With the New York Giants traveling to the Big Easy this week to face the New Orleans Saints, we turned to SB Nation’s Canal Street Chronicles for the scoop on the Saints. Nic Jennings answers our ‘5 questions’.
Ed: Let’s get right to it. As excited as the Giants are to have him, should the Saints have selected Jaxson Dart in the draft when they had the chance?
Nic: Personally, I don’t think so. The selection of Kelvin Banks Jr. has looked like a smart one so far, as the Saints appear to have successfully
replaced their former All-Pro tackle duo of Terron Armstead and Ryan Ramczyk with Banks and last year’s first-round pick, Taliese Fuaga.
I also don’t think I would have felt comfortable taking a quarterback that early—especially with the void at offensive tackle after Trevor Penning’s move to guard. At the time, I even thought the Saints might have reached a bit on Tyler Shough.
Interestingly enough, the majority of Who Dat Nation seemed more in favor of drafting the best player available rather than the best quarterback available—and that’s exactly what the Saints did.
Ed: Staying with QB, is there some disappointment Tyler Shough did not win the job? How has Spencer Rattler played?
Nic: I wouldn’t say so. I’ve seen a lot of fans argue that this is stunting the development of the rookie QB, but at the same time, Spencer Rattler is a year younger, already has a season under his belt, showed promise last year and followed it up with an impressive offseason. He’s just as much of a developmental player as Shough.
I get it—you spent a second-round pick on a 27-year-old rookie QB, and you want to see what you’ve got right away to know if you need to draft another quarterback next year. But Kellen Moore went with the guy he believed was most ready for the speed of the NFL right now, and I’d say Rattler has done a really solid job while taking immense strides in his development.
I say this with the utmost confidence: if Rattler can clean up some of his accuracy issues, he has all the intangibles to be the franchise signal-caller for this football team.
Ed: If you could take one player off the Giants’ roster and put him in the Saints’ lineup, who would it be? Why?
Nic: If I could take one player from the Giants’ roster, it would have to be All-Pro DT Dexter Lawrence. For quite some time now, the interior of the Saints’ defensive line has been one of the weakest spots on the roster.
Maybe a couple of years ago, I would have gone with Brian Burns for some production off the edge, but the emergence of Carl Granderson has made me more confident in that group—even with Chase Young yet to suit up this season.
While the unit has improved a bit this year, run defense was the Saints’ biggest weakness last season, and it’s still an area opponents can exploit. Bryan Bresee hasn’t made the strides against the run that we’d hoped, Davon Godchaux has underperformed since arriving in the trade this offseason, and third-rounder Vernon Broughton—who was drafted to bolster the run defense—will miss the rest of the season with a hip injury.
Ed: Who are one or two players Giants fans don’t know much about but should watch for on Sunday?
Nic: One player Giants fans might not know much about but should keep an eye on is third-round rookie safety Jonas Sanker. The 22-year-old out of Virginia has been filling in for injured free-agent addition Julian Blackmon, and he’s more than exceeded expectations.
Against the Bills this past Sunday, he delivered three tackles, two pass breakups, and the Saints’ first interception of the season—which also happened to be Josh Allen’s first pick of the year. Sanker has already shown impressive range and ball skills, earning a team-high 85.0 grade from Pro Football Focus in Week 4. For the season, he ranks 16th among all safeties in overall grade (77.3) and fifth in coverage (79.1).
With those numbers and his ball-hawking instincts—including a game-saving interception in the preseason against Jacksonville—Sanker is quickly emerging as a name to watch in the Saints’ secondary.
Ed: If you were game planning against the Saints, what weaknesses would you try to exploit?
Nic: Instead of talking about the run defense again, I will focus on attacking the Saints’ thin cornerback room.
While New Orleans won’t have to gameplan for a superstar like Malik Nabers, 2024 second-round pick Kool-Aid McKinstry—who stepped in as the Saints’ lead corner after the Marshon Lattimore trade—has struggled early this season. Four games in, he’s tallied 13 tackles (three missed), one pass breakup, three stops and two penalties, while also allowing 12 receptions on 16 targets for 193 yards and two touchdowns. His Pro Football Focus grades currently sit at 48.7 overall and 49.1 in coverage.
Veteran CB Isaac Yiadom has also been picked on all season to the point where he only logged 12 snaps on Sunday before being benched for fourth-round rookie Quincy Riley, who has been the lone bright spot in that unit. Even solidified slot corner Alontae Taylor has had a disappointing start to the year.
The Giants should absolutely look to stretch the field with the speed they still have available, because this Saints secondary has been exposed for four straight weeks.
