muddy pockets, has a firm understanding of where to attack coverages, and won’t take unnecessary risks.
The Saints are 1-11 in Rattler’s starts dating back to last season, so it’s hard to definitively say that he should be their long-term quarterback. But he’s clearly developing well and should be the starter through the first phase of the Saints’ rebuild
30 – CBS – Playing teams close might be what they have to play for this season. Spencer Rattler is improving at quarterback
Athletic 28 – Fantasy focus: Alvin Kamara
The window may be closing for one of fantasy football’s most consistent contributors of the last nine years. Kamara had an ADP of 40 this year, but he’s 102nd in scoring after six weeks (11.60). He led the Saints in rushing Sunday, but that only amounted to 31 yards, and he has only one touchdown this season.
Yahoo – 29 – The Saints are much better than the three teams ranked behind them, though that says more about the Jets, Titans and Dolphins. At least the Saints compete most weeks. They’re not an easy out for anyone, which isn’t a bad sign for head coach Kellen Moore.
5 comments
We arn’t good but there are at least promising signs and decent vibes compared to some of the other bottom feeders.
Jets and Titans are clearly worse, Dolphins, Raiders, Us and Browns likely fight it out for the next few spots. Saints/Dolphins/Titans/Jets are all expected to be sellers by the trade deadline too so might see some teams in that group move up or down.
I think I’m most excited about the fact that we’re staying competitive and developing young guys, which we need to do more of, and not just from the draft. I’d like to see us push for more youth while we’re digging out. It’s the long term investments that will pay off big.
They not good, probably gonna lose, but they gonna fight. I like it. Couple home runs in the draft, and we rollin
I mean if you look at the scores the Jets have been in some close games. 3/6 games have been losses by 2 points exactly!
I said this before the season started: We wouldn’t be a good team this year, but we also weren’t going to be the hopeless mess that everyone seemed to be expecting.
Kellen Moore ain’t perfect, but he’s certainly competent, and the players clearly are bought-in on him as the head coach and are fighting hard. We don’t have a ton of talent on the roster, and our proven good players are mostly getting old and slowing down, but they’re still helping KM build a culture. And I think we’ve seen some of the younger guys responding to that and showing some promising flashes that bode well for the future if KM and his staff can keep developing them and they get more reps.
It’s still going to be a long road to rebuild the roster to the point where the team will really be ready to compete, but despite being 1-5 currently I’m actually feeling pretty good about the direction things are going. In my opinion KM is looking like a very solid hire, and if they can manage to draft a handful of solid players in the next couple offseasons and then have a bit more flexibility in FA with the cap situation clearing up, I think he can absolutely build a roster that gives us a chance to be competitive.
The big question mark is still a long term answer at QB. I’m impressed at the many ways Spencer Rattler has improved over last season with much better coaching and play calling, but I’m not ready to say he’s franchise QB material. But whether it’s him or Shough or someone not currently on the team who ends up being the longer term solution, the reality of the modern NFL is that you need a pretty solid quarterback if you want to be consistently competitive. And those guys are hard to find. But if we can find a guy to be solid in that role, I think KM can build a successful team around them.