The New Orleans Saints were able to come away with a victory during their preseason home opener over at the Caesars Superdome on Monday night. They defeated the number one overall pick, Trevor Lawrence, and the Jacksonville Jaguars in a 23-21 showing. The Saints not only got a far clearer picture of their quarterback battle, but they also didn’t turn the football over. That is a pretty big improvement considering they gave it away an unbelievable six times against the Baltimore Ravens.
Jameis Winston was the starting quarterback in this matchup and boy did he look like he won the starting job. The former first overall draft pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was nearly perfect in the one quarter he got to play in. He completed nine of his ten passes for 123 yards and two excellent deep touchdown passes. Both of those touchdowns were to Marquez Callaway by the way. Also, the only incompletion of Winston’s night was a dropped pass by their backup running back. Winston was so spectacular in this contest that he didn’t even play the entire first quarter. Sean Payton decided that he had seen enough from Winston and chose to get Taysom Hill some extra action in order for him to try and catch up. Hill had a less spectacular performance but played like a solid game manager. He completed 11 of his 20 pass attempts for 138 yards and a touchdown.
Let me tell you, Callaway looks fantastic. I mentioned earlier that he caught the two touchdowns from Winston, but he had five receptions for 104 yards added onto that. He was consistently breaking open down the field and made some outstanding grabs that make you question how he even went undrafted in the first place. With Michael Thomas set to miss the first couple weeks of the regular season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him become the number one man until he returns.
I also want to give a round of applause to this Saints defense. With the starters and second stringers in the contest, they completely stifled Lawrence and this young offense. The third and fourth quarter wasn’t pretty for them, but that first half was flawless. Lawrence completed 14 of his 23 pass attempts for 113 yards to give him a quarterback rating of 73.3. Far less than the 157.5 passer rating that Winston got in half as much time out on the field. It seemed like this defensive front was constantly getting into his face and causing him to make uncomfortable throws on the run. It was pretty unexpected considering that the team lost Trey Hendrickson, Sheldon Rankins and Malcolm Brown on that defensive line in the offseason.
Also, I tuned into the Buccaneers game this weekend and it was a slaughter. They were stomped on by the Tennessee Titans by a score of 34-3. It should be noted though that the Buccaneers kept all of their starters out of the game similar to the Titans this weekend. It is clear to me that the Buccaneers don’t have insane depth anywhere, as their future after Brady looks dim with Blaine Gabbert, Ryan Griffin and Kyle Trask all playing sub-par football. Obviously, this team is still incredibly talented overall, but their depth should be concerning heading into this final preseason game. In two matchups so far, Tampa Bay’s backups haven’t shown much of anything.