The New Orleans Saints have a lot of negative things to correct from a 1-5 start, but they also have one major positive as they head out to face Chicago and a defense led by former head coach Dennis Allen.
That positive is a largely healthy roster and a five-man starting offensive line group that is set to play back-to-back games without any fill-ins for the first time all season. That group developing with some continuity will be massively important to the team's success this year and behind, which legendary Saints QB Drew Brees broke down this week on WWL Radio.
“It’s crucial, because ... that is the position in football that really requires that," Brees said, "just because of the amount of communication that happens and the adjustments that happen, and not only that, but how you work together in pass protection."
That group consists of (from left to right), rookie Kelvin Banks Jr., Trevor Penning, Erik McCoy, Cesar Ruiz and Taliese Fuaga. It's a high-investment position for the Saints with four first-round selections and one high second rounder (McCoy). Ruiz and Penning were both dealing with ankle injuries suffered in Week 4 but have been removed from the injury report this week. Fuaga also missed a game earlier this season due to a knee injury.
In total the Saints are tied for 13th in terms of total sacks allowed (11), though they are 27th in total pressures allowed (88), indicating that a lot of the praise for avoiding sacks also lies with QB Spencer Rattler.
"If you just sat there and watched the front five against the D-line, they’re running all kinds of games and they’re having to pass off twists and stunts and that’s just constant communication and takes a ton of time on task," Brees continued.
The Saints will hope that time on task helps them this week against a Bears defense that ranks 29th in the NFL with pressure generated on 27.7% of opponent dropbacks. The Saints (1-5) and Bears (3-2) face off at noon Sunday at Soldier Field in Chicago. Catch all the action on WWL and Audacy.
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MORE FROM BREES
How can Saints execute better in the red zone
“That’s a combination of, look, everything gets compressed in the red zone, right, tight windows and you’ve got to be on point, no negative plays. … A 2 or 3 yard run in the red zone is a great play, but you also need targets, like, you need matchups. I can remember some of our best years, right, it was, man, Sproles was a matchup nightmare in the red zone, Jimmy Graham was a matchup nightmare in the red zone, Colston was a matchup nightmare in the red zone, like, these big bodies, guys that just had certain traits that man, you just knew, man, there’s places I can throw that ball where only he can get it. There’s some scheme as well and attacking the way that some of these defenses are going to try to play in the red zone, and then just your ability to run the ball, like, 2 yards is good and then find your matchups and make sure your scheme is on point.”
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How do you attack a Dennis Allen defense
“It’s kind of like playing a divisional opponent, you know, yes there is a high level of familiarity, but you’re just finding little nuances, and obviously the personnel is different, so we’ve got to study their personnel and really understand who we’re going up against, but yea, I mean, I — I think just from the coordinator perspective, we know — we know Dennis’ scheme, right, we know the stuff that is kind of his comfort zone, right, we know his go-tos. He also knows that we know that, so there’s gonna be some wrinkles, you know, but at the same time this is Kellen Moore’s offense against his defense, right, and so those — I’m not sure how often those have gone up against each other.”
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Thoughts on the trade deadline
"I never discount leadership in the locker room, you know, and also just the morale. Like, there’s guys that are just core pieces that I think you want to keep around as long as you possibly can, even if their roles diminish as far as how much they’re playing or productivity or what have you, just because they’re just that important a teammate and a leader, so I think you always have to weigh that when you’re thinking about those decisions. Look, I also recognize the fact that you truly build today’s game through the draft. You know, you maximize what you can get out of those players for the first 4 to 5 years and then hopefully you keep more than half of them and they become your core players for a really long time and they play for you for, you know, 8-12 years, but look, you’re not going to be able to keep them all, that’s just the nature of the salary cap, but look, I think having that leadership in the locker room and amongst some of those position groups is really, really vital.”