This stat is a terrible look for Kellen Moore. According to Pro Football Focus charting, New Orleans Saints backup left tackle Asim Richards is seeing even more snaps on an island than the first-round pick he's replacing. Before he went down with a season-threatening ankle injury, Kelvin Banks Jr. was getting help on about 32% of his snaps. Since replacing him, Asim Richards has gotten support from another blocker on less than 28% of his reps. No wonder Tyler Shough has been pressured on 38.9% of his dropbacks (10th-most). Moore's failure to adapt is setting his most important players for failure.
But Moore isn't the only one with dirty hands here. The Saints have a lot of cooks in the kitchen working on the game plan each week. Whether it's
offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier, offensive line coach Brendan Nugent, senior assistant Scott Linehan or someone else, no one is speaking up and asking if the guy they traded a sixth-round pick three years from now for should be getting more help in pass protection. As far as the protection plan is concerned, they're treating him just like a top-10 draft pick who can be trusted to block the NFL's best pass rushers one-on-one. That's doing him a disservice.
Sure, No. 2 tight end Noah Fant wasn't available against the Atlanta Falcons, and Juwan Johnson isn't known for his blocking. But why draft Oscar Delp in the third round or promote Treyton Welch from the practice squad if not for situations like this? They only had three snaps in pass protection between the two of them. It's football malpractice.
How often OTs are on an island and their successful block % when on an island... Lane Johnson will be missed pic.twitter.com/GgJKDM0DMC
— Jrfortgang (@throwthedamball) October 7, 2026
And because the Saints can't run the ball -- something else Moore, Nussmeier, Nugent, Linehan and guys with a lengthy job titles like associate head coach/running backs coach Joel Thomas and run game coordinator T.J. Paganetti should be accounting for -- they're asking even more of Richards. He isn't being allowed to block 28.3 times per game like the San Francisco 49ers' (who lead the league in net yards per pass attempt) offensive tackles, who have comparable rates of blocking on an island. New Orleans has called 103 passes between Richards' two starts. That's 51.5 snaps per game in pass protection.
It's the opposite of playing complimentary football. Not that the Saints are doing enough defensively or on special teams, either, but right now they're relying on a high-volume, fast-paced passing attack to win games. If they run into a team that can contain Chris Olave or rush Shough into bad decisions (or beat Richards one-on-one badly enough to create two turnovers, as happened against the Las Vegas Raiders) the offense doesn't have a counterpunch. Moore was given some grace for kickstarting a rebuild as one of the youngest head coaches hired in recent memory, but it's beginning to look like he's out of his depth. And thee assistants he hired aren't helping him keep his head above water.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Saints HC Kellen Moore's failure to adapt sets his players up to fail
