The New Orleans Saints are headed into a season with a new offense for the first time in the better part of two decades.
There's a lot of excitement surrounding that process, even if it's daunting. But there's also another emotion that comes to mind, as Derek Carr explained on the final day of minicamp last week.
"We all came in kind of, sorry mom, but a little pissed off," Carr said, "and I think that’s good, especially in football.”
But why the salty language? That's because this Saints team came to the frustrating conclusion that the work they'd done a year ago wasn't good enough, even if it felt like that at the time. Nine wins wasn't good enough, and it'll be on this team to improve upon that number in 2024. That'll take a redoubling of efforts up and down the roster, regardless of how mentally drained they are at the end of each week.
A more palatable result at the end of the year will almost certainly require an outsized contribution from Carr himself, who admittedly struggled at points in his first season to run the long-held scheme built originally by Sean Payton for Drew Brees way back when. He said that it wasn't until about midseason that he finally felt comfortable mentally, and even longer before he felt like a full go physically after a shoulder injury suffered in Week 3.
Carr, who was learned a host of offenses during his decade in the NFL, thinks he can buck that slow-starting trend this time around. He also knows there's really no alternative because, as last year showed, there's a narrow margin to reach the postseason and no one is interested in excuses.
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"We have been pushing so hard just to make sure that we can come out and just be so focused on playing good football from the start, and I don’t have any promises," he said. "I don’t have any guarantees that it’s going to be better, I just know that we did more, and we’re gonna continue to do more until training camp gets here and the season gets here."
So what exactly has been different? Aside from the offense itself, loaded with shifts and pre-snap motion that many Saints fans will be seeing for the first time, there's also been an amped-up attention to detail that's caught the eye of coaches and players. Carr himself said there have been several times where he's completed a ball, and Kubiak, rather than offering praise, has said the ball needed to be there earlier and for the rep to be run again. Pushing for that perfection is something the players appreciate, and it sure sounds like that might have been a bit too lax in the past.
"When he does that to me it opens the door to just everyone in the room like oh, shoot, I’ve got to be on my stuff," Carr said. "If the quarterback is getting then I know everybody is going to get it, and I think that that right there and us meeting together, them hearing him coach me in front of everybody and the level of standard that he’s set for me and the perfection that he’s trying to set for me, no one is perfect, but we set that standard, then everyone else knows that as leaders ... we can go to these guys and be like, hey, we need you to go, because we’re the ones getting it first."
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Things will slow down at some point, but it's been all-go throughout camp. Kubiak himself admitted that he's thrown a lot at his players, far more than they would in any gameplan. There's no getting around that. Changing offensive systems in one offseason is never easy, and particularly not after three consecutive seasons of finishing outside the playoff bracket.
Whether it's Taysom Hill's new role, a reworked offensive line, pass-catchers stepping into bigger roles or revamped rushing attack, everything seems to be headed in the right direction. But there's still a long way to go.
“You’ve got to make it hard on them in practice, make them study at night" Kubiak said, "and I think overall I was pleased with the detail our guys had and our coaches that put them through it.”