NEW ORLEANS — As New Orleans Saints fans what we really want out of preseason football is an excuse to ramp up our excitement and expectations for the regular season.
All the Saints need to do coming off a 13-win season is not have any major injuries and look close to how they did in 2018 so we can believe 2019 will be as fun or better than 2018.
Done and done.
The Saints kicked the New York Jets square in the face 28-13 and looked every bit the team of our dreams in the practice football game we all tell ourselves matters the most.
Drew Brees dropped in for his annual exhibition season appearance and looked amazing. Drew is too classy and dignified to point at the media and football experts and say, “How’s that for decline McFly?” But he totally should have.
Brees went 4 of 6 for 68 yards and a touchdown while throwing only to Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas. The Saints offense looked like that noisy neighbor revving the engine of their 1967 Corvette so the entire neighborhood can hear it so they know who has the baddest, coolest, and loudest car around. In the Saints case the car is an NFL offense that’s going to lay waste to NFL defenses all season long.
Drew Brees is 40 but looked sharp as ever and his second completion to Alvin Kamara where he rolled out and lofted the ball over the defense was just ho-hum perfect accuracy and the touchdown to Michael Thomas was a throw into such a tight spot you don’t realize how special it is until the replay shows just how tight that space is to get it in. Like Tom Brady, the only thing that’s going to slow Drew Brees down is injury because 40-year-olds can’t recover as well as a quarterback in their 20s.
Strangely the player that I’m most excited about on offense was the one guy we didn’t see; Jared Cook. Why would I be most excited about a player we didn’t see Drew Brees throw to? Cook, by all accounts has looked amazing in camp and I like to think Sean Payton has decided to keep all the fancy new plays he’s designed for Cook under wraps until Monday Night against the Houston Texans. We’ve seen the Saints do all sorts of fun stuff with a giant tight end when Jimmy Graham was on the team, but why let opponents see film on the new guy? Sean wants to make the season opener extra special by unleashing Jared Cook on America. That’s my theory and I’m sticking with it.
While the starting offense looked exactly like it has the previous two seasons, the starting defense looked potentially better. The Saints run defense held the Jets to 95 yards on 22 carries and 51 one of those came after the Saints defensive starters were wearing caps on the sideline.
Demario Davis looks somehow BETTER than he did in 2018, and all he was last year was the best Saints linebacker since Jonathan Vilma. Davis at $8 million a year might be the biggest free agent bargain in the NFL right now.
While the run defense again looks elite, the reason I’m suddenly believing the 2019 Saints defense could be better than 2018 is Marshon Lattimore.
Lattimore looked like a guy treating a preseason game like a playoff contest. Did you see the ferocious way he ripped that ball from Jets running back Ty Montgomery? That was intensity not usually seen by a veteran in exhibition NFL football. Lattimore is entering year three, which means his huge payday is drawing closer, but he will only get it by showing he can be an elite shutdown corner every week. Seeing his buddy Michael Thomas get $100 million probably helps in the motivation department and if Lattimore plays to his maximum potential every week this year, look out, the Saints defense will enter a world of dominance we are not accustomed to around these parts.
So, what’s left to accomplish in the final preseason game?
Sean Payton and the Saints still must sort out backup offensive tackle and receiver depth but if he can navigate the final preseason game keeping Taysom Hill and Teddy Bridgewater healthy, August will have been a smashing success. I’d rather not see Taysom Hill playing four quarters in a meaningless game, but somebody must play quarterback, as per NFL rules. Can he just hand off every play? And no, they can’t resign J.T. Barrett for the 67th time. He’s on the Seattle Seahawks now.
Being worried about your 3rd string quarterback’s health because he’s integral part of your weekly game plan is the most first world, one percent football problems ever created. When that’s your biggest worry wrapping up the preseason, it means the Saints have had as good a preseason as we could have hoped for.
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Ralph Malbrough is a contributing writer and Saints fan living in Houston. Email him at saintshappyhour@gmail.com, find him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter at @SaintsForecast or download the NSFW Saints Happy Hour Podcast.
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