Pro Football Focus turned out a 20-year all-star list, and the New Orleans Saints were left on the outside looking in when it came to the names fans would most naturally associate with the franchise.
Drew Brees didn’t make the first or second team, even with a Hall of Fame induction coming this summer. Neither did Jahri Evans, who is a Hall of Fame finalist, or Saints cornerstones Alvin Kamara, Cameron Jordan and Jimmy Graham. Brees, Michael Thomas, Ryan Ramczyk and Demario Davis were included as honorable mentions, but the Saints still came away without a player on either of PFF’s top two units.
There was, however, a Saints wrinkle in the defensive back selections. Two of the best DBs from the PFF era both played in New Orleans - just not when they were at their peak.
Champ Bailey, the Hall of Fame corner, landed on the All-PFF second team, while Chris Harris Jr. made the first team as a slot specialist. Both spent time in black and gold, so they count in this exercise.
PFF analyst Nathan Jahnke pointed out that "roughly half" of Bailey’s best seasons in terms of All-Pro and Pro Bowl recognition came before PFF’s grading window. Saints fans remember Bailey’s 2014 training camp tryout in West Virginia, along with the couple of preseason games he played there.
By then, though, his legs were clearly gone, and the Saints cut him in August. Bailey later retired on a one-day contract with the Broncos in October and was elected to the Hall of Fame five years later on his first ballot.
Harris’ Saints stint came much later and much closer to the end. Jahnke called him "the obvious choice in the slot," noting that his 3,485 coverage snaps in the slot are the most among cornerbacks, his 92.7 PFF coverage grade leads that group, and his 0.94 yards per coverage snap is also No. 1 among players with at least 2,000 snaps.
Harris had been a Dennis Allen favorite dating back to Allen’s days coaching the Broncos secondary, after Allen first found him as a rookie free agent out of Kansas. Harris followed Allen to New Orleans for the 2022 season, started seven games and split slot work with Bradley Roby. That ended up being his final NFL season, and he retired after the 2024 NFL Draft.
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Not every part of that plan landed the same way in outside evaluation, which is where the familiar Saints debate comes in. The offensive line upgrade drew praise, but the backfield investment and the departures of Alontae Taylor and Demario Davis left some room for skepticism, even with Kaden Elliss back to help the pass rush. For a team still trying to define its identity around Shough, the real question is whether the offseason addressed enough of the right problems to feel like a step forward. [Read more 🡒]