The New Orleans Saints are heading into a new season with head coach Sean Payton back after the bounty suspensions and now the team will be able to work out some kinks on offense in the preseason with their first game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The team will be looking for a receiver to step up after Joe Morgan was injured in practice and Steve Breaston along with Nick Toon and Kenny Stills look to be the third option. The team is ready to run the ball more and the offensive line will also be an area to watch on Friday night.
The Saints brought in new defensive coordinator Rob Ryan to help overhaul the unit and with hard-hitting safety Kenny Vaccaro coming in on the secondary, the passing defense is expected to improve after ranking 31st in the league in passing yards allowed per game. The defense hasn't been the strongest part of the team for the Saints over the past few years with Drew Brees leading the way on offense, but after bringing in Ryan to change things up, the unit appears ready to pull its weight as the team tries to win the NFC South once again after missing the playoffs last year.
The team knows what it has in Brees already and he helped the team to rank first in passing yards per game in the league after the quarterback threw for over 5,000 yards on the year. The defense ranked 31st in pass yards allowed per game and last in the league in rushing yards per game with over 140 and Ryan is expected to bring both those numbers down significantly. If the defense can improve to just a mediocre one, the offense will have much less of a burden to carry and the running game is expected to be more consistent after dealing with injuries last season.
Last year the team ranked first in the league in passing as Brees threw for 5,177 yards, but the running game was awful while dealing with injuries and ranked 25th in the NFL in yards per game and now Payton will try and fix that as he returns. The defense was also awful, ranking 31st and 32nd in the league in passing and rushing yards allowed per game and Payton brought in Rob Ryan to help overhaul that.
One key this season will be the play of Mark Ingram, as he was the primary rusher last year with 602 yards and five touchdowns and Payton is expecting him to run the ball even more this year. Darren Sproles has been fantastic out of the backfield, but he serves more as the Reggie Bush type while Ingram can go between the tackles easier and that is what Payton is hoping to do with him along with Pierre Thomas. The team has talent at the position, but injuries and running schemes will help dictate how things go.
Brees has a ton of weapons to choose from, but he will have to overcome some injuries, as wideout Joe Morgan will be out for the season with an injury. The team has Marques Colston as well as Steve Breaston and second-year pro Nick Toon and Brees will have to work with everyone to get things back to being more consistent. Morgan suffered a torn meniscus and a partial ACL tear and this comes after he was expected to step up after making 10 catches for 379 yards and three touchdowns last season.
"We just want to be effective in the running game,'' Ingram said. "When the Saints won the Super Bowl in '09, they were top 10 in the league in rushing. We know how important running the ball is. We just want to be effective and have one of the best rushing games in the league, because we have the O-line to do it and we have the runners to do it. If we can run the ball effectively, that does nothing but open up the passing game for (quarterback) Drew (Brees) and all the explosive receivers we have. That's definitely a focal point for us.''