Through the first six games of the season aside from week one we can all agree that the receivers have been lackluster. They have little to no production consistently and can’t give any support to Jameis Winston. Aside from Alvin Kamara who isn’t even a receiver, the best receiver for the Saints has been Deonte Harris, and he can’t always be relied on due to his injury history, but his talent is there.
In these first six weeks Winston has targeted his receivers 75 times and completed 42 of them for 652 yards, that’s a completion percentage of 56%. That’s the worst of all the position groups Winston has thrown to this year, the tight end position has been targeted 29 times with 19 of them being caught for 209, with a completion percentage of 65%; the running back position has been targeted 41 times for 31 receptions and 264 with a completion percentage of 77.5%.
The receiver position of the three should not be dead last in terms of completion percentage, on any other team I guarantee their receiving core isn’t dead last. To really show how bad this receiving group is, Marquez Callaway leads the Saints in receiving yards with 254, but that ranks 75th in the NFL. Winston is getting the ball to his guys but their dropping passes, they stop running the route, or they just show little to no effort on the play.
Monday night displayed these problems as a result of terrible effort. Winston targeted his receivers sixteen times on Monday but only four of them were caught. Three of which were from Marquez Callaway and one from Tre’Quan Smith. I honestly think Jameis is getting frustrated as well, and deservingly so; We saw him go after Tre’Quan Smith and get on his a*s for not knowing what to do on a third down play which resulted in a drop by Tre’Quan Smith. Smith shouldn’t be asking what to do on the play, he’s had all season to learn the playbook, to do that in his season debut is ridiculous.
However there are some plays where Winston does miss an open guy or throws it late. Some of these plays were over the middle, but none of the guys Winston throws to are gonna win a contested catch over the middle, which shows the lack of reliability. If this teams wants to get any better they need to show Winston that he can throw to them over the middle and build off that trust. Winston also missed some guys on some short routes cause it looked like he predetermined where he was throwing it. Little things like that can really hurt a team and it hurt the Saints Monday. Overall though the receivers have to get better and they have to be trustworthy and reliant otherwise it will be a long season even when Michael Thomas returns.
With that being said, let’s look at some film.
Before I get into any film I’d like to give a special thanks to Allen Jube for letting me use his NFL Gamepass sign in so I can provide you guys with this sort of content. Make sure to support him by subscribing to his YouTube channel here. He does giveaways tickets for home games so make sure not to miss it!
Play 1
Adam Trautman is at the top of the screen, Tre’Quan as the inside guy on the right side of the line, Stills in the slot and Callaway on the outside (bottom of screen). Looks like Seattle ran cover 2 but Jamal Adams plays his coverage wrong.
Callaway gets a nice release and gets behind his defender, definitely has space but the safety over the top prevents Winston from throwing it there. Stills runs a dig route over the middle but the Seahawks pass it off well and never get open. Tre’Quan runs a seam but based off the throw from Jameis it should’ve been a post. He stops running and drops the ball. If he doesn’t stop it’s definitely caught and possibly a touchdown.
Play 2
Saints line up in a tight formation with two by two on each side. Callaway and Smith at the top with Juwan and Stills at the bottom. Seattle ran a cover one and brought an extra guy for pressure.
Callaway runs a nice ten yard dig route and finds open space, definitely had an opportunity to get the ball. Stills runs a go route but just isn’t fast enough to beat his man, but he does get the single high safety to follow him, leaving over the top open. Smith runs a drag route, gets open but can’t make the catch.
Play 3
Saints go with an empty backfield and go five wide, Juwan Johnson at the top of the screen next to Callaway. Garret Griffin at tight end (right side of line) with Trautman in the slot and Ty Montgomery out wide at the bottom of the screen. Seattle looks to be in some weird cover 2 or 3 coverage, hard to tell. Montgomery runs a go route but the corner plays it well, Trautman runs a seam and looks like he has some room to work with but doesn’t appear like the play was ever going to him. Griffin runs a post and Callaway runs a short corner route. Juwan does a good job of getting to the first down marker and getting the catch.
Play 4
Saints line up with Callaway at the top of the screen with Smith and Stills bunched close to the line. Seattle runs a cover 3 defense on the play.
Callaway runs a dig route to try and draw away the corner and possibly the safety but it’s too shallow and needs to be more upfield to work. Smith has a check and release assignment and runs a late drag route as the emergency route, he gets open. Stills runs a post and the play is designed for him to get the ball, Seattle plays it well and the ball is overthrown which was good.
Play 5
Saints line up in an empty backfield on third down, two in the right of Jameis and three on the left. Stills and Trautman on the right, Tre’Quan, Alvin, and Callaway lined up in a bunch formation on the left. Seahawks run a man coverage.
Stills runs a C route but never creates separation and the corner rides his hip the whole way.
Trautman ran an out route and got a little separation but not enough to where he could get a first down.
Tre’Quan runs a deep dig but the safety takes the play away but Tre’Quan did have a step or two on his defender. Callaway runs a curl but never creates initial separation and the corner stays with him the whole play.
Play 6
Saints line up with two receiver, stills at the top and Callaway at the bottom, Seahawks go cover 2. Winston feels immediate pressure and has to throw the ball away.
Stills takes a bad first step but runs a decent whip route but the corner sits on it, Callaway runs a crossing route, but watch Adam Trautman. He looks like he runs the wrong route and didn’t get depth into his route. He shouldn’t be wide open right next to Callaway.
Play 7
Saints line up with three receivers, Stills and Tre’Quan at the top and Callaway at the bottom and Seattle runs cover 2 on third down.
Stills has a slant hitch, so he does has a hitch at the end of the slant one ce he finds open space, the route was sloppy but he was open (the ball was thrown already). Tre’Quan has a corner so the Saints ran a smash concept play, looks like if Jameis holds on a little long he might’ve had Smith on the sideline if placed in the right spot. Callaway runs an in route and struggles to get violent with his hands and get separation from the corner, makes the catch but was being trailed the whole time.
Play 8
Saints line up with two receivers; Callaway at the top and Stills on the bottom and Seattle runs what appears to be cover 3.
Callaway has a ten yard curl and Stills appears to be running an in route. Stills initially is just trying to find open space in a general area while Callaway has a designation for his route. Winston connects with him. His cut back to the ball however isn’t fast enough to separate him from the corner and gets tackled pretty quickly after the catch.
Play 9
Once again Saints line up with two receivers, Stills on the bottom and Callaway at the top. Looks like Seattle was running man with a single high safety.
Both receivers ran out routes at the first down marker, Stills was pretty open due to the corners alignment with his hips turned inside. Callaway on his out route doesn’t make an initial cut, meaning he rounded off his route and got lazy on it. Stills’ route has an initial cut but still was rounded off a bit.
Play 10
Here just watch Kevin White at the top. He’s fast and has good size, beats his man off of man coverage and drops it. If Kevin White works in his hands he could be a guy who actually does get more playing time and looks but man, how does he not catch this.
Play 11
Back to back plays, Winston throws a perfect pass to Stills but he just couldn’t hold on. He does a good job getting behind the corner in zone coverage and finding space but couldn’t finish the play.
Play 12
Seahawks run man on third down and nobody gets separation. Nowhere for Winston to throw. Two of his five receivers are being pressed almost the whole play and can’t get off contact.
I planned on going over more film, but a lot of these plays were the same thing as the plays above. Guys struggling to get separation, guys not coming back to the ball or in some areas Winston missed a few guys who were open. He needs to work on keeping his eyes downfield as opposed to as one guy. His release could also use some work, he missed some open guys on some important plays, but he is still doing his job and getting the ball to the receivers. Here are some screenshots of the plays where he missed a guy:
There’s room for improvement for everyone on the offense and this is a good week to showcase that they can improve and show up when needed.
Written By Kadin Janisch
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