Common themes are emerging in the Saints’ offensive coordinator search — beyond being products of the McVay coaching tree:
We know three of the names in the list of New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator candidates: Dan Pitcher, Zac Robinson, and Shane Waldron. While they all coach for different teams, they do share some commonalities that explain why the Saints are prioritizing them.
And it goes beyond being offshoots of the Sean McVay coaching tree. But that’s the most obvious (and arguably most important) factor, so let’s start there. Pitcher hasn’t worked with McVay directly but he’s been a top assistant for Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, who worked with receivers and quarterbacks under McVay earlier in his career. Taylor’s offense takes a lot of cues from McVay and Pitcher has come up in the same system.
Both Robinson (who is still with the Rams) and Waldron (who was hired away by the division-rival Seattle Seahawks) worked under McVay personally, and his influence on them is clear. In Waldron’s case, the Seahawks used even heavier play action (on 22.9% of their passes) than the Rams did this year (18.8%). Seattle also tried more passes further downfield more often (targeting receivers 20-plus yards downfield on 12.3% of passes) than L.A. (10.4%). For comparison, the Saints averaged deep shots on 12.2% of their attempts and used play action on just 16% of their passes.
What about the run game? All three teams averaged more yards per carry before contact than the Saints: the Rams and Seahawks both gained 2.7 yards before hitting a defender, and the Bengals were just behind at 2.5. The Saints were nearly half a yard worse at 2.3. The New Orleans offensive line was a mess for much of the season, so moving to a McVay-influenced scheme could help them clean the slate.
The Seahawks used zone on 67.9% of their runs, while the Bengals leaned heavier to gap blocking (using zone on 43.7%), as did the Rams (who used zone on just 38.6%). The Saints are more in line with Seattle while using zone on 62.1% of their runs. New Orleans was the only team of the three to not have multiple running backs gain 15-plus yards on multiple carries this season (Alvin Kamara had 6 of them).
So this tells us the Saints want to deploy a more effective running game and a passing attack that relies more heavily on play action and big shots downfield, which lines up with their personnel. Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed are two of the best receivers in the league past the numbers — use them.
Something else to note: the Saints averaged the second-fewest yards after the catch in 2023 as a team, at 4.4. Only the Carolina Panthers (4.1) were worse. All three of these teams they’re looking to poach from ranked top-10: the Bengals and Rams at 5.6, and the Seahawks at 5.4. Some of that is on personnel in stocking up on receivers who can make a play with the ball in their hands, but a lot of it is also on the play design. Getting receivers open with room to work is key, and each of the teams that Waldron, Robinson, and Pitcher come from excel at it. Hopefully the Saints can land one of them, or someone with similar philosophies.
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