Chris Olave and the Saints’ passing game are walking into a Week 10 matchup with a clear edge, and the setup couldn’t look much better for New Orleans.
Carolina’s secondary has been patched together for weeks, and even if Mike Jackson and Will Lee make it back, that only goes so far. The Saints bring both the higher-end talent and the deeper receiver room, and that combination is a problem for a Panthers defense already dealing with injuries.
Olave, in particular, looks primed to keep rolling after a strong showing against the Browns. He wasn’t in a slump so much as the entire offense had been sputtering, which kept his numbers from matching the early-season pace.
Still, the production was there at the start: more than 80 yards in each of his first four games, including three outings over 100 yards. Last week he finished with 98 yards, his first game above 60 since Week 4.
If Olave doesn’t post another big line in Week 10, it may have more to do with Tyler Shough spreading the ball around than anything Carolina does to shut him down.
The biggest break for New Orleans is Jaycee Horn being out. That changes the picture for the Panthers, even with Jackson and Lee back in the mix.
Carolina will be healthier at corner than it has been lately, but losing Horn means it’s still missing one of its top four corners, and that matters. The Panthers are going from a nightmare scenario to a slightly less ugly one.
Olave has already shown he can beat Horn. In two meetings last season, he put up 104 yards in the first game and 85 in the second, when he also scored a touchdown that left Horn face down on the turf. Horn is a top-tier corner, and Olave has already gotten the better of him.
And if Carolina decides to tilt coverage toward Olave, the Saints have other answers. Devaughn Vele and Jordyn Tyson can both make life difficult for a defense, and New Orleans’ receiver group is at full strength. Tyson, especially, is starting to settle in, which only makes the Saints harder to contain.
The Panthers’ returning corners will need to show they’re truly back, because health and talent are both on New Orleans’ side here. And if Carolina loads up on Olave, Tyson could be the one who slips through for 50-60 yards.
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Saints Bought Kellen Moore Time But The Pressure Is Still There
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For Moore, the result matters almost as much as the way it unfolded. A cleaner finish can buy a coach some breathing room, especially when the conversation around his job security had started to get louder, but one good closing stretch does not erase the larger concerns. The Saints still need more consistent production from an offense that spent too much of the day searching for answers before finally finding them when it mattered most. [Read more 🡒]