Tag: Chase Young

Countdown to Kickoff, Day 94: Cameron Jordan is the Saints Player of the Day

Countdown to Kickoff, Day 94: Cameron Jordan is the New Orleans Saints Player of the Day. What are expectations for him in 2024?

There are 94 days to go until the New Orleans Saints kick  off their 2024 season with the Carolina Panthers, which means Cameron Jordan — the current owner  of the No. 94 jersey — is our Saints Player of  the Day. We’re counting down to kickoff by highlighting each player in the corresponding jersey number until Sept. 8.

Jordan is coming off of a down year, which may feel inevitable this late in his career. But before we get to his goals for 2024, let’s reflect on the road that brought him here:

  • Name (Age): Cameron Jordan (34)
  • Position: Defensive end
  • Height, weight: 6-foot-4, 287 pounds
  • Relative Athletic Score: 8.86
  • 2024 salary cap hit: $13,852,250
  • College: California
  • Drafted: First round in 2011 (New Orleans Saints)
  • NFL experience: 14 seasons

Jordan is the Saints’ official all-time sacks leader (with 117.5 of them) but he only had two sacks last season before an ankle injury limited his snap counts. In 2022, 5 of his 8.5 sacks came in just two games. He isn’t the same pass rusher he once was, and the Saints shouldn’t keep asking him to play the same role in their defense. But they don’t have many better options with Payton Turner and Isaiah Foskey developing so slowly. Tanoh Kpassagnon’s injury takes  him off the board, too. The hope is Chase Young can add enough to thee pass rush opposite Carl Granderson to make up for Jordan’s decline, but he’s dealing with his own injury.

It isn’t a great situation. By all accounts the Saints are still intending on Jordan playing a lot of snaps and starting with Granderson. Until someone steps up to help Jordan shoulder the load, he’s going to continue playing heavy minutes on Sundays. He maintained an impressive pace of at least 7.5 sacks per season from 2012 to 2022, but those days may be behind him.

If that’s the case, we’re saying Jordan should aim for 5.5 sacks in 2024. That would be an improvement and tie Rickey Jackson for the Saints’ unofficial all-time record at Pro Football Reference. Sacks were not officially tracked until 1982, which didn’t include Jackson’s rookie season in 1981, so his unofficial total is 123. Seeing Jordan tie that would be good. Beating it would be great.

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Saints coach Dennis Allen sees a ‘highly motivated’ player in Chase Young

Dennis Allen shared an update on Chase Young’s health status, commending the Saints’ big free agent pickup for his progress in the spring:

We’ve got a positive update on Chase Young. The New Orleans Saints defensive end underwent surgery in March to relieve pressure on a herniated disc in his neck, and he was said to be looking at a four- to six-month recovery. So while there’s a possibility he could return in time for the start of training camp, it’s more realistic to expect him to miss some time over the summer.

But Dennis Allen said that, so far, Young’s progress has been good. He commended the Saints’ big free agent signing for working hard to get healthy and pick up his new playbook during the spring.

“Look, he’s been here every day,” Allen began, speaking with local media after Wednesday’s minicamp practice. “And he’s in all the meetings, and when we’re out here at practice he’s in doing the rehab and the things he’s capable of doing. I see a guy that’s highly motivated to have a great year. I think to this point he’s been on track in terms of the healing process. We’ll probably have another update in terms of where he’s at here in a week or two. Probably it’ll paint a clearer picture as to when we think he might be back.

“But he’s doing everything we’re asking him to do, he’s highly motivated, he wants to be a part of this organization, wants to a part of this team. And, look, I’m excited about getting him out here when he’s healthy enough to be out here.”

It’s a very important year for Young. He only signed a one-year contract with the Saints, which means he’ll be a free agent again in 2025. While he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers with much fanfare after a disappointing run with the Washington Commanders last season, he didn’t quite meet expectations after changing one helmet for another. This reboot in New Orleans is his best chance at reigniting his career and earning a big contract in free agency. Seizing every opportunity in the film room and checking every box in his rehab is part of that process.

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Was Kool-Aid McKinstry or Chase Young the Saints’ most dangerous pickup?

Kool Aid McKinstry was labeled the Saints’ most dangerous addition, but should that title actually belong to Chase Young?

Kool-Aid McKinstry was labeled the New Orleans Saints’ most dangerous addition this offseason by Bleacher Report’s Ryan Fowler. This combined with the Saints secondary being considered the strength of the team brings a draft day question back to the forefront. Where does the second round cornerback fit in 2024?

The other option for the Saints’ most dangerous addition is Chase Young and arguably would have been a better fit. Health permitting, Young has a ready-made role on the team. He was brought in to a defensive line room that struggled to rush the passer. He was the most necessary addition from the offseason and has the chance to be the most dangerous if he hits his ceiling.

It’s possible Fowler simply didn’t believe Young will hit his ceiling or that McKinstry will make that significant of an impact. Fowler labeled McKinstry the most dangerous addition and mentioned him being an outside corner. Saying that with Paulson Adebo and Marshon Lattimore still on the roster spoke volumes of Fowler’s belief in the rookie.

A rookie with a high ceiling. A veteran looking to hit his high ceiling after multiple setbacks through his career. McKinstry and Young are in different parts of their career with one huge similarity and equally as dangerous potential. Who deserves the title could come to a difference in approach. Do you value building upon a strength more than strengthening a weakness? Vote in our poll to make your voice heard:

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Countdown to Kickoff, Day 98: Payton Turner is the Saints Player of the Day

It’s all about staying healthy for Payton Turner. He’s our New Orleans Saints Player of Day 98 as we count down to the 2024 kickoff:

We’ve got 98 days to go until the New Orleans Saints kick off their 2024 season against the Carolina Panthers, which means Payton Turner (the current owner of the Saints’ No. 98 jersey) is our Player of the Day.

And it’s all about staying healthy for him in 2024. But before we get into his goals for the upcoming season, let’s recap some key information about the fourth-year pro:

  • Name (Age): Payton Turner (25)
  • Position: Defensive end
  • Height, weight: 6-foot-5, 270 pounds
  • Relative Athletic Score: 9.74
  • 2024 salary cap hit: $3,985,143
  • College: Houston
  • Drafted: 28th overall in 2021 (New Orleans Saints)
  • NFL experience: 4 years

As we mentioned at the top, Turner’s number-one goal in 2024 should be staying healthy. He enjoyed the best offseason of his career last summer and didn’t miss a single practice at training camp but went down with an injury in Week 1’s opening minutes that almost ended his season. He was able to return in time for the regular season finale and registered two quarterback hits with a fumble recovery. He has some ability. He just hasn’t been available often enough.

Injuries were a problem for Turner before 2023. He was limited to just 13 games (out of a possible 34) through his first two years in New Orleans. There have been times when he was benched as a coach’s decision but by and large he’s just been on the mend. At the end of the day he’s played 15 games out of 51 matchups the Saints have had since they drafted him. That isn’t good enough, and it explains why they didn’t pick up his fifth-year option for 2025.

It’s now or never in New Orleans. Turner is going to be a free agent in 2025 just like Chase Young, so at least one of them won’t be returning after this season. Tanoh Kpassagnon’s sudden Achilles injury has put him on ice for the foreseeable future which will open up practice reps for both young pros. And out of Young and Turner, it’s No. 98 who is healthy and practicing right now. He needs to make the most of every opportunity and carry that momentum into September.

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Countdown to Kickoff, Day 99: Chase Young is the Saints Player of the Day

Chase Young is the Saints Player of Day 99 as we count down to the 2024 kickoff. He’s hoping to make a big impact in a pivotal year:

There are 99 days remaining until the New Orleans Saints kick off their 2024 season against the Carolina Panthers, which means this year’s No. 99 is our player of the day: Chase Young. The veteran defensive end signed with the Saints as a free agent this spring, and he’s in line for a big role in the fall — once he’s healthy.

But first, let’s get to know him a bit better:

  • Name (Age): Chase Young (25)
  • Position: Defensive end
  • Height, weight: 6-foot-5, 265 pounds
  • Relative Athletic Score: N/A
  • 2024 salary cap hit: $3,442,000
  • College: Ohio State
  • Drafted: 2nd overall in 2020 (Washington Commanders)
  • NFL experience: 5 years

Before he can worry about anything else, Young must finish recovering from neck surgery he underwent in March to address an injury he played through in 2023. He’s expected to miss some time in training camp, but the Saints have protected themselves by structuring his contract so that it essentially gives them a refund for any games Young misses after Week 1.

For his part, Young is excited to learn from Cameron Jordan, one of the best in the game, while reuniting with old teammates like Pete Werner and Chris Olave. The former Buckeye had more sacks last year with Washington and the San Francisco 49erse than anyone in New Orleans (besides Carl Granderson, tying him at 8.5) as well as more quarterback hits and pressures than many of his new Saints teammates.

The hope is for Young to get healthy and juice up one of the NFL’s least productive pass-rush units. He’s facing a four- to six-month recovery, per NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill, so we’ll see if he’s able to return during training camp or later once the regular season kicks off. The Saints will be without backup defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon after his offseason Achilles injury, but they’ll be leaning on draft picks like Isaiah Foskey and Payton Turner until Young can get on the field.

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PFF ranks the Saints’ roster among NFL’s bottom-10 depth charts

Pro Football Focus ranked the New Orleans Saints’ roster among the NFL’s bottom-10 teams. The Saints have a lot of work to do in changing that perception:

Is there a 9-win team drawing more criticism than the New Orleans Saints are right now? Pro Football Focus ranked all 32 rosters from best to worst, and the Saints didn’t just fall inside the back half of the league — they were all the way down at No. 24, between the 8-win Las Vegas Raiders and 6-win Tennessee Titans. That suggests they were less than impressed by the Derek Carr-led Saints.

PFF analysts Jim Wyman and Dalton Wasserman identified the Saints’ offensive line as their biggest vulnerability, expressing pessimism that 2021 first-round pick Trevor Penning can be relied on even after moving to right tackle. Here’s why they’re taking the under on 7.5 wins for the Saints in 2024:

New Orleans’ struggles in the trenches make it very difficult to project a high ceiling for the team. While they are talented at the skill positions, especially in the secondary, their lack of pass rush and pass protection could create the same inconsistency that hurt them last season. They won nine games in 2023, yet it’s difficult to find areas where they have improved heading into 2024.

It’s tough to argue with that assessment. On paper, the Saints’ pass rush should be mightily improved after signing Chase Young; but his long recovery from offseason neck surgery and the news of a torn Achilles for backup defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon sullied that outlook.

And the offensive line is what everything hinges on for the other side of the ball. Outside of Penning, the Saints are banking on rookie first-round pick Taliese Fuaga playing left tackle at a high level while second-year pro Nick Saldiveri earns the starting job next to him at left guard; both players lined up at right tackle in college, so there’s a lot of projection in that plan. The only starters returning from last year are Pro Bowl center Erik McCoy and right guard Cesar Ruiz.

At least the Saints have a weak strength of schedule that should tee them up for some winnable games. But that was the case last year. We need to see Dennis Allen’s team stack up wins and prove their doubters wrong in order to believe they can do it. They’ve run out of goodwill.

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Saints say DE Tanoh Kpassagnon tore his Achilles, will miss training camp

The Saints said Tuesday that Tanoh Kpassagnon tore his Achilles, which will cause him to miss training camp. Three of their top four defensive ends are managing injuries:

This isn’t how you want to start the offseason. The New Orleans Saints announced that veteran defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon suffered a torn Achilles tendon in the spring that will sideline him through the summer, and likely into the 2024 seaosn.

“Tanoh tore his Achilles in the offseason,” head coach Dennis Allen said Tuesady. “So he’s going to be out for a little while.”

Kpassagnon won’t be able to participate in training camp this summer while recovering from this injury, and it remains to be seen whether he’ll be cleared to play during the regular season. For some context, former Saints linebacker Kwon Alexander suffered the same injury in late December, during the 2020 season, but was able to practice in August before the start of the 2021 season. So we’re looking at probably a seven-month recovery timeline for Kpassagnon, though every situation is different. He may be able to return a little sooner or require more time to fully heal. It’s too soon to say.

Either way, this is a big loss for New Orleans. Kpassagnon has become an important part of the team’s rotation at defensive end; his 34 quarterback pressures last season were third-most on the team, and his 3.5 sacks tied defensive tackle Nathan Shepherd for fourth-most. This means that three of the Saints’ top four defensive ends are dealing with injuries before training camp: Cameron Jordan (ankle), Chase Young (neck), and Kpassagnon (Achilles).

How the depth chart shakes out from here is anyone’s guess. Payton Turner has played ahead of Isaiah Foskey when healthy, but he missed most of the 2023 season after a Week 1 injury of his own; Foskey was also sidelined extensively while managing a quadricep injury. Other players in the mix include Niko Lalos (returning from last year’s practice squad) as well as undrafted rookies Nathan Latu and Trajan Jeffcoat.

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Bleacher Report ranks Saints defense just outside NFL’s top 10

The Saints’ defense has been a model of consistency since 2017. But Bleacher Report’s NFL scouting department has big concerns for 2024:

Defense has been the face of the New Orleans Saints since Drew Brees retired and has, arguably, been the backbone for even longer. Coming into the season, Bleacher Report ranked the Saints as the 11th-best defense in the NFL. The B/R scouting department used offseason activity in addition to last year’s performance to form their rankings.

The belief in the Saints defense stems from what they’ve historically been able to do. The defense has been strong since 2017. Dennis Allen’s stretch of consistent defense creates a blind faith similar to the Sean Payton era offense. The confidence is only heightened by the Saints retaining last year’s defensive core.

The two concerns comes from age and pass rush. Cameron Jordan, Demario Davis and Tyrann Mathieu are all 32 years old or older. At that age, a steep fall off could happen at any time. In Jordan’s case, the beginning may have already started.

The pass rush struggled mightily last season, but the signing of Chase Young should help with this. The Saints were bottom-five in both pass rush percentage and sacks in 2023. New Orleans succeeded in spite of the pass rush, but shouldn’t bank on that in the upcoming season. It should be better and the Saints defense should improve because of it as well. Signs point to their arrow trending up, not down.

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PFF analyst grades Saints’ offseason so far with a strong B+

How do you grade the New Orleans Saints offseason so far? Pro Football Focus gave them a B-plus, but that’s still second-place in the NFC South:

NFL offseason grades don’t carry much value, but they are a good measuring stick for finding how different teams (and their offseason strategies) are being perceived. So how do the New Orleans Saints stack up against the rest of the NFC South? Their road to the playoffs runs through the division, and it’s worth keeping up with them to see how each squad compares.

Pro Football Focus analyst Trevor Sikkema graded the Saints’ offseason thus far with a B-plus, which was better than the Atlanta Falcons (C-minus) and Carolina Panthers (C-plus), but a little behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (A), who won the division last season. Still, its’ good to see the Saints on the right side of the bell curve. Here’s why he says they earned such a strong grade from Sikkema:

The Saints no longer have Michael Thomas, Jameis Winston and Andrus Peat from last year’s team, but those losses don’t hurt their overall outlook. On the flip side, they added Chase Young and Willie Gay while extending Tyrann Mathieu.

New Orleans’ top two draft picks, Taliese Fuaga and Kool-Aid McKinstry, can make an impact in Year 1, and I like the flier on Spencer Rattler in the fifth round as a developmental quarterback behind Derek Carr.

And they aren’t finished yet — June 1 is rapidly approaching, at which point the Saints (and every other team) will get a little financial relief from past departures like Thomas and Winston. They’ll also enjoy greater flexibility for players carrying high salary cap hits like Alvin Kamara ($18.5 million) and Taysom Hill ($14.6 million), while making it more viable to trade Marshon Lattimore, even if that appears to be a lower possibility than it was before the NFL draft.

So while the big moves are settled and it doesn’t appear they’ll be adding any starters or hot names, we can’t rule out more movement from the Saints over the summer. They still have some obvious flaws to address on both offense (depth at the skill positions, and a vacancy at left guard) and defense (more pass rush help and another defensive tackle), but this is a roster they clearly feel is ready to compete in the fall. They felt that way last year, too. Maybe this time they’ll get it right.

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Chase Young on track in surgery rehab, participating at walkthrough practice

Chase Young is on track in his surgery rehab and participating at walkthroughs. The Saints are betting big on him making an impact in 2024:

The New Orleans Saints are betting big on Chase Young. The former Ohio State Buckeye and No. 2 pick in the NFL draft signed a unique one-year deal with the Saints in free agency, and they’re putting a lot of hopes on him livening up their pass rush — once he’s cleared for a full workload after undergoing neck surgery earlier this offseason.

Young’s injury was not news to the Saints, who constructed his deal to where they’ll essentially get a refund on the 2025 salary cap for any games he misses in 2024. Just in case. But they’re hoping he’ll be back in action early this season, and with organized team activities kicking off this week he’s progressing right where they expected him to be. Head coach Dennis Allen shared an update on Young’s health at the Saints Hall of Fame golf tournament on Monday.

“Things are going well right now,” Allen said. “Look, I don’t expect to see him out there on the practice field, working any time soon, he’s been able to participate in some of the walkthrough stuff that we’ve had. I think that’ll be the mode he’ll be in the majority of this time of the year. And then we’ll see where we’re at when training camp rolls around.”

That lines up with the treatment and recovery plan the Saints outlined early on. The expectation is for Young to miss part of training camp while healing up and regaining his strength, and to have had a few weeks of practice behind him before putting on shoulder pads for Week 1’s game with the Carolina Panthers. If he can beat that timeline, even better. If he takes longer, well. That’s why his contract is structured the way it is. For his part, Young is eager to get back on the field and learn from veteran teammates like Cameron Jordan.

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