LISTEN: Ben Linsey of PFF on Why Saints Secondary Has Been So Bad
The New Orleans Saints came into this season with one of, if not the most talented roster from head to toe in the entire NFL which of course made them one of the few Super Bowl favorites.
Well, with injuries and ineffective play the Saints have had to make some adjustments as the main pieces of their team haven't lived up to expectations.
Last Sunday against the Carolina Panthers the team was missing their main offensive threats in Michael Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders from a receiving perspective. However, Drew Brees and company looked as impressive as they have all season long.
The defensive line hasn't gotten as much pressure as we all would have hoped for as Cameron Jordan has recorded just 1.5 sacks through six games played after recording 15.5 last season. However, The line has still not allowed a 100+ yard rusher since November, 19th 2017 when surprisingly Samaje Perine accomplished it, that's 49 straight games.
Where the main problems have been this season have been squarely in the secondary where they resigned Janoris Jenkins and swapped out Vonn Bell for Malcolm Jenkins. All of us saw Jenkins as a terrific signing, even at age 32, he's reliable, he's a leader, and he began his career in New Orleans. Jenkins has been anything less than great and I've heard many Saints fans clamoring about how they wished the Saints would have resigned Bell instead but as you can read here, that wouldn't have made much of a difference.
In terms of some of the other main culprits in the secondary, cornerback Marshon Lattimore has allowed an insane 155.9 passer rating when opposing quarterbacks target him. For context, 158.3 is the perfect passer rating... Yikes.
Safety Marcus Williams hasn't been any better, in fact, he's probably been worse and he's definitely been worse than he was last season allowing more yards into his coverage areas than he did during all of 2019.
On Thursday, I invited Pro Football Focus Lead and Senior Writer Ben Linsey onto The Word With G to break this all down (thanks to Ben for those Lattimore and Williams stats above).
In case you missed it, we got into all of that, their grading system in general, and Antonio Brown's potential impact with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
If you missed it, you can check it out here:
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