The New Orleans Saints didn’t just stumble into one pass-rush breakout this season. They found two.
Chase Young and Carl Granderson have turned into the kind of edge-rushing pair nobody really had circled back in the summer, and now they’re sitting at the center of one of the league’s most surprising developments. Young is second in the NFL with 8 sacks, while Granderson is in a crowded race for fourth with 7.5. They’re also the only teammates in the league who both rank inside the top five in sacks.
That alone tells the story. The Saints had two edge rushers reach double digits a year ago, but this season the names have changed and the production has taken off in a way almost no one saw coming. Instead of Young and Cameron Jordan, it’s Young and Granderson driving the charge, with both on pace to challenge the 12-sack range.
Young’s rise is impressive, but it’s not exactly a shock. After putting up 10 sacks in just 12 games last year, the expectation was already there for a big year, maybe even something in the 12-15 sack neighborhood.
He’s delivering on that promise and then some. He’s been battling Will Anderson Jr. for the sack lead, and the tape backs it up.
Last week, Young was getting triple teamed by the tackle, guard and center, and they still had to had to hold him to stop him.
He’s been a problem all over the field. Young is top-5 in the league in sacks, total pressures and quick pressures, and he’s doing it while consistently fighting through extra attention from offensive lines.
Granderson is the real jolt here. He caught fire in October and kept rolling into November, posting 1.5 sacks in each week of October before adding 2 sacks last week. That made him the first player league wide since 2013 to record multiple sacks in four consecutive games.
That stretch has changed the conversation around him. Granderson has been active against the run, disruptive as a pass rusher and far more than just a sack collector. He’s quietly become an impact player for the Saints, and if he gets to his first double-digit sack season, it would lock in the idea that he’s a true partner to Young on the edge.
The way those two have played has even shifted how the Saints might think about April. Texas pass rusher Colin Simmons looked like the obvious choice coming into the season, but if Young and Granderson keep this up, New Orleans could be pushed toward an impact prospect at another position if the options are close.
That’s how unexpected this has been: the Saints didn’t just get production. They got a duo that has become the biggest surprise of their season.
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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 🡒]