Brian Flores is a New Orleans Saints fan’s worst nightmare, and he’s coming to town on Sunday. Flores’ blitz heavy tendency combined with Kellen Moore’s tendency to leave his offensive tackles on an island could prove disastrous for Tyler Shough. Moore could give Asim Richards and Taliese Fuaga some help and still struggle, but leaving them without help is asking for trouble.
The Saints are playing without Kelvin Banks, but Moore surprisingly hasn’t altered his approach. He’s actually increased it at left tackle. Conventional wisdom would suggest losing a top-10 pick at left tackle would result in giving more help for the backup, but Moore isn’t following conventional wisdom.
Banks has operated 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. Both of those numbers are high, and the fact the backup close to the starter, let alone ahead of Banks, is concerning from a game planning situation. Richards has been left on an island at top-10 rate in the league, but he’s been in the bottom 10 in success rate.
Brian Flores could lead to a second straight embarrassment for Saints
Moore can't keep doing the same thing. It didn't make sense from the beginning, but after seeing it fail over the last two weeks, a change in strategy is mandatory. The Saints were absolutely embarrassed last week against the Falcons, and pressure on Shough was one of the reasons why.
Flores is going to give the Saints a ton of looks before the snap that don't match look after the ball is snapped. It's going to put a lot of pressure on Shough to process what he's seeing quickly. It's going to be a lot of blitzing, and he and the offensive line have to be prepared for it.
Dallas Turner is the star of the unit, and there's one stat of his that perfectly describes just how Flores leaves offenses dazed and confused. Turner has been unblocked on 8 of his 24 pressures.
For the record, Turner is 1st in pressure rate and second in quarterback hits and sacks. It's shaping up to be a breakout season for him, but it isn't as if Turner was a nobody before this. He's former first round pick in 2024 and had 8 sacks last year.
This isn't the type of player you expect to get this many free runs at the quarterback. Typically Turner wouldn't but Flores' scheme often puts offenses in tough positions to defend pressure players, even one who is clearly the man in the unit.
If the Saints don't find a way to mitigate the pressure, it's going to be a long day for Shough and this offense.
Add us as a preferred source on Google