There isn’t a quarterback walking in that door who is going to save the New Orleans Saints’ season. They’re 2-5 without any good options: Andy Dalton might be the worst passer in the league at running a two-minute offense, Jameis Winston has somehow still thrown more interceptions than his replacement after resting the last four weeks, and the ship sailed on Taysom Hill a long time ago. Maybe it’s practice squad quarterback Jake Luton’s time to shine. Unless you’re about to trade even more draft picks to the Philadelphia Eagles for Gardner Minshew (and history suggests the Saints should never call that area code again), this is what you’ve got.
It’s all bad, and it isn’t going to get any better any time soon. But, here’s the thing: this team isn’t built to live and die with its quarterback. The Saints constructed a roster that needs a stifling defense and smart special teams unit to thrive, so that whoever is under center doesn’t make much of an impact either way. The plan all summer was for Winston (or Dalton in his stead) to be a game manager.
Instead, the Saints have collapsed in two of the game’s three phases. No one would have blinked if the Cardinals and Bengals had fired Kliff Kingsbury and Zac Taylor at the same time Matt Rhule was shown the door in Carolina. Two different inept offenses have posted their highest scores of the season against the defense Allen built by hand over the last seven years.
Their special teams unit has regressed and is drawing multiple penalty flags almost every week, often for the procedural issues Allen’s predecessor worked hard to snuff out. Blake Gillikin was a star in the making last season but he’s shanking an uncharacteristic number of punts. Everything the Saints told themselves would be a strength has been a weakness.
Yes, the injuries are concerning. The bigger issue is that Allen’s coaching staff is not getting the most out of the players they are able to field each week. After he played just 9 snaps a week ago and turned it into a 44-yard touchdown and a missed scoring opportunity, the Saints played Rashid Shaheed on all of 10 snaps against Arizona after he caught a 53-yard touchdown pass on the first drive of the game. Taysom Hill scored 3 touchdown runs on 9 carries two weeks ago against Seattle, but he’s only had 8 attempts as a runner in two subsequent games. There are exit ramps available but the Saints are determined to ignore them and run things into the ground instead.
And there’s no reason to think it will get better. If Allen and his staff haven’t made the adjustments and changes after losing two of their first three games, they’re not going to do it after losing five of their first seven. They underestimated the challenges ahead of them this summer and didn’t prepare for it. Now they’re running out of time to make up for it. What’s worse is there doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency or awareness of that.
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