The New Orleans Saints secondary illustrated the value of versatility in their preseason loss to the Houston Texans – both in scheme and personnel. The team may have their starting safety tandem in Tyrann Mathieu and Marcus Maye, but a quiet free agency signing back in March demanded attention with Saturday night’s performance: safety Justin Evans.
When head coach Dennis Allen commented early in the offseason about coveting interchangeable safeties with complementary skill sets, it was fair to think that vision was primarily for the two starters. If we’re going off last year’s depth chart, former Saints safeties Marcus Williams and Malcolm Jenkins were backed up by P.J. Williams and C.J. Gardner-Johnson, respectively. P.J. Williams wouldn’t have been the first name in mind as a run stopper, and Gardner-Johnson’s short-area quickness and motor as a blitzer are traits that serve greater value in the slot. It’s hard to imagine a disguised look with Williams in the box while Gardner-Johnson backpedaled into single-high coverage. Neither the starters nor their backups seemed remotely interchangeable.
