{"id":974909,"date":"2026-08-16T17:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T17:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/974909\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T17:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T17:27:16","slug":"5-roster-battles-affected-by-saints-preseason-opener-vs-jags-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/974909\/","title":{"rendered":"5 roster battles affected by Saints preseason opener vs Jags | Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kellen Moore indicated he still has faith in Charlie Smyth<\/a>. The New Orleans Saints coach believes the kicker has been in the NFL long enough to understand that \u201cinevitably\u201d a miss is going to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just keep hanging in there,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

Smyth, in his third year with the Saints, has no other choice. The Ireland native missed a 52-yard field goal in Saturday\u2019s 24-20 preseason loss<\/a> to the Jacksonville Jaguars, marking the latest sign that the 25-year-old is in a bit of a slump at the moment.<\/p>\n

Smyth\u2019s miss followed what had been a shaky stretch of practices. The kicker had at least one miss in three of his last four outings \u2014 including two days in which he sailed three attempts in each session.<\/p>\n

The struggles have undoubtedly tightened the Saints\u2019 kicking competition. And against the Jaguars, former UFL standout Tanner Brown nailed both of his attempts from 49 and 29 yards. Throughout training camp and the preseason, Smyth is now 35-of-44 on his attempts (including extra points), while Brown is 35-of-40.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep going, keep going,\u201d Moore said when asked about where the battle goes from here. \u201cBoth of those guys, I am proud of those guys. You go through some bumps sometimes, and you just keep going. Just keep going through training camp and through this preseason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s preseason opener was also important for the position battles happening across the Saints\u2019 roster. In addition to kicker, here are the spots most impacted by what happened on the field.<\/p>\n

Quarterback<\/p>\n

Will Zach Wilson get an opportunity with the 2\u2019s?<\/p>\n

After Wilson outplayed Spencer Rattler, Moore was noncommittal about whether Wilson would now see reps with the second unit rather than the third. But Moore did reveal that the Saints\u2019 starters likely won\u2019t play in next week\u2019s preseason game against the Los Angeles Rams, creating an opportunity for Moore to swap Rattler for Wilson if the coach decides to shake things up.<\/p>\n

The Saints have said there\u2019s a competition taking place for backup quarterback, but Rattler and Wilson have yet to rotate reps since camp began July 29. Wilson’s performance against Jacksonville showed that it could be worth exploring.<\/p>\n

The former second overall pick went 11-of-16 for 145 yards and a touchdown, while Rattler mustered only 42 yards on 8-of-11 passing. Rattler was also sacked twice, one of which led to a fumble that Jacksonville recovered inside its own 10-yard line.<\/p>\n

Running back<\/p>\n

Moore might not have quite the same philosophy as former Saints coach Dennis Allen, who would often say that a player can\u2019t make the team if they\u2019re stuck in the training room.<\/p>\n

But Kendre Miller (back) and Devin Neal (hamstring) need to be making sure they\u2019re doing all they can to return to the practice field sooner or later because the battle to become the Saints\u2019 third running back has arguably intensified more than any other position in camp.<\/p>\n

Audric Estime followed through a strong week of practice with a 9-yard touchdown on his very first run against Jacksonville. Estime finished with 28 yards on five carries \u2014 good for an average of 5.6 yards per attempt.<\/p>\n

The unfortunate part: Estime got hurt. The running back left early with an ankle injury, which Moore said was being further evaluated. Does that open the door for Ty Chandler? The former Vikings running back has also had a solid camp and he dazzled with an 86-yard kickoff return to open the Jaguars game.<\/p>\n

Wide receiver<\/p>\n

The race for WR4 \u2014 or maybe even WR3, depending on Jordyn Tyson\u2019s health \u2014 is still wide open.<\/p>\n

Barion Brown (four catches, 53 yards) and Kevin Austin (three catches, 24 yards) could be the most logical candidates to fill that spot, though neither delivered the kind of statement against Jacksonville to say the battle has reached a conclusion. There\u2019s also rookie Bryce Lance, who didn\u2019t play Saturday because he\u2019s been dealing with \u201cbumps and bruises.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Saints don\u2019t have a clear fourth receiver after Ja\u2019Lynn Polk retired this month. And if Tyson, who is dealing with a hamstring injury, has to miss significant time, whoever wins that job will likely be elevated to the Saints\u2019 third receiver with Chris Olave and Devaughn Vele as starters.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a question of how many receivers the Saints end up keeping. Bub Means (four catches, 77 yards) made a case that he\u2019s deserving of a spot, but there might not be room for him if the Saints only have five wideouts on their initial 53-man roster. And even if the Saints keep six receivers, Means would have to beat out someone like Austin \u2014 who is ahead in the pecking order as of now.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Ronnie Bell (zero catches, 1 target) surprisingly had a quiet night given he had been having a productive camp. And Jalen Cropper (three catches, 49 yards) found his way to the ball, despite limited reps in practice.<\/p>\n

Linebacker<\/p>\n

The Saints made a statement by who they didn\u2019t play. Beyond shelving their starters, New Orleans also withheld a few key backups \u2014 including second-year linebacker Danny Stutsman.<\/p>\n

Stutsman has been competing with Pete Werner for a starting spot opposite Kaden Elliss, and it\u2019s worth wondering if the Saints\u2019 decision to rest Stutsman indicates that battle is truly neck-and-neck.<\/p>\n

Fourth-year linebacker Jaylan Ford, meanwhile, has also taken occasional reps with the 1\u2019s and he made sure not to be forgotten with a standout performance against the Jaguars. Ford had seven tackles and an interception, picking off Jacksonville quarterback Nick Mullens in the red zone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kellen Moore indicated he still has faith in Charlie Smyth. The New Orleans Saints coach believes the kicker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":974910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2060],"tags":[7,4095,212,125,2401,213,6],"class_list":["post-974909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-football","tag-hardwall","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jacksonvillejaguars","tag-jaguars","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117106366486646900","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=974909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/974910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=974909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=974909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=974909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}