Tag: Taliese Fuaga

Taliese Fuaga is about to face the biggest challenge of his rookie season

Myles Garrett will line up in front of Taliese Fuaga the majority of this week’s game, making this the toughest challenge of Fuaga’s rookie season:

The main storyline when the New Orleans Saints take on the Cleveland Browns is the return of Jameis Winston to New Orleans. The biggest matchup, however, will be Taliese Fuaga versus Myles Garrett. Derek Carr will thank him if Fuaga is able to rise to the occasion.

This is the most difficult challenge Fuaga has had to face in his rookie season so far. Garrett is the reigning, defending Defensive Player of the Year and has made 1st team All-Pro three times. Simply put, Myles Garrett is in on the short list of best pass rushers in the NFL.

Fuaga faced another one of those players earlier this season, Micah Parsons. The difference between those games is the amount the rookie will see each player. Parsons plays on both sides of the defensive line. Against the Saints, his snaps were split almost evenly.

Garrett aligns primarily over the left tackle. He has played 82.5% of his snaps on that side of the defensive line. If the Browns stay consistent with his alignment, and they probably will, Fuaga will face him nearly every play. On obvious passing downs, you can almost guarantee Garrett is coming from that side.

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Saints rookie Taliese Fuaga dealing with thigh injury vs. Falcons

Rookie New Orleans Saints left tackle Taliese Fuaga was questionable to return against the Atlanta Falcons. He’s fighting through a new thigh injury:

New Orleans Saints rookie left tackle Taliese Fuaga was questionable to return against the Atlanta Falcons, going down with a thigh injury in the first half of the game. He headed to the injury tent shortly after the play.

Fuaga has since returned to the game and New Orleans will hope that the injury does not affect his level off play too much as the Saints are now on one of their most solid trajectories of the season.

The former Oregon State Beavers offensive lineman was selected in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft with the No. 14 overall pick. According to NFL.com, the rookie had a 6.48 overall prospect grade coming out of college, putting him the category of “will become a good starter within two years.” He’s since converted to left tackle from the right side and held down  his starting job through ten games.

The Saints currently lead the Falcons, 10-0 midway through the second quarter.

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Mickey Loomis clarifies Dennis Allen’s statement on young players

Mickey Loomis used Cameron Jordan and Demario Davis as examples of how good young players can develop into great talents, and stars, with time:

Dennis Allen recently said the New Orleans Saints don’t have any great young players, instead saying they have “young guys who are developing.” It was an odd comment for a head coach to make about his team, even when taken in context of the conversation.

So Saints general manager Mickey Loomis stepped in to expand on Allen’s comments by comparing young players to Cameron Jordan and Demario Davis. Those two players didn’t blossom into stars immediately.

Loomis pointed to the beginning of their careers, specifically the first four years where their tackles, sacks, and postseason honors were more pedestrian. It took some time but both Jordan and Davis developed into great players with the records and Pro Bowls to back it up. He then pointed to players such as Chris Olave, Bryan Bresee, Taliese Fuaga and Alontae Taylor as some of the players who could follow that same career arc.

While those players may not be stars yet, Loomis believes they could ascend and begin to get more accolades in the next four to five years similarly to Jordan and Davis.

Loomis ended up naming nearly every prominent young player on the team, but he understands they can’t all be stars. “Will they all do that? No. That’d be unrealistic. We don’t expect that. But certainly we have a lot of guys, and there’s others as well, who have that opportunity.”

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Updated Saints injury report adds yet another DNP on the offensive line

The updated Saints injury report added yet another DNP on the offensive line. They’re going to have a tough time against the Chiefs if these injuries persist:

The New Orleans Saints’ Friday injury report only made matters worse for the already banged up offensive line, as guard/center Lucas Patrick (groin) was added to the list of non-participants today. The potential loss of Patrick for Monday nights’ game in Kansas City, would likely mean that the entirety of the interior starters would be out next week. Already down Erik McCoy (hernia) and likely down Cesar Ruiz (knee) and Shane Lemieux (ankle), it could be an incredibly scary sight going up against All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones in this game. Klint Kubiak and the offensive staff will almost definitely have to pull some tricks out of the hat to cover these blows.

Some other notables were that kicker Blake Grupe (right hip) was back in the lineup after not practicing Thursday as well as tight end Juwan Johnson (forearm) and running back Kendre Miller (hamstring) who were back as full participants after being limited. Tackle Taliese Fuaga (back) added knee to his back injury but was still limited once again. The other notable was that receiver A.T. Perry disappeared from the list, who we found was waived earlier today by the team.

Other than that, it was more of the same with a handful of guys status in doubt. Willie Gay (hand), Taysom Hill (rib) and Payton Turner (knee) were the other non-participants on Friday. It doesn’t look like Willie Gay will be up this week after checking out his recent Instagram post but Hill and Turner could possibly make their way to active status with an extra rest day this week. Dennis Allen said earlier in the week that Taysom does in fact have broken ribs similar to what running back Alvin Kamara was dealing with last week. This could leave the potential for Hill possibly making an effort to get out there on Monday depending on the severity. Only difference is that Hill did sustain the same injury on the opposite side of his body just two weeks ago. Although there’s a chance it is probably safe for the team to be cautious on Hill as it seems they’re a bit of a different team with him available.

Here is the full list of injuries after Friday’s practice:

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Erik McCoy injury would be a ‘red button’ type of loss for Saints

Erik McCoy was injured against the Philadelphia Eagles. Concern for the offensive line is on red alert for any time that he misses:

Games early in the season always tend to result in some sort of overreaction, however, I don’t think it would be reactionary at all to say the New Orleans Saints offensive line would be in huge trouble if Erik McCoy had to miss some time.

Facing a player like Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter exacerbated the issue, but it went deeper than that. There was a point where Cesar Ruiz and Oli Udoh ran into each other in the backfield. Think Jordan Howden and Marshon Lattimore colliding on Dallas Goedert’s field-flipping catch, but as offensive linemen.

McCoy is the leader of the unit and you can’t help but think those plays don’t happen with him there. It’s a trickle down effect with his absence. Lucas Patrick moves to center, and now you’ve downgraded at center and left guard. Ruiz looked bad too, but that could reasonably change. Udoh performed too poorly to receive the benefit of the doubt.

So McCoy missing pretty much the entirety of the game showed he may be one of the five most important players on this team. He’s their best offensive linemen and the glue holding the rest of the unit together.

The interior of the offensive line is dramatically worse without him. It may not disrupt the offense as much as it did in Week 3, but it will have a huge impact on the effectiveness of the offense.

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Saints have good news in the final injury report for Week 3 vs. Eagles

Friday’s injury report provides points of optimism for the New Orleans Saints leading into their Week 3 game with the Philadelphia Eagles:

While the New Orleans Saints streak of having the longer injury report continues, Friday’s report gives plenty reason for optimism. The Saints had five players go from DNP to limited reps or limited to full participation on Friday.

There were big names among that group such as Tyrann Mathieu, Taliese Fuaga and Marshon Lattimore. All three men made the jump to full participant and have no injury designation for Sunday’s showdown with the Philadelphia. This mean they’ll be set to go unless they encounter a setback on Saturday.

Taysom Hill is one of five players who are listed as questionable for Week 3. Hill suffered a chest injury last week, and had to go to the hospital after the game.

An underrated player to watch is Will Harris. Harris won the starting spot next to Mathieu. He’s made a couple of plays in the first two games of the season.

Philadelphia’s injury report is simple. Wide receiver A.J. Brown will miss the game with a hamstring injury and safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson is questionable with a foot issue. The road team have no other health concerns heading into the game.

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Taliese Fuaga crowned as the NFL’s best rookie through two weeks

Taliese Fuaga went against Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence in Week 2. His performance earned him the top spot in B/R’s rookie rankings

New Orleans Saints offensive tackle Taliese Fuaga now sits at the top of Bleacher Report’s rookie rankings after being at second place a week ago behind Xavier Worthy. He earns this distinction after battling Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence in the Saints’ victory over the Dallas Cowboys

The list varies week by week, but this is a composite ranking rather than who was the best that particular week. However, because it’s early in the season, fluctuation is greater. Worthy was at the top of the list after Week 1, and now he’s out of the top-10 due to usage questions.

Fuaga doesn’t have those questions. He will be lined up at left tackle for every snap when healthy. That was the question heading into the game. Fuaga was a game-time decision due to back tightness.

The team decided he was good to go, and he delivered an impressive performance. Like many Saints players, this was Fuaga’s chance to prove it wasn’t just the Carolina Panthers. He didn’t allow a single pressure all game which includes snaps versus Parsons and Lawrence. You wouldn’t even be able to tell he missed multiple practices.

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Alvin Kamara excelling despite facing second-most loaded boxes

Defenses are selling out to stop Alvin Kamara and it isn’t working anyway. This is a testament to his offensive line:


Here’s an impressive New Orleans Saints stat for you. Alvin Kamara has ran for the sixth-most yards on the ground in the NFL and scored the most touchdowns despite seeing the second-most attempts with eight or more defenders in the box.

Defenses load up the box specifically to stop the run, and it happens 45% of the time when Kamara carries the ball. Everyone knows what the Saints want to do, but this tactic hasn’t been effective in stopping the Kamara.

Why? Taliese Fuaga, Lucas Patrick, Erik McCoy, Cesar Ruiz and Trevor Penning are five reasons. The impact of the unit is seen through the near three yards before contact per carry against the Carolina Panthers by all Saints running backs.

You don’t beat heavy boxes purely on the strength of your running back. Kamara has phenomenal contact balance, but even with that he can’t consistently beat the odds by himself.

The front line is doing a good job resetting the line of scrimmage and getting to the second level to block linebackers. That’s why he’s been so successful despite running against heavy boxes on nearly half of his attempts.

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Taliese Fuaga, two other Saints rank highly in ESPN’s pass block win rate

Taliese Fuaga ranks among the best offensive tackles in the league when looking at ESPN’s pass block win rate so far:

The New Orleans Saints’ 2024 NFL draft picks were very intriguing from the start, especially Taliese Fuaga, who was looked at as the immediate franchise tackle due to Ryan Ramczyk’s injury and Trevor Penning having a rough initial start to his career. Now, Fuaga and Penning are both playing at an exceptionally high level for two weeks, and Fuaga ranks among the best offensive tackles in the league when considering the statistic pass block win rate. This statistic measures the percent of pass-blocking snaps that the offensive lineman wins, i.e. does not give up a pressure or sack.

According to the ESPN rankings in these statistics, Fuaga has taken 28 pass-blocking snaps, and on 27 of them, he has won the rep (96%). This ranks Fuaga tied for ninth best among offensive tackles, tied with Andrew Thomas, Jordan Mailata, and Lane Johnson, which is a pretty exceptional company to be in as a rookie.

His fellow Saints teammates Erik McCoy and Lucas Patrick also rank among the best interior linemen in this statistic, with McCoy at 12th (97%) and Patrick at 18th (96%). This success can be shown in many other metrics as well, such as pressures allowed within 2.5 seconds, where the Saints rank first at an extremely low 4%. The next best is at 11% with the Los Angeles Chargers, and the average for the NFL is 23%. That is how successful this Saints offensive line has been at protecting Derek Carr, and doing so at such a high rate is allowing the offense to play at a very high level.

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Dennis Allen credits the run game for quieting Cowboys’ pass rush

Limiting Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence was pivotal. The Saints did it by running the football and avoiding must-pass situations:

Stopping Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence was a key to victory for the New Orleans Saints against the Dallas Cowboys. Their ability to rush the passer is the defense’s greatest strength, yet Derek Carr didn’t see much pressure on Sunday.

Taliese Fuaga and Trevor Penning did a good job winning that matchup in the pass and run game. Part of stopping the Cowboys unit was running the football. Dennis Allen looked at the diminished impact of Lawrence and Parsons and felt “part of it was we were able to run the football.”

Alvin Kamara caught a touchdown, but his 115 rushing yards were equally as effective in slowing down the pass rush.

“When you’re able to run the ball and you’re able to put yourself in manageable situations, you’re not having to get into a dropback passing mode where they can unleash their pass rush,”  Allen explained.

That’s exactly what they did. The Saints only faced third down on eight occasions in this game. Just four of them were longer than 4 yards. One was a kneel-down and another was when the Saints were running out the clock and keeping the ball on the ground.

This means New Orleans only faced two third downs of more than 4 yards. The Saints were rarely in must-pass situations, and it kept the Cowboys’ best assets from getting active.

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