The New Orleans Saints are still in search of their first win of the 2026 season, and if they hope to find it out in Baltimore, they'd better pack a lunch.
The Ravens defense is among the most physical in the NFL. It's just the way they're built, says former Saints LB Scott Shanle, who joined SportsTalk on Wednesday.
"I think the one thing about Baltimore, as long as [lead executive] Ozzie Newsome is there, they’re going to bloody your nose," Shanle told WWL's Steve Geller and Deuce McAllister. "You’re going to get into a fistfight and if you’re not ready for that, you’re gonna get shocked early on."
Hear the full interview with former Saints LB Scott Shanle in the player above.
The Saints defense did fare well in their season-opening loss to the Lions, even if some of the box score numbers ended up a bit inflated. New Orleans forced a three-and-out to start the game and held Detroit to 7 points in the first half, despite very little production from their own offense. The two touchdowns allowed in the second half came after turnovers that allowed the Lions to operate on a short field.
They did struggle to contain Jahmyr Gibbs, who went off for more than 150 rushing yards, and they'll get possibly an even greater challenge in containing the rushing duo of RB Derrick Henry and QB Lamar Jackson, who combined to run for 184 yards and four touchdowns in their Week 1 win over the Colts.
"That’s the one thing with the NFL is the gameplan, as soon as that game ends, it’s completely different the next week and I feel like it’s going to be a completely different gameplan," Shanle continued. "But for me, if I’m coach Staley, I’m the defensive staff, I’m sitting there saying we can die the death of 1,000 cuts through short passing game, but we can not allow them to run the ball for 4-5 yards a pop. It’ll be a long day if you do that, so I think you have to load the box and make Lamar beat you through the air, and it’s not like he doesn’t have the ability to do that, but it’ll be a long day if you let those two guys run around the field.”
MORE FROM SHANLE
How can the Saints get off to faster starts
“The one thing about the league is a lot of times, you know, the first 15 plays of a game are mostly scripted. Most offensive coordinators do that, where they’re going to put 15 plays in, they want to see how the defense adjusts and now, that’s when the gameplan opens up after that, so maybe you’re looking at your first 15 you’re running a little bit, but just a simple answer to that question is this team needs to run the ball better, just in general, but run the ball early better, because I think it’s been kind of a grind getting this running game going, even last year, this year Week 1, the running game just kind of stalls out a little bit. I think if you can open up a game in the first quarter and start moving some guys off the ball and start splitting some of the defenses, I think it just opens everything up that much sooner. So I think the lack of the running game and getting that going earlier has kind of been the detriment to the offense.”
On Saints defensive rotations
“I love it. I absolutely love it. I played for a guy, I’ll never forget Gregg Williams’ first day when he came in the room and he said, anybody who is sitting in this room, if you have a skill and you can help us on defense, I’ll put a package of defense in for you. Whatever your skill is. If you can cover the tight end but you can’t do anything else, you’re going to come in on third down and you’re gonna cover the tight end, so I think any time you have a skillset that your coach puts in a package or … you can have 30 different ways to put 11 guys on the field and it’s all about their skillset and matchups, just like offensive football is finding the mismatch, defensive football is the same way, whether you put a guy into blitz, you put a guy into certain coverage situations, run stopping, so that’s what is exciting about the NFL is it’s all about matchups. I think coach Staley has done a good job and any time you can have depth, versatility on defense, it just messes with the offense that much more."
