Saints exit preseason with talent, depth to win it all

NEW ORLEANS – You always have to be careful about reading too much into the NFL preseason.

The dynamics of preseason games are so different than they are for regular-season games that looks often are deceiving.

Starters play sparingly, when they do play it’s often in combinations other than those that will be used in the regular season. There’s little continuity and even less game planning.

So the New Orleans Saints’ 3-1 record in the preseason may or not be some sort of indicator of how they’ll do beginning Sept. 9 against Tampa Bay in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

But there is one stat from the preseason that’s interesting and might be of some significance as a predictor of what to expect in the regular season.

The Saints outscored their opponents 46-0 in the fourth quarter of their preseason games.

Sure the players who were on the field in those fourth quarters won’t be on the field in the first quarter, or perhaps any other against the Buccaneers. And many won’t even survive the cuts that take place between now and the 3 p.m. CST Saturday deadline for getting down to 53 players.

But what that 46-0 score demonstrates is that the players at the bottom of the New Orleans depth chart significantly outperformed the players at the bottom of the Jacksonville, Arizona, Los Angles Chargers and Los Angles Rams depth charts.

It almost certainly means that several players who aren’t good enough to make the Saints roster will be picked up and play with other NFL teams. That’s one indication that the Saints are better than a lot of other NFL teams.

Of course, no one wins any games because players they cut go on to be successful elsewhere. But superior depth comes in really handy during a 16-game NFL season and especially in the playoffs for the few teams that make it there.

The Saints will be able to rotate two-plus teams of defensive linemen and always have at least a solid group. Their second-team linebackers seem as good as their first. That’s partly because the starters aren’t great, but they’re good enough, and it’s partly because the backups are more than good enough as a second unit.

The secondary is filled with young, talented guys and their ability to excel on special teams suggests the Saints could be much improved in that area.

There’s depth at running, better depth than last season at wide receiver, adequate depth at tight end and questionable depth at offensive line, but the starting line is one of the best in the NFL.

Then, of course, Drew Brees is Drew Brees and even the depth qt quarterback is significantly better with this week’s acquisition of Teddy Bridgewater from the Jets.

Earlier this week, Zach Strief said this is the deepest team that Sean Payton has had. Strief should know. He arrived in New Orleans as a rookie offensive lineman as part of Payton’s first draft class. He’s now beginning his career as the team’s radio play-by-play announcer.

When informed of Strief’s evaluation, Payton wasn’t prepared to agree. He didn’t want to compare various teams and felt there was very good depth at some positions, but not as much as he would like at others.

Of course coaches always want more good players.

But it looks like the Saints have more than enough of them to make another strong playoff run.