No. 2: Does pass rush have enough juice?
You might look at the Saints’ 45 sacks and No. 5 ranking in sacks-per-attempt last season and think all is well, but the advanced pass-rush metrics tell a different story. The Saints’ 32.6% quarterback pressure rate ranked 21st in the league, according to Next Gen Stats, and their overall pas- rush rating of 66.7 ranked 23rd, per Pro Football Focus.
Chase Young was the only Saints defender to rank among the top 100 in pass-rush win percentage by PFF last season and he ranked only No. 32 with a 15.2% win rate.
Free agent linebacker Kaden Elliss ranked No. 10 at 18.2%, so there’s hope he can bolster this area. The Saints wanted to add more help during the NFL draft, but things didn’t fall their way in the second and third rounds. As a result, they took a pair of flyers on veterans Tyree Wilson and Anfernee Jennings.