Behind Enemy Lines: Who will give the Saints the most trouble in the playoffs?
The Panthers’ season will come to an end on Sunday no matter who wins. Their Week 17 opponents will keep playing into the postseason, though.
To learn more about New Orleans, we spoke with John Sigler, managing editor of Saints Wire.
What’s the Saints’ QB situation going into the playoffs? Is Drew Brees 100% recovered from his rib/lung stuff or no?
Brees himself has admitted he isn’t completely back to 100%, but he’s as close as he’s going to get, and that’s certainly well enough to win football games. He hasn’t been limited mechanically as a passer, explaining that most of his issues for now are about pain tolerance. So he’s the full-time starter again. If he does miss time midgame, the plan is for Jameis Winston to continue to be the immediate replacement, with Taysom Hill prepared to start after a week of practice to make sure all of his duties as a blocker and receiver are handled by other players.
Speaking of quarterback, after this season what do you think the plan is, and will Winston be involved?
I think the Saints will make a hard push to keep Winston in New Orleans, and he’ll probably recognize that he has a good shot at beating Hill in a training camp competition to start after Brees is gone. And I do expect Brees to retire this offseason so he can settle into the job waiting for him at NBC Sports. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Saints draft a quarterback highly should the right prospect be available, but I can’t see the Saints pulling off anything bold, like a trade for Matthew Stafford. With their complex salary cap situation, finding a way to keep Winston (underpaid as he is) will be challenging enough.
At 11-4, the Saints look poised for another deep playoff run. It kind of feels like they should have made another Super Bowl by now given their talent. Have they just been unlucky in the postseason, or is there something holding them back?
They do look kind of snakebitten in the playoffs given the last four years have seen more wins than any other four-year stretch in team history. But it’s tough to point to a single issue as the root of their problems. The offense has been a bit limited by its inability to make vertical plays with consistency, and the defense has folded in key situations at times. Then again, they’re a missed tackle in 2017 and a blown officiating call in 2018 away from challenging the eventual Super Bowl winners, and who knows how that would have turned out? I’ll say it’s a little of both, with bad luck and some flawed performances leading to the championship drought.
Which team will give New Orleans the most trouble in the postseason and how far do you think they can go?
I look at the teams that gave the Saints the most trouble in the regular season and notice a few constants: stellar quarterback play from Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, Derek Carr and Jalen Hurts, and competitive battles in the trenches. The teams that have been able to put Brees (and Hill) under pressure while keeping their own passers clean have had the most success. And when things have broken down, they’ve been able to lean on big-time throws and some scrambling by the quarterbacks to keep plays alive. To that end, I don’t like the idea of a first-round matchup with the Arizona Cardinals. Kyler Murray can hurt the Saints in the same ways as those other quarterbacks, and the Arizona defense has one of the most creative pressure packages in the league. While I’m not afraid of playing Jared Goff, the Los Angeles Rams defenders are kind of daunting. And a rematch with Rodgers, likely in Green Bay, is quite a tough sell. But the Saints have been playing a brand of physical football that travels well, and I believe they can beat any team on any given Sunday.
Name something Dennis Allen has done to help this defense turn around.
Allen’s ability to learn on the fly and make in-game adjustments is his best attribute. Sure, he usually starts a little tentative to get a feel for how his opponents want to attack his defense, but his halftime adjustments have won the Saints a lot of games in recent years. The self-awareness to recognize when it isn’t the day to run man coverage rather than zone or knowing which directions to send pressure from are impressive, and it should help him get another shot at a head coaching job sooner rather than later.
