Getting most out of the offensive line room should be mandatory for Saints

Most of the writers and commentators in the Saints space are leaning into the hype of drafting Jeremiyah Love, as they should. It drives traffic and offensive weapons are exciting and a football enthusiasts wet dream.

However, before we get there I want to throw some numbers at you.

25 - That's the average age of the offensive line, 24.8 once Erik McCoy was lost for season

14 - The number of games Erik McCoy has played in out of 34.

47 - The number of sacks Tyler Shough would have taken in over 17 games.

The latter is a problem considering Tyler Shough's injury history and propensity to hold the ball. If the Saints plan to take a step next year and compete for more than the division, keeping Shough upright is an absolute must and it all runs through the offensive line.

Youth on the OL can be a strength, especially when you have an aging QB that can get the ball out quickly to mitigate the rush and or cover up mistakes.

It can also show up as a weakness because they haven't played enough football.

Erik McCoy (28) is the elder of the group, he's their leader, but when he goes down Cesar Ruiz (26) is the next man up.

The Saints need a general, or a lieutenant that acts as an extra anchor. A veteran over (30) that has shown sustained success and availability. There's a ton of upside on the OL, gorgeous ceiling, but the floor must be raised.

A name I've seen mentioned is steelers Isaac Seumalo. He's (32) and coming off a good season, but I want to bring attention to a another player.

Browns free agent left guard Joel Bitonio.

He's (34) and obviously not a long term solution but he's an iron man.

Bitonio's only missed (2) games since 2021, and (8) since 2017. You can put his availability up there with Cam Jordan and Demario Davis.

While Seumalo (76.4) had a better pass blocking grade than Bitonio (75.7) per PFF, what separates Bitonio is his size (6'4 320) compared to Seumalo (6'4 404), and his true pass set grade.

Seumalo true pass set was a (57.8), while Bitonio managed a (71.1).

Having a player in Bitonio that can handle his own as a pass blocker could allow protections to be rotated toward helping Ruiz. Combining his addition with a mid round guard to be an understudy and or competition for Ruiz would be an ideal approach.

The focus on pass blocking and not run blocking would aid Tyler Shough's development.

Second year QB's usually take a leap with pocket manipulation, but development can be halted if they don't trust the pocket, creating more bad habits than general interceptions ever will.

Adding toys for Shough is important, but a focus on stabilizing the offensive line first would have the biggest effect on the run and passing game and any players added to boost it.

Alvin Kamara still has some zoom but Saints must find a new boom

When a team lands a good prospect in the draft the cycle typically goes as such.

Player is drafted to fill role, he exceeds role, gets paid, role expands to match pay, player is focal point, player ages, player declines, role shrinks, player is discarded or replaced.

One could argue Alvin is at the "role shrinks" portion of his career, and I think if you'd asked him, he'd be completely open to that, as he's expressed a desire to be used efficiently and early in the season lobbied for Kendre Miller to be more involved in the offense.

Just as that began coming into fruition Miller was lost to an ACL tear and the weight was thrust back onto Kamara's shoulders with lackluster results

AK finished the season injured and with his lowest statistical output of his career in several categories including ypc (3.8), touchdowns (1) catches (33), and missed tackles forced (19), spurring suggestions that 41 was now washed and the Saints should potentially trade their former 3rd round pick.

Let's be clear, Kamara is a running back over the age of 30 with 1,767 rushing attempts to his name to pair with 785 targets in the passing game.

He's got some mileage on him but just last year, Kamara had a statistical bounce back season in Kubiak's outside zone scheme where he ran for the 3rd most rushing yards of his career and narrowly missed the elusive 1000 yard season by 50 yards. His 1,393 scrimmage yards were his most since 2020 when he had 1,471.

However, when you look at Alvin's utilization, one could suggest that he wasn't maximized in Kellen Moore's scheme.

One of the most glaring things you notice is his lack of usage in the passing game. Alvin was targeted 39 times in 11 games. Expand that over an entire season and you're looking at 60 targets, easily the lowest of his career.

Mind you Kamara came into the league as dual threat runner and before getting to the "paid/focal point" of his career, averaged 109 targets per season in his first four seasons. That number dropped to 77 targets per season over the next four after he got paid and the Saints made him the primary ball carrier.

How did we get so far away from Alvin's best skillset?

Alvin's rookie year he was used out of the slot on 21.8% of his snaps, wide 21.5%, and only saw 4.5% of his snaps ask him to pass-block. Ironically 2017 was also statistically Alvin's most efficient year as a player.

Last year in Kellen's offense. 7.7% in the slot, 5.3% wide, and a whopping 16% of his snaps as a pass blocker.

See the problem here?

Perhaps there's a reason Mickey Loomis said they need work on getting Alvin the right "opportunities".

Those opportunities won't come until the Saints find their new version of Mark Ingram. Someone has to fill the "boom" role so that the Saints can free Kamara up to be who he is at his core.

Popular opinion says Jeremiyah Love should be the selection and I'd be ok with that, but Love doesn't scream "boom" to me. He profiles like a bigger Reggie Bush and some of his skillset overlaps with AK's. Arguably they'd compete for receiving targets, something we at SFT are lobbying to bring back to Kamara's game.

So who are a few players we have in mind? Glad you asked.

• Jonah Coleman

• Mike Washington Jr

• Adam Randall

All profile as bigger backs at 220+ that can handle 1st, 2nd, and goal line carries. If you're unfamiliar with the backs peep the video's below to put them on your radar.

If the Saints decide to go free agency, a player like Javonte Williams also fits the mold, but if I may put on my GM hat for a moment, 2nd contract RB's are typically on the decline since the position has what amounts to a 5 year shelf life if you're lucky. Better to draft and discard than purchase a used lemon.

No matter which direction the Saints decide to go to fill the role, it's a must they maximize what's left of Alvin's career by finding a young back to handle the primary

https://youtu.be/vhet30rHaWE?si=IdUjXll_etJi9OfI

https://youtu.be/bY-YV6H0HUM?si=9LN6fH2YzMKK3eo0

https://youtu.be/vuMiaD72t7I?si=O6wwWeQaqdiAhT79

The Saints need to upgrade the WR position, but it's not a must Here's why.

Get Tyler Shough more weapons!

That's the logic spread across my twitter timeline, and while I understand it, I obviously don't agree with it - not from a team building POV.

The reason most mock drafters are typically inaccurate isn't because they are bad at identifying talent, it's because it's too hard to know how each individual team views the available pool of players and their potential role on the team.

Team building is like fitting a puzzle.

For instance, Jaxson Smith Njgba isn't a deep threat. He's not the guy you send and or potentially target on a clear out route. So when the Seahawks identified Rashid Shaheed as a complimentary piece it made perfect sense. On the other hand some Saints fans are a bit raw about the trade, especially seeing the impact Shaheed is having.

What they fail to realize is that Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed were competing for downfield targets. Most forget Olave came into the league as a deep threat in Sean Payton's offense, filling the role previously occupied by the likes of Ted Ginn and Devery Henderson.

"I came in here as a deep threat," Olave declared in June.

He didn't excel at it like the Saints hoped and combined with the emergence of Shaheed his target share to that area of the field decreased.

That can be confirmed because in both 2024 under Kubiak and 2025 under Kellen Moore, Olave lobbied the Saints to use him more down the field during the off-season

"We got one of the best deep threats in the league in Shid. I'm just trying to get more involved, get some more deep ball targets, and try to play with that." Olave said.

So it makes sense why the Saints were willing to trade Shaheed to open up more opportunities for their former 1st rounder.

Back to the team building aspect of this.

When looking at targets and usage it's clear Olave is the Alpha in this offense. He plays the X, Slot(41%), and Z and threatens defenses short, intermediate and deep.

Meanwhile, Kellen Moore confirmed that Devaughn Vele plays the Z/Slot spending roughly 41% of his time in the slot, while 53% of Juwan Johnson's snaps came from the slot (lead team) along with 15% coming out wide. Ironically he only spent 27% of his snaps in-line.

If you watch the offense after the Cooks trade, starting with Miami you'll see the offense runs through Chris Olave, Juwan Johnson, and Devaughn Vele.

Those are your #1, #2, and #3 options in the passing game. If you want to look at it from alignment.

Olave - X, Z, Slot

Juwan - Slot, TE

Vele - Z, Slot.

Can you see what's missing? Saints don't have much redundancy on the outside. Do you know who the #4 receiver ended up being?

UDFA Mason Tipton.

When looking at the Buccaneers and Dolphins game (healthy Vele) you typically saw a combination of Olave/Juwan on the inside, Olave/Vele on inside, or Juwan/Vele on inside. A consistent when those guys moved around the formation was Tipton as the lone WR on the outside.

He was rarely targeted, not because he wasn't open, but because he wasn't the focal point of the offense.

Moving forward the big three are unlikely to change with Olave currently set as the 6th highest paid player in 2026, Juwan as the 9th, and the Saints were willing to cut Cooks to get Vele more involved in the offense.

So when I see twitter post saying that the Saint's must upgrade the WR position I keep thinking when is the 4th receiving option ever a must? Even less of a must when you consider the Saints have a former 2nd round pick on reserve waiting to fill that 4th receiving option role in Jalynn Polk.

I get it, picking a WR is sexy, but not at the cost of ignoring that extrapolated over an entire season Tyler Shough would have been sacked 51 times and that a young QB's best friend is a running game and a strong defense.

Ignoring that despite having both Tee Higgins and Jamar Chase, Joe Burrow can't quite seem to keep himself off the ground.

Do the Saints need to add to the WR position and continue to build up their middle class? Absolutely, am I willing to sign a top tier FA or use a premium pick at #8 on one in a very deep draft at the position?

Nope, it's unnecessary.

The deal scenario in my opinion would be to add Louisville's Chris Bell somewhere on Day 2. The main skillset missing in the WR group is someone that can get YAC and take screen's and quick passes the distance. He's a high level man beater on the backside of plays and the familiarity with Shough should only help.

You can bring him along slowly and he'd be insurance if Olave's injury history becomes a problem and/or a change of scenery doesn't help Polk.

Otherwise the Saints would be wise to find a starting LG, a 1A or 1B RB to pair with Kamara and some defensive reinforcements. All would directly or indirectly take pressure off Shough and help keep him available for a full 17 game season.