Poor coaching decisions and a lack of attention to detail are dooming the New Orleans Saints. They’ve got a lot to clean up, but little time to work with. Between poor utilization of star talents like Alvin Kamara (who Jameis Winston still struggles to target in stride) and Michael Thomas (who caught just his fifth pass when lining up from the slot in Week 3) and messy pre-snap penalties, what was characterized as an experienced, cohesive coaching staff has fell far beneath expectations.
New Orleans ranks second in the NFL in total penalties (24), which is bad enough, but more alarmingly is that they’re second-worst in special teams fouls (6). And unlike the team ahead of them, (the Kansas City Chiefs, with 7) they don’t have Patrick Mahomes to bail them out of unfortunate field position. No team has more pre-snap penalties on special teams than the Saints (3) through three weeks. They’re sloppy in the game’s third phase.
Something we didn’t appreciate strongly enough about Sean Payton was his eye for detail in the kicking game. His special teams units regularly ranked among the cleaner squads around the league, finishing with 10, 13, 21, and 19 fouls the last four years. Even at its worst, that’s a far cry from the 34 special teams penalties New Orleans is on pace for now. Payton’s diligence in smoothing out those procedural issues was a point of pride for him.
The good news is that these things can be cleaned up. Darren Rizzi has been the Saints special teams coordinator for a long time, and he shouldn’t need Payton hovering over his shoulder to make sure he isn’t sending 12 guys on the field for a critical punt or reminding All-Pro gunner J.T. Gray not to run out of bounds while covering a return. He can and should tighten up that phase of the game.
What’s more concerning are the problems on offense. Winston is looking more and more like a poor fit for what the Saints want to run. He isn’t recognizing pressure before the snap and adjusting protection calls for it. He’s not throwing a catchable football to Kamara, who has only caught 5 passes in two games after averaging 5.4 receptions per game across his first four years in the NFL. He’s putting the ball in harm’s way. The offense doesn’t have any sense of rhythm, finishing more drives with punts (16) than scoring opportunities (11 combined touchdowns and field goal tries).
A lot of that blame shifts directly on Pete Carmichael. He’s an experienced play caller and the longest-tenured offensive coordinator in the NFL. Sure, the team had to convince him into hanging onto that job title, but that’s in the past. He’s got to do a better job dialing up plays to his players’ strengths. That means screens for Kamara, play action shots for Winston, and, yeah, quick slants to Thomas when the defense is rushing eight pass rushers. We aren’t seeing the innovative system that emphasized players’ unique skills that defined this offense for 15 years.
Instead, he’s calling plays that betray a lack of trust in his quarterback. Look at these sequences: first down pass falls incomplete, leading to a running play on second down with 10 yards to go. It’s playing for third down and a likely punt rather than trusting your quarterback to make a play. And, again, the penalties didn’t help. New Orleans was flagged at least once on four of their five drives that went three-and-out in Carolina. Four of their offensive penalties on the day were due to poor pre-snap execution like false starts (twice), an illegal shift, and the rare offensive offsides foul (which has only been called five times in the last three seasons).
To be fair to Carmichael, and as WWL Radio analyst Deuce McAllister noted, there have been situations where he called a play to send a receiver streaking open downfield or with yards available after the catch, only to be undercut by a bad throw. Winston missed touchdown opportunities to Kamara and Adam Trautman in the red zone on Sunday because he didn’t look their way. Jarvis Landry was injured adjusting to an off-target pass that twisted his leg as he worked his way back to the ball. But at the end of the day, the play caller and the player most singularly responsible for executing those plays are not in sync.
So what’s to be done? Practice, practice, and more practice. This isn’t going to get better without more reps. Winston has to get more comfortable working under center and reading the defense so he can react to it before the snap. The young guys surrounding him need to ease into their roles and clean up the penalties and procedural issues. And that all starts with the coaches making it a point of emphasis.
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