NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Saints are 5-2, a win away from being in first place again in a division. They've won 4 straight years, and yet the 2021 season has never felt so uncertain.
For the third straight season, the Saints will start their backup quarterback in multiple football games. The Saints managed to go 8-1 starting Teddy Bridgewater and Taysom Hill in 2019 and 2020, but replacing Jameis Winston for the final 10 games will be Sean Payton's biggest challenge in a season filled with them.
The Winston injury was awful, but how I found about it was kind of hilarious. I couldn’t watch the first half of the Saints-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game because I was at an event at our church for Halloween. When my mom called, I told my wife, "It's my mom. I got to take the call."
My mom was IRATE at the Bucs injuring Jameis on a dirty play.
My mom was calling Bruce Arian horrible names I can't print here and saying, "Tampa Bay is the dirtiest team, and why does their coach wear a purse?" was amazing. Love you mom, you are the best.
Back to the Saints facing another quarterback problem.
This time for Payton it's going to be much harder to maintain a functioning offense because the Saints offense was struggling so much already. The Saints rank 31st in passing yards in the NFL.
I know any stat nerds reading this are probably screaming, "Passing yards aren't a good measure of a successful passing game." Pipe-down nerds, I know passing yards aren't the only thing that matters when throwing the football, but I also know we have never seen a Sean Payton offense rank this low in passing yards before. And by the way, the Saints are closer to the last-place Chicago Bears in passing yards than they are to the 30th ranked Jacksonville Jaguars.
Did I mention Michael Thomas is now not returning in 2021? Not good.
The Saints are not keeping good company with passing statistics. The only other team that has a winning record who doesn't rank in the top half of the NFL in passing yards are the Green Bay Packers who rank 17th. The 2021 Saints winning games in the pass-happy NFL by not passing much at all is some sort of unicorn.
So, who will Sean Payton choose to be the quarterback for a team that's about playing great defense and running the ball? Taysom Hill seems like the obvious answer if he can get cleared to play after suffering a horrible concussion.
Maybe the Saints could even design MORE runs for Hill for his second stint as Saints starting quarterback. It might work, especially against the bad defense the Saints will face the rest of the way like the Falcons, Jets, Titans, and Dolphins. If Taysom can avoid his fumbling issues and another concussion, an even more run-based offense with Alvin Kamara and fresh-looking Mark Ingram has potential to be weird and fun.
Taysom isn't a great quarterback but maybe this time around Sean Payton will cook up more plays where Taysom is doing more "Taysom Hill stuff" and less 'regular quarterback stuff'. "Taysom Hill stuff" usually involves Hill running over linebackers and getting the crowd and his team fired up.
Unfortunately, Taysom quarterback stuff also involves fumbles and throwing deep balls that feel like punts and not passes. As my friends at Black & Gold Review once said, "All Taysom plays are stupid, except the ones that work which are awesome."
Maybe Payton decides to go with Trevor Siemian, the guy who looks like everyone's favorite next-door neighbor. Siemian playing that well coming off the bench against Tampa was incredibly impressive.
Do you remember how bad Teddy Bridgewater and Jameis Winston looked coming in for their first action for an injured Drew Brees? At times both felt like a disaster meme come to life. It got better quickly for Teddy in 2019 and of course Jameis had the Saints off to a 5-2 start so getting actual practice reps will no doubt help. Does Siemian's career as a guy who won't make many mistakes, but also won't wow you in any way at all, be the guy over someone the Saints have seen go 3-1 as their quarterback?
Part of me wants to see Sean Payton try to design some Frankenstein offense with Taysom mostly running around doing Taysom things and infuriating all the Taysom Haters on social media. Teams with this much uncertainty at quarterback are usually dead in the water. If Sean Payton figures this out, forget coach of the year, he might be coach of the decade.
Saints Fan Mood and Meditation Music:
Somewhere Only We Know -- Keane
While Saints fans were incredibly excited about beating Tom Brady, I'll admit I was really sad for Jameis Winston. There's a chance he's played his last game as a Saints quarterback and in that first quarter against the Bucs we started to see the guy who was supposed to a franchise quarterback.
And then it was over, maybe forever, and I shouldn't be this sad and emotional over a guy who only played 7 games as a Saint, but I really wanted to see if Jameis and Sean Payton could make some magic. Now we will probably never know.
Also, Michael Thomas is out for the year, which means he’s going to miss basically 2 full seasons of football and there’s a non-zero chance we’ve seen him play his last game as a Saint. It sucks, so let's all take a minute to listen to some sad British pop music and be sad together.
The Games
Last Week: 2-3
Season: 15-20
Atlanta (+5) at New Orleans:
The Saints shouldn't be favored over any team by five points. The good news is Atlanta's defense is terrible at stopping the run, allows 4.4 yards a carry, and opposing quarterbacks have a 105 rating against them while throwing 15 touchdowns against just three interceptions.
Every single one of these final 10 Saints games will likely be a mud wrestling match where style and pretty are rarely used ways to describe them. If Sean Payton gets Kevin White into the endzone for a touchdown, the Saints should immediately induct White into the Superdome Ring of Honor.
And Saints, you better spell his name right. Mark Ingram will break the Saints all-time rushing record, and along with the Falcons doing late-game Falcon-type activities, the Saints will get to 6-2 and back atop the NFC South.
Saints 24-20
Kansas City (-2.5) vs Green Bay:
The Chiefs aren't good, but Aaron Rogers caught the 'rona and was unvaccinated, even though he kind of said he was, so Jordan Love starts for the Packers. I’m sure that will go well.
Chiefs 31-21
New England (-3.5) at Carolina:
I was so wrong about Mac Jones. He's going to be a good NFL quarterback. I wonder if the Panthers regret taking him?
Patriots 20-16
Houston (+7) at Miami:
Did the Texans not have any more players to trade the Saints?
Texans 17-13
Pittsburgh (-6.5) vs Chicago:
The Saints had a reunion with Mark Ingram, I wish they'd have had one with Jimmy Graham too.
Steelers 19-10
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 Saints Happy Hour Podcast.
(Warning: The Saints Happy Hour Podcast may contain language that is not suitable for all audiences)