Kellen Moore is walking into Week 5 with a problem that could get ugly fast: Brian Flores and his pressure package.
Flores has long been the kind of coordinator who makes an offense feel rushed before the ball is even snapped, and that’s the challenge waiting for the Saints on Sunday. His blitz-heavy style lines up dangerously with Moore’s willingness to leave his tackles alone, a combination that could put Tyler Shough in constant trouble. Moore could still ask Asim Richards and Taliese Fuaga to handle things with limited help, but doing that again feels like inviting a mess.
The wrinkle for New Orleans is that Kelvin Banks is out, yet Moore still hasn’t really changed how he’s handling the left side. In fact, the approach has gotten even more aggressive there.
That’s not the usual response when a team loses a top-10 pick at left tackle. The normal move would be to give the backup more support.
Moore hasn’t gone that route.
Banks has been left on an island on a little under 70% of his pass blocking snaps, and Richards has been without help on slightly over 70% of his pass rush snaps. Those are big numbers either way, but they become even more glaring when the backup is getting protected at a rate close to - and even above - the starter. Richards has also been left on an island at a top-10 rate in the league, while sitting in the bottom 10 in success rate.
That’s the kind of setup that can turn into a repeat of last week’s disaster against the Falcons, when the Saints were absolutely embarrassed and Shough spent too much time dealing with pressure. Moore can’t really afford to keep rolling out the same plan after what has already happened over the last two weeks. A change in strategy is no longer optional.
And Flores is not the kind of opponent who lets you get comfortable. He’s going to throw a lot of pre-snap looks at the Saints that won’t line up with what happens after the snap, forcing Shough to sort through the confusion in a hurry. The pressure is going to keep coming, and the Saints’ offense has to be ready for it.
Dallas Turner is the headliner in that group, and one stat says plenty about how Flores uses him: Turner has been unblocked on 8 of his 24 pressures.
He leads the league in pressure rate and is second in both quarterback hits and sacks. It’s already looking like a breakout season, though Turner wasn’t exactly an unknown coming in. He was a former first-round pick in 2024 and had 8 sacks last year.
This isn’t the sort of defender teams usually allow that many clean paths to the quarterback. But Flores’ scheme puts offenses in tough spots, and that can create those kinds of free runs even for the clear centerpiece of the rush.
If New Orleans doesn’t figure out how to deal with the pressure, Sunday could get long in a hurry for Shough and the Saints offense.
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Practice has reportedly looked better in terms of effort, which at least gives New Orleans something to lean on as it resets for Minnesota. The Vikings are next on the schedule, and after a game like this one, the Saints need more than cleaner work during the week - they need it to show up before the problems start stacking again. [Read more 🡒]
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For the Saints, the issue is bigger than one bad afternoon. Home field advantage is supposed to be a difference-maker in New Orleans, but recent results have made it harder to count on the Superdome as a weekly boost. The next few games now carry extra weight, not just for the standings but for the mood around the team, because getting back on track at home may be the clearest way to pull the fan base back in. [Read more 🡒]