Week 12 of the 2025 NFL season brings some more intrigue for the New Orleans Saints compared to usual, as they will be taking on the Atlanta Falcons in a matchup between two squads that have performed well below average this year. With a combined three wins, these two teams are just in a tough place and will be fighting with everything they have to take down the other side, per usual for this game.

One of the bigger concerns for the Saints long-term is just how inconsistent they have been. At times, the defense looks outstanding, and at other times, it gets completely gashed. This inconsistency has led to a lot of players trending upwards or downwards at various points throughout the campaign. Here are some recent changes:

Trending up: QB Tyler Shough

Tyler Shough is probably the most notable player trending upward from the Week 10 victory, as he was able to put together a highly promising showing in only his second career start. While it wasn’t anything crazy statistically, he was highly efficient and got the job done against a somewhat solid Carolina Panthers team.

Completing 19 of 27 passes for 282 yards and 2 touchdowns is quite impressive for a rookie, and is hopefully sustainable beyond one or two week flashes.

Trending down: DE Carl Granderson

Ever since the return of Chase Young, Carl Granderson has had a difficult time breaking into the backfield or generating any really productive pressures. After starting off extremely hot the first few weeks with 3.5 sacks in the first two games and 4.5 in the first four, he has had none in the last six games after that, and has only combined for 14 tackles in that span compared to 20 in the first four games.

Just a rough stretch after he kicked off the season very well, which has made creating pressures even more difficult for the Saints.

Trending up: WR Chris Olave

Following the trade of Rashid Shaheed to the Seattle Seahawks, Chris Olave immediately made his name known once again, with five receptions for 104 yards and a touchdown, which included a 62-yard touchdown. With Brandin Cooks out of the picture now as well, he could see even more targets in Week 12, and likely will, given that the wide receiver room at this moment is extremely depleted.

Trending down: LB Pete Werner

This has been more of a slow-burning type of trending downwards, as Danny Stutsman has been picking up more and more reps the past few weeks, as twice in the last four games he has had 23% or more of defensive snaps played. Werner has been less than impressive over the past few years. While he puts together productive numbers with tackles, he just is incapable of getting tackle-for-loss numbers beyond a few, and his coverage has always been highly disappointing.

Trending up: CB Alontae Taylor

Taylor has been productive all year, no doubt, but in Week 10, he ended up with 6 tackles, a tackle for loss, and a pass deflection, while being near lockdown the whole day in coverage. In a secondary unit that started off 2025 in a brutal manner, they have mostly turned things around, and hopefully, this ends up being something that continues to be showcased in the next few weeks.

Trending down: DE Jonah Williams

Jonah Williams has somewhat quietly started to be taken out of some defensive reps that he started off the season being utilized in. Whether that be due to Chase Young returning or just a lack of productivity, it is happening. He started off the year taking 30% of the defensive snaps or more in three of his first four games, including 43.9% in Week 3. Since then, he has only played in four games, and in all of them, he has taken 28.3% of snaps or less.