The Saints officially hold the #1 overall pick… and the Tyler Shough Era has begun.

New Orleans Saints 3 - 23 Tampa Bay Buccaneers

This game was a tough watch. There weren’t many positives, and the offense looked the worst it has all season, including the pathetic performances against the Bears and Seahawks from earlier on. The defense held the Buccaneers to 16 offensive points, and yet the Buccaneers were so in control of the game that they were able to put their second stringers in. That shouldn’t happen. 

The Positives

Get ready for the shortest positives section of the season. There is not one positive from the offensive side of the ball, but surprisingly, there are a couple on the defensive side. 

Chase Young once again made his presence felt on the opposing team, having a tackle for loss, 1.5 sacks, and a forced fumble. You can clearly see that he is a good building block for this team for the future when healthy, but he needs someone on the other side who can help restrict quarterbacks to staying in the pocket. If the Saints get a top-tier edge rusher to go across from Chase Young next season, the team may have something going for them in terms of a pass rush. 

The young secondary played well. Kool-Aid McKinstrey and Quincy Riley both looked prepared and ready to cover a better group of receivers, as neither allowed any big plays. Even more noteworthy, the Bucs attempted two fades on Kool-Aid, neither of which they were able to complete. He was able to completely shut both down to the point where he had two very good opportunities for interceptions, and the receivers had to play defense. As the season goes on, I’d like to see Kool-Aid turn opportunities like that into turnovers, especially if the offense won’t be able to do much themselves.

The Negatives

If I wanted to, I could write up negatives for every single person at every position on offense, but I don’t want to waste my Sunday night doing so. Instead, I am going to focus on the biggest negatives on this side of the ball and how I feel they will affect this season. 

Rashid Shaheed looked like a pure “speed guy” out there. Although you may not see it from the box score if you were unable to watch the game, Rashid Shaheed had a horrid performance today. He had two catches that led to fumbles called on the field returned for touchdowns, with one being overturned to incomplete, and the other a touchdown that the refs wrongfully said they “blew dead”. This preseason, everyone at training camp discussed how well Shaheed was doing, and that this season might be his breakout season as a do-it-all receiver. I was so overhyped from all of these discussions that I believed he could even potentially surpass Olave as the WR1. Clearly, I’m an idiot and have no clue what I was thinking there. This game showed that Shaheed, a great speed threat, may never be a go-to guy for quarterbacks to rely on when needing tough catches. Do I think Shaheed is one of the best speedy receivers in the league? Absolutely. Do I love Shaheed and want him to stay on the Saints? Yes. However, I feel it is in the Saints' best interest, as well as Shaheed’s, to trade him to anyone offering a 4th or better. This obviously decreases the explosiveness of this receiver room, but provides more opportunities for Vele to step up alongside Olave. For Shaheed, it also means he could be traded to a contender and used for what he does best, scoring on deep balls. 

Spencer Rattler had another tough game with multiple turnovers, one fumble on a scramble (second straight game with a fumble on the first offensive drive), and an interception for a touchdown thrown straight into a defensive end’s arms. Did I mention that both turnovers were forced by the same person, Anthony Nelson? I didn’t because it doesn’t really matter outside of trivial means, but it was definitely an impressive performance for him. Anyways, outside of the turnovers for Spencer Rattler, his performance wasn’t “terrible”. He had 136 yards through 15 completions on 21 attempts. I do not think at all that this offense is bad solely because of him, because he has shown positive moments, and I do believe he could succeed with better personnel around him. That being said, he wasn’t playing well enough to keep Tyler Shough off the field. Kellen Moore said he was looking for a spark by putting in Shough, but is unsure of who will be the starter next week. In my opinion, you can’t really afford to go back to Rattler after benching him mid-game, and I think you have to go and see what Shough can do the rest of the year, good or bad. 

There are definitely many more negatives to discuss, such as Trevor Penning showing he isn’t worth being brought back, the penalties galore, and don’t even get me started on Juwan Johnson (if I could roll my eyes through the screen for you, I would). This Saints team is in desperate need of young talent, yet it only possesses five draft picks for the upcoming draft. Mickey Loomis and the rest of the Saints’ front office have put them in a terrible spot, and it is hard to see a way for Kellen Moore to claw this team out of it quickly. 

Closing and Team MVPs

I really don’t know what to say about this Saints team. There are only about 10 or so guys that I’d keep right now if everyone were a free agent, and none of them are “stars”... yet, at least. I am excited to see what Tyler Shough has in him, and I like that Kellen Moore is willing to make the move, even if it doesn’t end up working out. The Saints now have the #1 overall pick in the draft, so if they lose out, so be it. The rest of this season is for figuring out if Shough is decent enough to prevent the team from drafting another quarterback in April, and I am praying the team doesn’t have to. 

Offensive MVP: NONE. 

Defensive MVP: Chase Young. (great to see)

Special Teams MVP: NONE. (Good to see Blake make one though)