Saints who need to perform after the bye week

The New Orleans Saints' bye week is finally here and it definitely could have come sooner. Now we're all forced to talk about the astonishing loss suffered by the Saints on Monday night when they led by two scores with a little over five and a half minutes remaining in the game.

This season hasn't gone according to plan for the Saints and these players not stepping up and playing well hasn't helped the situation.

Let's check out the members of the Saints who need to perform once the Saints are back from their bye week.

All stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference

Alvin Kamara

I'm guessing the Saints probably wish they had taken Buffalo up on their trade inquiry back in November after how rough Kamara has looked since then.

All jokes aside, this season has not been kind to Kamara. He's only had one game where he's rushed for over 100 yards this season and has only found the end zone three times, all of which came in one game.

Kamara's 26 yards rushing in the loss to Tampa Bay is tied for his season-low (he rushed for 26 yards in the loss to Pittsburgh too) and the Saints can't win ball games when Kamara isn't playing well or being utilized properly.

Another big problem with Kamara this year has been his fumbling issues, something he rarely struggled with prior to 2022. He's fumbled four times this year, which is a career-high for the former third-round pick.

Maybe Kamara is on the down slope of his career or maybe he needs a change of scenery. Whatever it is, he needs to start playing better if the Saints want to win anymore games after the bye.

Jarvis Landry

It was an exciting time for Saints fans when the former LSU star signed with the hometown squad but since his 114-yard performance in the comeback win over Atlanta, what has Landry done?

He's scored just one touchdown, which came against a hapless Rams team, and has failed to come anywhere close to that explosive performance he put on in Week 1. He also missed five games due to injury. Landry's latest failure was this past week when he dropped what would have been a walk-in touchdown against the Buccaneers.

Sometimes, reunions don't go as you hope and that's exactly what happened here but there's still time for Landry to salvage it. He'll be a free agent in March and needs to prove that he can still be a WR2/3 for a team moving forward because it doesn't feel like he'll be returning to New Orleans.

Tyrann Mathieu

I don't care what PFF grades say -- The Honey Badger has been a letdown this year and we're seeing why the Chiefs were okay not retaining him.

The biggest issue with Mathieu this year has been that he hasn't been a good tackler. That could obviously be said for the rest of the Saints defense but Mathieu is one of the more noticeable ones when it comes to poor tackling.

Like Landry, Mathieu was a former LSU standout who fans admired but it's not working out the way we'd all hoped. He needs to bring it after the bye.

Who are some other New Orleans Saints who need to play better after the bye?