One play from Week 1 that captures how Klint Kubiak is unlocking the Saints offense

The New Orleans Saints hired Klint Kubiak this offseason with the belief he would transform the offense into one of the league’s best units. News Orleans offense had some struggles last year, but they were an above average unit. That means Kubiak was brought in to make the team consistently explosive, and establish the Saints offense near the top of the league.

One game into his tenure as offensive coordinator, that’s exactly what he did. The Saints picked up a dominant 47-10 win over the Carolina Panthers in Week 1, and the offense did whatever they wanted. Derek Carr passed for 200 yards and three touchdowns, and the team rushed for 180 yards and two more touchdowns. New Orleans scored on its first nine drives, and the only two drives that weren’t scoring drives were the last two series of the game, when Jake Haener was at quarterback.

It’s easy to say New Orleans was just beating up on the Panthers, but Kubiak’s finger prints were clearly visible on the offensive output. From the formations to the play designs, Kubiak has already implemented a clear creativity that’s making a difference.

One play in particular that summed this up was the 16-yard touchdown pass to Juwan Johnson right before halftime. Rashid Shaheed had just returned a punt 47 yards, and he really should’ve scored but he was knocked down by an eager teammate. No worries, though, Kubiak just dug into his bag of tricks and scored on the first offensive play.

The result of the play was simple, a pass from a quarterback to a tight end on the side of the endzone; a common occurrence in football. However, Kubiak took a different path to arrive to that common destination.

The offense came out in 21 personnel (two backs, one tight end, and two receivers). However, Rashid Shaheed was lined up at halfback, Taysom Hill at fullback, Alvin Kamara and Chris Olave as the receivers, and Johnson at tight end.

Klint Kubiak’s creativity is already on display with Saints weapons

Johnson went in motion prior to the snap, then ran a wheel route once the ball was snapped. Meanwhile, Shaheed ran a swing route out the backfield, with Taysom Hil in front of him as if they were setting up a swing screen. Kamara on the backside ran an out route, and Olave came off the line as if he was blocking before settling down as a check down option.

All of this movement with players not in their natural positions is confusing for defenses, and that’s how Johnson ends up open in the endzone for a score. Chances are, Kubiak has multiple iterations of this play out of the same formation, and we’ll likely see them throughout the year.

New Orleans has talented weapons and quite a few versatile players on the offensive side of the ball. That really allows Kubiak to be creative in his design and push the envelope, and he’s seemingly taking full advantage to do just that. It’ll be exciting to see how the offense evolves throughout the season, and how many ways they’ll be able to score points.

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