Saints eye offensive innovation following bye week

By Ross Jackson

A lot of eyes will be on the adjustments made by the New Orleans Saints as they return to the field. Head coach Kellen Moore outlined some of the takeaways from their bye week self-scouting efforts, but there are additional pieces that will be worth watching.

While Moore shared elements of the staff’s red zone and run game focus, it’s a sure thing that there will be more areas of improvement in the final stretch of the season.

Three that could be in their plans include more snaps with their rookie quarterback Tyler Shough under center, more play action and some diversification in their personnel grouping usage.

Under Center Snaps

In the team’s last game, a win over the Carolina Panthers, the Saints deployed 17.7% of their offense from under center. It was the second-highest rate of the season behind their Week 4 matchup against the Buffalo Bills. Over the course of several games leading up to Carolina, New Orleans was steadily operating less than 10% of its offense from under center. It will be interesting to see if the team maintains that approach moving forward, if it was a match-up driven decision against the Panthers.

Play Action

New Orleans has used play action at one of the lowest rates in the league this year. Their 18.9% usage of play action is the fifth-lowest in the NFL. Their upcoming opponent, the Atlanta Falcons, use play fakes at the second-lowest percentage (17.5%), per Next Gen Stats. If the Saints can get their run game going more consistently throughout the upcoming games, perhaps that play action “easy button” gets a bit more attention as the season continues.

Personnel Groupings

The Saints live in three-wide receiver or two-tight end sets, with the vast majority of their offense taking place in 11-personnel (one running back, one tight end and three wide receivers). 

The team has rarely utilized looks with two running backs on the field. Some of that is because New Orleans tends to use a tight end in the backfield when in need of a lead blocker or deploying traditional I-formation looks. With running backs Alvin Kamara and Devin Neal now having multiple games together under their belt, and the Saints having established a trend of not fielding two running backs in the same play, post-bye presents a great opportunity to break the tendency and deploy some new personnel looks.