IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Sep 8, 2026 5:00 PM
It's game week! What do the Saints need to stick with or change up?
The New Orleans Saints are set to kick off the 2026 season against the Detroit Lions as the Saints are looking to snap a playoff drought and cash in on the excitement from fans after a hot finish to the 2025 season. Cam Jordan is back, Tyler Shough has a year under his belt with a full offseason, Chris Olave is under contract for the future, and Kellen Moore looks to build his culture and offensive system in his second full season as head coach.
Obvious metrics like overall offensive efficiency have to improve, but I won't point that out. The Saints' defense flew under the radar last season, down the stretch as the Saints won close game after close game to end 2025. Jordan's renaissance season and Chase Young's best season as a professional led the Saints' defensive line, but what does Defensive Coordinator Brandon Staley have up his sleeve in 2026?
Staley's sub packages
During Staley's time as the defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams, the "star" position was occupied by Jalen Ramsey. As a jack of all trades, Ramsey played all over the alignment and field. The league has turned to lighter defensive packages to match 11 personnel (3 WR's) as the offenses have transitioned to more spread formations.
Now, does Staley have plans for safety Jonas Sanker to occupy the "star" role? One way or another, the data is striking, according to SumerSports.
- As the league pushes towards more nickel defense, Brandon Staley, a coach familiar with majoring in sub packages, had an interesting approach to calling the 2025 Saints defense. The Saints were largely a single high defense, ranking 30th in two high coverage rate. Yet, when Staley sent out base personnel, they played two high coverages 75.2% of the time (2nd in the league).
- The two high coverages from base defense were a response to deal with the run game in the box while being competitive on the back end against play action. The Saints ranked 3rd in the amount of base + 2 high (used together) snaps and they allowed -0.20 EPA/dropback against play action. When using another combination of personnel and coverage, they let up 0.26 EPA/play action dropback.
Stopping the run to generate pass rushing opportunities
The saying is: stop the run and have some fun. The Saints finished with the third-highest EAP/rush allowed at -0.11. Staley had fun mixing up his five man fronts and responsibilities. To be fair, Demario Davis was on the field for the Saints last season and it is difficult to replace him, but the deception from Staley can still cause problems for offenses.
SumerSports has two interesting nuggets about some changes from Staley down the stretch:
- Base looks let the Saints maintain a strong box against offenses that wanted to bring out a second tight end. Against 102 12 personnel rushes with 7 or 8 defenders in the box, the Saints held opponents to -0.119 EPA/rush. The offenses they faced in the back half of the season weren’t the best units, but the approach was sound.
- In the pass game, the Saints would generally only rush four from their five man fronts. They dropped an edge on 83.6% of those snaps, and it was usually Carl Granderson. When Granderson was dropping into coverage, opponents had -0.542 EPA/dropback and a 33.3% success rate in a small sample. Kaden Elliss also joins the fun this year as a blitzing threat with the flexibility to play on the line of scrimmage.
Elliss' addition is a huge boost for the Saints. In Atlanta, the linebacker was a key blitzer and Staley will look to utilize him off the EDGE and from different places. The Saints defense will be fun to watch in 2026.
Comments
Powered by RoundtableBuilt on infrastructure designed for real-time media. Learn more at RTB.io.© Roundtable 2026. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy