Five Things to Know: Raiders at Saints

By Ross Jackson

The New Orleans Saints are gearing up for their final home game of the 2024 NFL season. As the 3-12 Raiders come to town as 1.5-point favorites, the 5-10 Saints are in full evaluation mode, looking to get an idea of where their young talent and future building blocks are in their development process.

The top name on that evaluation list is rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler who will get his fifth NFL start on Sunday. He will have a unique opportunity to prove he is a viable starting option in the long-term. 

We’ll start there with the five things you should know heading into this matchup.

1. Rattler will get his fifth start, pioneering a beat up offensive unit

With starting quarterback Derek Carr ruled out for the third-consecutive week, Rattler will get another start against Las Vegas. Rattler is currently 0-4 as a starter, but he has shown a ton of promise, especially when he entered the game in the second half against the Washington Commanders two weeks ago. 

The rookie passer will be without a long list of starters yet again. He will not have center Erik McCoy, left guard Lucas Patrick, wide receivers Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed, running back Alvin Kamara nor do-it-all tight end Taysom Hill. New Orleans has struggled to get a real evaluation of their young quarterback due to the team’s continuing health concerns. But they are determined to get what they can.

2. While the sack numbers aren’t as desired, the Saints have an impressive edge rusher tandem

New Orleans ranks right in the middle of the NFL, tied for No. 16, with just 37 sacks on the season. Not an ideal situation, though the sack and pressure numbers have ticked up in the latter part of the season. But looking at pressure alone, the Saints have seen a ton of success from defensive ends Chase Young and Carl Granderson. The duo has accumulated 120 total defensive pressures, per Next Gen Stats, the second-most amongst a tandem of pass rushers on the same team. 

They’ll be going up against a weak pair of tackles and a quarterback that is a quintessential pocket passer. Sunday presents a real chance for both players to cause some chaos in the pass rush.

3. The Raiders may be a bad team, but the defense will provide some unique challenges

Statistically speaking, the Raiders defense isn’t so bad. They get a bad reputation because the team as a whole is 3-12 and has struggled all season. But being a top-10 passing defense doesn’t come easily in today’s NFL. 

Per Next Gen Stats, the Raiders secondary has one of the highest pre-snap safety disguise rates at 46% of opposing quarterback dropbacks. That is the No. 2 highest rate in the league. That will challenge the rookie Rattler to be able to make adjustments after the snap on nearly half of his dropbacks (on average), and deliver accordingly in the passing game. That will provide a good gauge of his mental processing at the position.

Additionally, Next Gen Stats rates Las Vegas as the No. 1 team in Cover 0 usage. Cover 0 is a pressure-heavy defensive look with no deep safeties and man coverage across the board. Rattler was pressured on over 50% of his dropbacks against the Green Bay Packers last week. The Raiders are likely to try to replicate that. If they do in these Cover 0 looks, Rattler will need to make them pay in order to force the pressure to back off. A great opportunity for the young player and the Saints’ passing offense. 

4. Las Vegas will field the best player on either offense Sunday

The best player that will take the field for either offense on Sunday will be Raiders tight end Brock Bowers. The rookie leads all tight ends in receiving yards and yards after catch. Both of which will challenge New Orleans. The Saints are a just below-average team in defending tight ends in terms of yardage, but have only surrendered a single touchdown to the position all season long. However, the New Orleans defense ranks No. 2 in the NFL for most yards after the catch surrendered on defense. That will make Bowers a particularly fearsome threat.

5. A home state player will be making his Saints debut

This could quickly become one of the best stories of the Saints’ 2024 season. Last week, New Orleans signed running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire to its practice squad. The former LSU Tiger and Baton Rouge native was named a standard elevation on Saturday. That means he will make his debut, playing for his hometown team on Sunday. 

What his workload will look like remains to be seen, but considering the lack of production from the running back room without star back Alvin Kamara last week, there should be some snaps available for Edwards-Helaire. The ideal situation would be for him to operate in Kamara’s versatile role while second-year back Kendre Miller goes back to being the change of pace, bruising runner.