Previewing The New Orleans Saints Key Offensive Players
The Las Vegas Raiders picked up a nice opening win against the Carolina Panthers, but will now be moving on to face a very formidable opponent in the New Orleans Saints.
The Saints have been one of the best teams in the league the last three seasons thanks all-around efforts on both offense and defense. It’s the offense that we’ll be looking at specifically today.
You can’t start talking about the Saints offense without mentioning the two men who have defined this franchise since 2006: quarterback Drew Brees and head coach Sean Payton.
These leaders of the Saints have produced top-five scoring offenses the last three years, all despite Brees entering his 40s.
Obviously, a lot of that has to do with the ageless precision Brees has developed, completing 72 percent or more of his passes in each of the last three seasons. He’s not as liable to take deep shots at this point in his career, but the future Hall of Famer can still surgically dissect a defense like no other.
The tools at Brees' and Payton's disposal have only gotten better as well. Receiver Michael Thomas has become maybe the most consistent as the position.
Thomas, however, won’t be playing on Monday night due to a high ankle injury sustained in the Saints' victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It’s a break the Raiders will surely take, although they’ll have plenty more to deal with -- specifically, the ground game and Pro Bowl running back Alvin Kamara.
Kamara is one of the best dual-threat backs in the league, averaging 4.9 yards per carry on the ground for his career, as well as having exactly 81 receptions for three straight seasons.
He can be a match-up nightmare, not too dissimilar from what the Raiders faced last week in Christian McCaffrey. With Thomas out, he’ll likely be the Saints' workhorse.
Kamara will be running behind an offensive line that has Pro Bowlers Terron Armstead and Andrus Peat, plus All-Pro Ryan Ramczyk.
The Saints also have additional weapons in receiver Emmanuel Sanders and ex-Raiders' tight end, Jared Cook, giving the Silver and Black plenty to cover.
Even without Thomas, this match-up could be one of the stiffest the Raiders face all year defensively. It will go a long way in determining if the Raiders defense is ready for prime time.
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