4-EYED TEAM PREVIEW: NEW ORLEANS SAINTS (2021)
It’s Day 3 of our 4-EYED TEAM PREVIEW SERIES and today we are covering the New Orleans Saints! This morning we’re talking offense and later today we’ll be releasing our IDP outlook, so stay tuned!
The New Orleans Saints are going to do something in 2021 that they haven’t done since 2006 and that is taking the field without Drew Brees on the roster. With Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill the main options for quarterback, the Saints are going to be highly relying on running back superstar Alvin Kamara and they are going to need Michael Thomas to be back to form.
Which players from the Saints offense can help you win a fantasy championship in 2021?
Find out below in our 2021 Saints Team Preview on Offense!
Quarterbacks
Jameis Winston
Winston only took the field in two regular-season games for the Saints in 2020 and only had 14 dropbacks where he was 7 for 11 with 75 yards. If you believe the ‘coach speak’ from Sean Payton, he has said that they expect Winston to be their starting quarterback for the season. In his last full season starting, in 2019 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Winston finished as the QB3 in half-PPR/Yahoo scoring scoring. You may remember that season because while Winston had 33 touchdown passes, he notoriously had 30 interceptions. Winston showed that even with near-matching touchdown and interception numbers if you are on a team that likes to air the ball out, you can still be very fantasy relevant. That being said, with Taysom Hill also potentially in the mix, if you draft one QB, you may want to draft the other as insurance.
Taysom Hill
When Drew Brees went down last year with injury, it was Hill that was the surprising quarterback that was given the starting nod. In the four games that Hill was the starter, he had 86.26 points and he was the QB6 in fantasy. The interesting thing about Hill’s four games is that he either threw two passing touchdowns or had two rushing touchdowns and he didn’t have a game with one and the other. Now, for argument sake, let’s just say that Hill was able to maintain his 21.56 points per game average for the entire season last year. That would have meant that Hill would’ve finished with 345.04 fantasy points making him the QB9 on the season last year. He is such a good fantasy quarterback because of his usage in the running game, but I still worry that the Saints won’t stick to just one quarterback the whole season.
Running Backs
Alvin Kamara
In half-PPR scoring last season Kamara was the RB1 with 336.3 total fantasy points. He led all running backs in receptions and receiving yards and was tied for first with Kareem Hunt with five receiving touchdowns. For running backs with at least 48 targets, Kamara led them all in yards per reception, yards after the catch, and yards per route run. The only potential worry spot for Kamara is going to be if Hill is the starting quarterback. In the four games that Hill started, Kamara averaged 12.95 points per game. Not counting his six touchdown week 16 game, in the other 11 games that Hill wasn’t the starter, Kamara averaged 22.60 fantasy points (if you throw in that six touchdown game it foes up to a 25.28 average). A near 10 point difference would worry me, and if Hill ends up starting this year, Kamara might be in store for a down fantasy year this season.
Latavius Murray
Murray finished as the RB33 last season and he was the fourth-highest scoring back-up running back. The thunder to Alvin Kamara’s lightning, even with only 148 rushing attempts, Murray had 656 yards, 4.5 yards per rushing attempt and four touchdowns. For running backs with at least his number of rushing attempts, Murray ranked sixth in yards per route run in the receiving game. If anything happens to Kamara, it will be Murray’s backfield and he has shown that he can perform well in both facets of the game.
Wide Receivers
Michael Thomas
Thomas was able to play in only seven games last year and finished as the overall WR97 which is very disappointing with where his ADP was. His average fantasy points per game ranked 48th last year and if he would’ve maintained his 9.1 average, he would’ve finished as the WR37 behind Jarvis Landry and ahead of Russell Gage. Thomas is going to resume his normal role as the WR1 on this team and he will be expected to have either the first or second most targets on the team behind Alvin Kamara if anyone. Thomas only had one drop last season, was second on the team in yards per route run, and had the fifth-most receiving yards on the Saints last year. Don’t let social media fade you from Michael Thomas; if he is healthy (and he is expected to be) he should return to fantasy relevance.
A Number Two?
The four players that had more receiving yards than Thomas last year included Kamara, Emmanuel Sanders (on the Bills now), Jared Cook (on the Chargers now), and Tre’Quan Smith. Smith did finish as the WR69 last season, but I don’t think that he is going to be worth a draft pick unless you are in a deep league. Keep an eye on him on waivers though, because he is more talented than anyone else in that receiving room not named Michael Thomas.
Tight Ends
Nick Vannett or Adam Trautman?
Adam Trautman is social media’s darling and has the hype behind him once Jared Cook signed with the Los Angeles Chargers. The Saints did bring in Nick Vannett as a free agent, but he is expected to be the backup as of this writing. We haven’t seen a lot of Trautman as he only had 16 targets in his rookie season. He did catch 15 of those passes for 171 yards and a touchdown, but it is a relatively small sample size. Keep in mind that if Jameis Winston is the starting quarterback, Taysom Hill could slide in as the team’s starting tight end. I think Trautman has late-round appeal, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable expecting him to be my starting option until the Saints figure out what they are doing at the quarterback position.