A lot of New Orleans Saints fans are celebrating the addition of Foster Moreau as a hometown hero looking to overcome his recent cancer diagnosis, but it’s important to remember that he isn’t just a great story. Moreau is a heck of a football player, and he’s going to add some new dimensions to the Saints offense that had kind of fallen off by the wayside.
The Saints already had one quality tight end in Juwan Johnson. Now they have two of them, plus a position-flexible weapon in Taysom Hill. It’s a setup Moreau is familiar with from his time with the Las Vegas Raiders when he and Darren Waller worked together.
Moreau played well as a compliment to Waller, who did some damage to the Saints defense a few years back as a vertical threat. But their new pickup does more of his work underneath coverage where he can win on contested catches and make a play with the ball in his hands. We’ll let Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar break it down in more detail with his takeaways from studying Farrar’s game tape.
Farrar says, “While he’s not in the same downfield threat category as Waller, Moreau became a valuable outlet target for Carr with his ability to get open quickly off the snap, and maximize yards-after-catch opportunities. 241 of his 420 yards last season came after the catch, and that’s what he brings to the Saints.”
So Moreau adds a much-needed run-after-catch threat to the Saints offense. He averaged a healthy 6.6 yards gained after the catch per reception in his Raiders career, with an impressive 7.3 mark last season (for context, as a team the Saints averaged 4.8 yards). If Carr can continue to link up with Moreau on passes where he can catch the ball in stride and take off on the move, they’ll be productive.
“Basically, if you want an in-line tight end who can get open, body defenders out of the way, and make some amazing catches at the end, Moreau is a clear asset. The Chargers would be able to tell you all about that,” Farrar wrote, highlighting a play where Moreau got a step on his opponent off the line of scrimmage and tracked the ball well to make a clean catch down the sideline.
Yeah, the Saints can use that. Working Moreau into the lineup as a traditional tight end who can move defenders while blocking for the runner and catching passes adds a lot of versatility to the offense. His presence also frees up Johnson to do what he does best and create big plays against outmatched opponents downfield. If things go as planned, they’ll be quite a dynamic duo.
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