Week 3’s New Orleans Saints game wasn’t exactly an easy watch. They tripped themselves up often against the Carolina Panthers and struggled to move the ball when it mattered on offense, creating an extremely thin margin for error on defense.
Still, it’s important to take a look at things afterwards and see who played the most impactful football, both for good and for bad. To that end, here are the highest and lowest player grades from Pro Football Focus after Week 3’s loss:
Top 5 offense (minimum 23 snaps)
- WR Chris Olave: 85.6
- WR Tre’Quan Smith: 80.9
- LT James Hurst: 73.1
- RT Ryan Ramczyk: 71.9
- WR Michael Thomas: 69.5
Olave deservedly won all the headlines, but Smith turned in an impressive performance with 4 receptions for 105 yards, converting a first down each time. We got a good look at the results of the work he’s put in during the last two offseasons training with Jameis Winston, so it’s all the more disappointing that he suffered another injury at the end of this game. As for Olave: he’s gained 268 yards off of 112 routes, a very healthy ratio of 2.39 yards per route run.
The bookend tackles did their jobs well, for the most part. Ramczyk and Hurst were dinged for allowing 4 quarterback pressures, but they yielded just 1 hit and no sacks this week. New Orleans averaged 5.2 yards per carry running behind them, as a team, but that pace drops to 3.5 if you don’t account for Alvin Kamara’s 27-yard outlier early in the game.
It was another strong game from Thomas, but a second-half toe injury limited his reps on the afternoon. He caught all 5 passes sent his way to gain 49 yards, converting 3 first downs, and an early 17-yard gain on third down that got the Saints into the Carolina red zone was annoyingly wiped out by a penalty in another part of the field.
Top 5 defense (minimum 20 snaps)
- DT Kentavius Street: 83.1
- DB Justin Evans: 76.8
- DT Shy Tuttle: 67.2
- DE Cameron Jordan: 65.7
- DE Marcus Davenport: 63.9
This was a nice bounce-back game for Evans, who was credited for 3 tackles (2 solo) and a big tackle for loss. He was thrown at twice in coverage and allowed 1 completion for a loss of 2 yards. It’s exactly what he needed after some shaky play against the Buccaneers a week ago. Street also experienced some bright moments by creating some pressure, a defensive stop, and three assisted tackles. He did well in the rotation.
Jordan bagged his first sack of the season and had another pressure, but he was slowed down by Panthers right tackle Taylor Moton for long stretches during the game. Davenport pretty much had his way with left tackle Ikem Ekwonu, the sixth overall pick in this year’s draft, regularly pushing the rookie off the line of scrimmage and getting after Baker Mayfield. He was directly responsible for several incomplete passes that Mayfield managed to throw away before going down. He’s improving week-to-week and the sacks should follow.
Bottom 5 offense (minimum 23 snaps)
- RB Alvin Kamara: 46.6
- RG Cesar Ruiz: 48.5
- LG Calvin Throckmorton: 50.0
- TE Juwan Johnson: 51.2
- C Erik McCoy: 56.8
It was a day to forget for Kamara, whose fumble at midfield was returned for an early Panthers defensive touchdown. He and Jameis Winston struggled to get on the same page with only 2 of his 7 targets being completed to gain 12 yards, neither of them converting a first down. Kamara is one of the NFL’s most exciting playmakers, so it’s really disappointing to see him so poorly utilized.
Johnson again led the team in snaps played at tight end (47 against Adam Trautman’s 44), but his only target was broken up by Carolina linebacker Shaq Thompson. McCoy had some nice moments blocking inside against an underrated Panthers defensive line, but the Saints interior as a whole struggled to control the line of scrimmage in this game. Pass protection up front was fine but they didn’t make any adjustments when Carolina started sending blitzes recklessly in the second half. Whether that’s on McCoy, Winston, or the coaching staff is unclear.
Bottom 5 defense (minimum 20 snaps)
- LB Pete Werner: 46.2
- LB Kaden Elliss: 56.0
- LB Demario Davis: 57.1
- S Tyrann Mathieu: 57.2
- CB Marshon Lattimore: 58.8
It was a rough day for the Saints linebacker corps. All three starters missed tackles (Werner and Davis each missed twice), which helped Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey run for 108 yards in this game despite some solid play by the New Orleans defensive front. Davis did make some plays when sent in as a blitzer, bagging a sack and a couple of quarterback hits.
Mathieu did rack up four solo tackles and an assist, but his lack of long speed was apparent on Laviska Shenault’s 67-yard catch-and-run touchdown reception. He can’t afford to let many plays get behind him when lining up at free safety. As for Lattimore: he wasn’t credited with any tackles but he was dinged for a miss. The lone target thrown into his coverage fell incomplete, so he otherwise did a good job erasing Carolina’s best receivers.
Quarterback
- Jameis Winston: 67.6
It didn’t take the Panthers long to figure out Winston wasn’t going to adjust to the pressure they were broadcasting with defenders lined up to blitz pre-snap, so they just kept going after him. He was blitzed 20 times on his 42 dropbacks, completing 10 of 19 pass attempts for 170 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. To his credit, Winston was only sacked once, and he did a good job of throwing the ball away when under pressure to live another down.
The problem is that he’s sending too many poor throws on correct reads. He had two scoring opportunities in the Carolina red zone that sailed incomplete because he couldn’t put the ball on the mark – once to Jarvis Landry and again to Kamara. He’s reading the field, and the Saints are calling good plays in different situations. Winston isn’t executing them effectively. Whether that’s due to his injuries, his flaws as a quarterback, or both is to be determined.
Special teams
Safety Daniel Sorensen was the highest-graded player on special teams (90.6) with a tackle and an assist in the kicking game, but also a holding penalty on a kickoff … practice squad cornerback DaMarcus Fields and wide receiver Marquez Callaway took turns replacing injured corner Alontae Taylor on the kicking teams … slot receiver Jarvis Landry initially filled in for returns specialist Deonte Harty on punt returns, after Harty suffered a setback with his foot injury in pregame warmups, returning twice for 17 yards (8.5 yards per attempt, with a fair catch); running back Dwayne Washington filled in on kick returns, returning 3 times for 56 yards (18.7 yards per try) … Wil Lutz had a 30-yard field goal try blocked by the Panthers defense, missing outright from 48 yards later in the game … Blake Gillikin punted 6 times, dropping 2 of his tries inside the Carolina 20-yard line; two of his punts were fairly caught and only three returned by the Panthers, gaining just 22 yards (7.3 yards per return).
