No, Deuce McAllister doesn't have any immediate plans to join the Saints' coaching staff to help plaster over some COVID absences this week, but WWL Radio's color analyst has still got plenty of insight to share ahead of Week 2.
"I'm just gonna be a team partner," the former Saints running back joked on SportsTalk with Bobby Hebert, Kristian Garic and Mike Detillier. "I'm only available for a couple of hours, maybe even a day or two."
McAllister will keep his seat and duties up in the broadcast booth, where he now adds SEC Network duties. Still, it wouldn't be completely unprecedented after the departure of his former broadcast partner Zach Strief, who became an offensive line coach with the team this season.
In a more practical sense, there will definitely be some technical challenges that arise in preparation for Week 2 while multiple coaches are absent, he explains.
"Now it's going to be a little longer meeting. Everyone knows exactly what they're doing from an install point of view. ... But when they do the install, instead of them being all outside and going over specific plays individually, they'll do it all in one big room," McAllister said. "And that's what they've been doing already."
But how does he see the Saints approaching the Panthers, specifically? It all starts with how the Panthers choose to try to slow the Saints' offense.
McAllister said he wouldn't be surprised to see Carolina load the box, a strategy he expects to see several teams employ this year, to put the clamps on Alvin Kamara and force receivers to win 1-on-1 matchups.
"Certain teams are gonna do that because they have the personnel, and I just wonder is that how Carolina is gonna approach us this weekend," he said.
On the other side of the ball, the biggest question will be how to defend the Panthers' own superstar running back in Christian McCaffrey. With a player of his caliber, it'll likely be a committee approach to slow down the dynamic back who rolled up 187 total yards in the Panthers' Week 1 victory over the New York Jets.
That committee could include Demario Davis, Kwon Alexander, Malcolm Jenkins and CJ Gardner-Johnson, among others. The Saints haven't faced McCaffrey since 2019 due to injury, but held him in check with averages of 45 rushing yards and 70 receiving yards in those games.
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"It's definitely a chore and I think they'll use three or four different guys on him to give him some different looks ... all of them will have an assist as far as slowing down McCaffrey and stopping him, particularly when he's a receiver," McAllister said. "Because if he's lined up in the backfield, any time that he releases out ... I'm telling my guys to chip. 'Hey, look, if he's on your side, you hit him. You slow him down.' You've got to give him the Marshall Faulk treatment. You can't allow him to just have a free release."
If the Panthers send McCaffrey in motion to avoid that action, the next step is sending pressure on zone blitz schemes and forcing Panthers quarterback Sam Darnold to make the correct read and get the ball out hot.
"[Darnold's] gotta have the answers to the test, and if I'm the Saints I give him a lot of different looks to see if he has the answers to the test," McAllister said. "I am not allowing McCaffrey to just run free and feel comfortable. You've gotta hit him. You've got to get up under his shoulderpads."
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