Tag: Record

Alvin Kamara’s untimely injury puts a career milestone in jeopardy

Alvin Kamara was on pace to check this box off his resume, but his groin injury could keep the Saints RB from reaching a major career milestone:

Alvin Kamara has been one of the NFL’s best running backs since entering the league in 2017. As the league transitioned to prioritizing running backs who can run and catch, the New Orleans Saints star was a leader of that charge. Winning the Saints franchise record for touchdowns scored and rushing yards gained is proof of it.

Because of his sustained prominence, some would be surprised to know Alvin Kamara has never rushed for 1,000 yards in a season. If Kamara’s groin injury keeps him out for the rest of the season, he will fall just short of the century mark again.

Kamara recently surpassed his career-high in yardage. This season marks just the second time he ran for at least 900 yards. In 2020, Kamara fell 68 yards short of crossing 1,000 yards. When the milestone was within arm’s reach, he tested positive for COVID-19 in the final week of the season.

This time he had three games left in need of just 50 yards. All he would have needed was to average 17 rushing yards a game. That felt like a safe bet. But if Kamara isn’t able to return this year, he will narrowly miss checking this box of his resume for the second time in his career.

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T.J. Watt hits Steelers milestone in Week 15 matchup vs Eagles

T.J. Watt tied James Harrison’s Steelers record for forced fumbles, inching closer to becoming the franchise’s all-time leader.

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit in the wind, and you shouldn’t let T.J. Watt anywhere near an opposing quarterback. Despite suffering an apparent ankle injury in Pittsburgh’s Week 15 loss to the Eagles, Watt once again etched his name among all-time Steelers legends by tying the record for most forced fumbles in team history.

Toward the end of the first quarter, Watt made a huge splash play by punching the football out of Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts’ arms, earning his 33rd career forced fumble in the process.

Watt is now tied with Steelers legend James Harrison, but at this stage of his career, surpassing Harrison is practically a matter of when, not if.

If Watt is healthy enough to play in what may be the most important game of the Steelers’ season so far—the AFC North showdown against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 16—fans should have their eyes glued to his immaculate ability to knock footballs loose.

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Cameron Jordan had his first multi-sack game since 2022 season

Cameron Jordan had his first multi-sack game since 2022 against the Washington Commanders. The New Orleans Saints pass rush is heating up:

This time of year is usually prime time for New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan.

On Sunday against the Washington Commanders, Jordan achieved his first multi-sack game since late in the 2022 season, back on New Year’s Day 2023 against the Philadelphia Eagles. Jordan tallied up three sacks on Eagles backup Gardner Minshew in a game in which they would win 20-10.

Jordan had two sacks against Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, to bump his total to three on the season. Coincidentally, Jordan’s three sacks in 2024 have all came during interim head coach Darren Rizzi’s tenure.

It has been very evident that Cam’s play as of late has been much more impressive in this second half of the season. On Sunday, his play was crucial in containing a player like Daniels and making sure that he doesn’t extend plays on the perimeter.

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Jake Haener could be the first QB Saints have drafted to win a game since 1998

Jake Haener could become the first quarterback drafted by the New Orleans Saints to win a game for the team since 1998:

If the New Orleans Saints were to win Sunday’s matchup with the Washington Commanders, sophomore quarterback Jake Haener would do something that hasn’t been done in over 25 years.

Haener could become the first quarterback drafted by the Saints to win a game since all the way back in 1998, per New Orleans-based statistician Drew Porche.

The last Saints quarterback to do so was Danny Wuerffel against the Indianapolis Colts. Wuerffel, like Haener was a fourth-round selection. He played in New Orleans for three years before jumping around the league for a couple more seasons.

Of course, this is extended by Drew Brees’ presence as a free agent signing, but the history of drafted quarterbacks has been quite poor in that time.

Ian Book, Spencer Rattler and now Haener are the only quarterbacks drafted by the Saints to even attempt passes in a start for New Orleans in that time. Book and Rattler did not have much success in their outings, Haener will try to curb the trend.

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Former NFL head coach says Saints got away with foul on game-winning FG block

Former NFL head coach Jay Gruden says the Saints got away with a foul on their game-winning field goal block. Check the tape for yourself:


There’s no love lost between Jay Gruden and the New York Giants — he coached against them with Washington from 2014 to 2019, going 4-7. The second-to-last game he coached was a 24-3 loss to Big Blue. But the former NFL head coach put the Giants’ close loss to the New Orleans Saints under a microscope when studying this week’s games, and he says the Saints may have gotten away with a penalty on their game-winning blocked field goal.

Gruden highlighted two Saints defensive linemen on the field goal try, Payton Turner and Nathan Shepherd, who pulled and pushed down the left guard and center, creating a gap for Bryan Bresee to leap through, arms extended for the block. That could count as a block in the back or defensive holding, but obviously no penalty was called this time.

“This referee is saying ‘Oh yeah that’s a flag, I got it,'” Gruden said, noticing the umpire’s hand dive into his pocket to grab a penalty marker. But the official decided to keep the flag where it was, and the play stood as a game-winner for New Orleans.

It’s not like referee Clete Blakeman and his crew hadn’t thrown many flags that day. They had fouled the Saints six times for a loss of 40 yards. But they did hit the Giants a dozen times for a staggering 112 penalty yards. They lived up to their reputation as one of the NFL’s most flag-happy officiating crews. So maybe the Saints did get away with one here. Either way, they got a win, and that’s what will be remembered.

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Blake Grupe has already made Saints history in Year 2

Blake Grupe has been sharp from long range since entering the league. He’s the only Saints kicker to hit this impressive milestone:

Blake Grupe’s performance this year has flown under the radar. Not only has the second year player been a more accurate kicker than he was his rookie season, Grupe has also shown good range in 2024.

This may feel hyperbolic, but Grupe has literally made history in his first two seasons. In his first year, he was the first kicker in New Orleans Saints history to make five or more field goals from at least 50 yards in a season, with six of them on nine tries. He’s done it again in Year 2, going five-for-five.

It’s extremely impressive because Morten Andersen and Wil Lutz are former Saints with strong resumes, but neither of them hit this one particular milestone. Grupe has done it twice.

To add to this feat, the kicker hasn’t missed from 50-plus all season long.

Let’s take a deep breath and hope the writer’s jinx doesn’t come into play against the New York Giants.

Grupe’s year has been defined by efficiency and range. He’s delivered both simultaneously on five different occasions. He opened the season with a career long of 57 yards against the Panthers. Grupe’s overall percentage of made field goals has jumped by nearly 10 percent as well. He’s earned some confidence during his brief time on the job, let’s hope he keeps it up.

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NFL’s flag-happiest referee assigned to Saints-Giants game

The New Orleans Saints and New York Giants are going to have to deal with the NFL’s flag-happiest referee in Sunday’s Week 14 matchup:

The New Orleans Saints and New York Giants might be seeing a lot of yellow on Sunday as their matchup got assigned the most flag-happy referee in the NFL.

Clete Blakeman was assigned the Week 14 matchup of Saints-Giants per Football Zebras. Blakeman’s crews lead the league in both penalties per game (15.3) and penalty yards per game (128.5).

Neither team will be excited to see him on the sidelines, but New York especially. In the games of theirs that they have played in with him as the referee, they are just 3-6. New Orleans doesn’t have a spectacular record, but at least it is a balanced 7-7.

Blakeman was the referee for the Saints’ 51-27 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers earlier this season. New Orleans was penalized seven times for 70 yards. The Buccaneers, however, were hit 12 times for 86 yards. At worst, he and his crew don’t seem to have a negative lean towards the Saints. Let’s hope for a clean game on Sunday.

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Alvin Kamara set to hit an important new milestone in Week 14

Alvin Kamara is only 39 yards away from setting a new single-season high in rushing yards. He’s on pace for his first 1,000-yard season, too:

New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara is on pace to set a new single-season high in rushing yards against the New York Giants this Sunday. He set his previous personal-best back in 2020, when Kamara rushed for 932 yards. That was by far the best season of his career. He balanced a heavy workload and rare explosiveness, while also delivering the most touchdowns in the league (16).

The Saints haven’t been able to surround Kamara with the best pieces this season due to injuries. The offseason addition of Klint Kubiak, however, has clearly paid off. Kubiak’s new run scheme was one of the biggest selling points of the hire.

Kamara has produced despite injuries to blockers Erik McCoy, Cesar Ruiz and Lucas Patrick. Taysom Hill was the best secondary running threat. He’s missed time throughout the season and Jamaal Williams hasn’t been much help. The offense has ran through and leaned on Kamara all season, and he’s more than delivered. He’s up to 894 rushing yards through just 12 games.

With another 39 yards, Kamara will have his highest rushing total of his career and is likely going to surpass the 1,000-yard mark for the first time ever. He may achieve that in Week 14, as well, with a strong performance. He’s averaging 74.5 yards per game on the ground this season and just put up 112 on the Los Angeles Rams, the fifth-ranked defense in rushing yards allowed per game (144.2). The fourth-ranked squad is Kamara’s next opponent, the New York Giants, who have averaged 145.8 yards per game. That’s looking like a favorable matchup.

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Bo Nix and Sean Payton can help Courtland Sutton hit some big incentives

Courtland Sutton needs 219 receiving yards and the Broncos to finish the year averaging more than 21 points per game to get an extra $1.5M.

After skipping the voluntary portion of the Denver Broncos‘ offseason program in protest of his contract this spring, wide receiver Courtland Sutton was given an extra $1.5 million worth of incentives.

That veteran receiver is now close to cashing in.

Sutton’s contract includes a $500,000 incentive for 500 receiving yards + Denver scoring more points than in 2023, according to KUSA-TV’s Mike Klis. He’s already passed 500 yards — now the offense needs to average more than 21.0 points per game (they’re currently at 23.5).

There’s another $500,000 incentive for 750 receiving yards and the team’s points improving. Sutton’s already at 846 yards this fall. The final $500,000 will be paid if Sutton hits 1,065 receiving yards.

Sutton is currently on pace for a 1,106-yard season. Broncos quarterback Bo Nix can help the receiver out by continuing to feed him down the stretch. Denver coach Sean Payton also needs his offense to continue averaging more than 21 points per game in order for Sutton to max out his incentives.

The Broncos, of course, will prioritize winning. Fortunately for Sutton, the receiver’s success has overlapped with the team’s success. If the offense continues at its current pace, Sutton will earn an extra $1.5 million this fall.

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Drew Brees reflects on his most difficult games in the NFL

Which games caused Drew Brees to lose the most sleep? He says prime-time divisional rematches were his toughest challenges in the NFL:

Which games gave Drew Brees the most trouble in his storied NFL career? The former New Orleans Saints quarterback and future Pro Football Hall of Famer shared his take on the toughest challenges he and his teammates had to overcome during a Wednesday appearance on “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd.

Brees said it was those divisional matchups on a short week, played under the bright lights in prime time, that lost him the most sleep. He emphasizes greatly with what players on both the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers are going through ahead of Thursday night’s kickoff.

“These games were more difficult,” Brees reflected. “These games were more difficult just because of the level of familiarity between divisional opponents. And especially when it’s divisional opponents that are the caliber that Green Bay and Detroit are, the caliber of quarterback, the caliber of team, the caliber of coach. Because there is so much familiarity that going into the game you were constantly thinking about, ‘Well man, they know us really well. They know all these tendencies. So they know that I know that we know that they know,’ you go through that whole exercise.”

Mind games were certainly part of it; in some cases Brees and the Saints played the same Atlanta Falcons team twice in three weeks, and that recency and familiarity made planning for a rematch a unique challenge. And in those situations, Brees said he and his teammates leaned on days of careful preparation to win the day.

Brees continued: “At the end of the day it comes down to, ‘We need to be so on point on our execution. This needs to be a flawless execution type of game.’ And that really became the emphasis in all these divisional games, especially the ones that were prime-time and the ones that have so much meaning given these guys’ status and fighting for a division title. So I found that these were the most difficult games given all the factors.”

Still, the results suggest Brees and his teammates rose to this challenge. Brees started in nine games against NFC South division rivals on Thursday nights with the Saints, winning six times. He went 5-2 against the Atlanta Falcons and 1-1 against the Carolina Panthers (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers never warranted a prime-time slot like this). You don’t achieve a Hall of Fame career without relishing a challenge, and there aren’t many tougher games in the NFL than those against familiar opponents on a short week.

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