After the New Orleans Saints’ brutal 45-24 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday, a plethora of questions have been circulating about the team. But one has been particularly pervasive, a curiosity as to why rookie defensive lineman Christen Miller a healthy scratch.
Miller, who has stood out as a run defender for the team, suffered a toe injury against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 2. He missed the following week’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders, but returned to practice ahead of the Saints’ matchup with the Atlanta Falcons.
He tallied two limited participation days for Thursday and Friday’s practices while being upgraded to a full go for Saturday.
Despite a need to bolster the team’s rushing defense against Atlanta running back Bijan Robinson, Miller was inactive against the Falcons for the game.
Head coach Kellen Moore was asked about the reasoning behind Miller’s inactive status during his day-after video call withlocal media.
“He was just coming back from an injury,” Moore said. “I thought he had a good week of practices, but with the time on task with other guys, it felt like the right decision for us.”
The Saints allowed 205 total rushing yards against the Falcons with Robinson leading the way with 145.
While there’s no way to know whether or not the team’s performance against the grand attack would have been better or worse with Miller, the 20/20 hindsight that comes from such a decision makes it easy to question.
Per Pro Football Focus, the Falcons ran between the tackles 23 times for 153 of their 205 total rushing yards. Three of the team’s five rushing touchdowns came on inside-the-tackle runs as well, including Robinson’s explosive 59-yard rushing touchdown on the third play of the game.
The Falcons, who had previously rushed outside of the tackles at the highest rate in the NFL going into their contest in New Orleans, refocused their run game to the inside and did so with great success.
Interior defensive linemen Davon Godchaux, Vernon Broughton and Khristian Boyd each graded out low on defense, particularly because of the rushing defense. Broughton’s average depth of tackle in the loss was five yards downfield, Boyd’s was 4.5 and Godchaux did not register a single counting stat before having to leave the game with a groin injury.
The Saints were also down a number of key defensive players, such as linebacker Kaden Elliss, edge rusher Carl Granderson and key run defender Anfernee Jennings, because of injuries.
Defensive lineman John Ridgeway III, who was active, seemingly in place of Miller, saw just 11 defensive snaps and registered one stop in the run game.
It’s hard to tell whether or not having Miller active would have helped the Saints’ rushing attack, but considering he was drafted with the expressed intent of helping out on run defense, it’s hard to imagine anything could have gone worse.
Miller lacks the years of NFL experience that the other players have, making the time on task consideration an understandable one. However, looking back at the way the game unfolded, a role for Miller may have been a wise decision regardless of his early practice week limitations.
