The New Orleans Saints didn't intend to their rookie safety into the fire just two weeks into his first NFL season, but there were no qualms about it when injury forced the team's hand.
Saints head coach Kellen Moore didn't play coy in how the team would replace Julian Blackmon due to a season-ending injury, declaring on Wednesday that it'd be third-round rookie Jonas Sanker taking that spot over some more seasoned options. The Saints may have lost that debut to the 49ers, but the head coach came away very positive on the young player, as he told Mike Hoss and Bobby Hebert on WWL radio.
"We’ve got a special, special player in Jonas," Moore said, "and so I’m really excited."
Hear the full, exclusive interview with Saints head coach Kellen Moore in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
Sanker finished second on the team with 8 combined tackles (5 solo) and formed an intriguing tandem with veteran Justin Reid. The Saints only surrendered two plays of 20-plus yards on the day, though they were both costly and featured WR Jauan Jennings. The first was a 29-yard chunk play that set up the 49ers TD just before the half, and the other was a 42-yard touchdown as Jennings split a cover-2 look for a 42-yard catch-and-run touchdown in the 4th quarter.
Expect to see that tandem the rest of the year, and Moore is optimistic that it'll develop into something special for the Saints.
"I thought [Sanker's] play style, his physicality. You know, there’s always going to be awesome, awesome growth opportunities for a kid who’s playing in his second NFL game, but I thought you know, when him and [Justin] are working together back there … they’re going to do a phenomenal job," Moore said. "I can just tell they communicate at a really high level."
Sanker will get tested again this week against the Seahawks (2-0) and new quarterback Sam Darnold. Catch all the action on WWL and Audacy.
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MORE FROM KELLEN MOORE
On Blake Grupe's struggles
“I’ve got all the confidence in the world in Blake. I think my sample size through the whole offseason program, this guy has been phenomenal. Obviously we’ve missed two opps and they’re big opps. He knows it, we all know it. He’s going to respond really, really well and so I think the lesson is he’s had these bumps before and he’s going to navigate it just like he’s done in the past where he’s going to find the solution. He’s going to get better this week and he’ll be ready to go. He helped us, certainly, even in Week 1 with some of those other kicks that he got that we were able to at least keep ourselves in that game. So, he’s going to respond the right way and we’re going to keep this thing going.”
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On Spencer Rattler's performance
“I think there’s a lot of positives with how Spence played. I thought for the slow start, I thought he just rallied really, really well, to go 23, I think, of 26 to finish the game with a couple big-time plays toward the end. I thought his feet came alive, the 4th down, a 3rd down run as we’re approaching the red zone, so his legs came alive in really opportunistic situations. He’s a young kid that’s growing. I love the way he’s battling. I love the way he’s competing. He’s going to keep growing each and every week and I think for our quarterback room, we’ve got a young group there that these guys are all going to develop as we go and so I’m excited to keep seeing these guys growing, obviously in particular Spencer on the field and the other guys behind the – you know, in practice and so Spence has done a lot of good and I’m really fired up for him.”
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On third and long defense
“First and second down you do too much good to put yourself in those situations. … Those are the situations we want from a defensive perspective and it’s been the story so far, penalties and big plays and so we’ve still got to play tighter from a coverage standpoint. We’ve got to be really disciplined. I think a couple of these penalties are just 100% self-controlled. Illegal hands to the face, a defensive pass interference where we’re just simply early. These are things that we can’t have because we’re putting ourself in too good of situations and schematically we’ll continue to evolve. We’ll continue to try to put ourselves in better positions. We’ve got to get to the quarterback in those situations. We’ve got to push the guy off his spot, put him in challenging situations so we can convert that and get the ball back on offense and have those big moments.”