Latest / AFR Saints / Saints Safety Room Breakdown: Is New Orleans' Best Defensive Position Set for 2026?

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Saints Safety Room Breakdown: Is New Orleans' Best Defensive Position Set for 2026? · AFR Saints

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  Speaker 1: dot org. Golf dot Brek dot org. We've been keeping
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  Speaker 1: an eye on these these ESPN. This series that ESPN
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  Speaker 1: is running right now. So they polled NFL coaches and
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  Speaker 1: executives and ask them who are the best players at
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  Speaker 1: each position in the NFL. And so it's interesting because
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  Speaker 1: while I'd say it all the time, I'm not really
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  Speaker 1: interested in lists. The exception I'll make is if you
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  Speaker 1: give me some objective data, where you give me data points,
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  Speaker 1: like when we do FPI, I'm interesting because that's not
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  Speaker 1: somebody's opinion. It's an algorithm with different metrics pumped in
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  Speaker 1: there to spit out a result. It's something to consider.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's interesting. So when we talk about a
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  Speaker 1: pro football focus, it's not it's a metric. It's not
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  Speaker 1: the metric. It's just something to consider when we talk
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  Speaker 1: about something subjective, someone's opinion. I will make an exception
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  Speaker 1: when you give credible people like coaches and executives in
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  Speaker 1: the league who scout, draft study, coach these players their opinion.
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  Speaker 1: You ask an executive who throughout the draft process looks
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  Speaker 1: at these guys early in their career at Pro Days
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  Speaker 1: and the Combine and throughout the draft process and Senior Bowl,
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  Speaker 1: and then coaches like, while these players are in the
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  Speaker 1: NFL and you're scouting game film, maybe you've coached some
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  Speaker 1: of them in the past, Like they're going to have
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  Speaker 1: a better sense of who that the best quarterbacks, receivers, hackles,
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  Speaker 1: whatever gonna be. Well, they looked at safety today and
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  Speaker 1: some of this probably isn't a surprise or unanimously. Kyle
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  Speaker 1: Hamilton number one, He was number one at safety a
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  Speaker 1: year ago. Derwin James number two, up from six a
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  Speaker 1: year ago. Xavier McKinney with the Packers number three, Brian
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  Speaker 1: Branch after him, Jesse Bates is next at five, nickim
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  Speaker 1: and Warri six, Antoine Winfield of the Bucks, Buddha Baker,
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  Speaker 1: Kerry Kirby, Josep excuse me, and Kaylin Bullock, that's your
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  Speaker 1: top ten, honorable mention, Jalen Petrie, Trevon Morigg, Xavier Watts,
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  Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant, Grant delpitt as your honorable mention. And then
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  Speaker 1: when you look at also receiving votes. Interesting Minka Fitzpatrick,
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  Speaker 1: whose career started just a house of fire and he's
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  Speaker 1: faded a little now with now with the with the Jets,
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  Speaker 1: Jalen Ramsey, similar story, Kevin Bayard, Brian Cook, uh Talanoah Hufanga,
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  Speaker 1: Brandon Jones, Julian Love, Javon Holland, Quinn Lake, Amani Hooker,
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  Speaker 1: Jalen Thompson, Antonio Hudson. You probably noticed an omission there.
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  Speaker 1: Marry a New Orleans Saint mentioned among the top safeties
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  Speaker 1: in the NFL this year, and I think that's probably right.
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  Speaker 1: Whenever I look at the Saints' safety room, you had
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  Speaker 1: some star power there retiring and he's obviously retired. You
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  Speaker 1: made the play a year ago in free agency to
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  Speaker 1: bring in Justin Reid, and I think you know, I'm
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  Speaker 1: I like bringing in Justin Reid, a guy who has
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  Speaker 1: Super Bowl experience with the Chiefs, has played locally ish
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  Speaker 1: with the with the Texans. You're from from dug Town, obviously,
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  Speaker 1: so there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic about read.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know then, if I would consider Justin Reid
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  Speaker 1: among the top ten or fifteen safeties in the NFL.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Julian Blackman was a guy who you're very
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  Speaker 1: high on a year ago, is a veteran year seven
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  Speaker 1: seven years. I stayed into his career out of Utah,
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  Speaker 1: but was injured in the opener a year ago and
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  Speaker 1: it just forced this this domino effect that made Yonah
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  Speaker 1: Sanker play a lot, and Jordan Howden's still trying to
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  Speaker 1: find his way. So when you look at the safety
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  Speaker 1: room for New Orleans, it's Julian black Monterrell Burgess, Elliot Davison,
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  Speaker 1: Jordan Howden, Justin Reid, Yonah Sanker, Lorenzo Styles. Like who's
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  Speaker 1: who's going to fit there? You know? I look at
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  Speaker 1: the defense for the New Orleans Saints from a season ago,
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  Speaker 1: year one under Brandon Staley, and I'm a little torn
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  Speaker 1: by how to project this year because last year this
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  Speaker 1: defense finished ninth in the NFL in total defense. They
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  Speaker 1: were top ten in the NFL in total defense but
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  Speaker 1: they really struggled against the run. Now as a result,
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  Speaker 1: the past defense numbers were pretty good, mostly though, because
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  Speaker 1: teams are just running the ball and so you just
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  Speaker 1: weren't targeted as much. And teams were up on the
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  Speaker 1: Saints and so teams ran the ball and ran out
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  Speaker 1: the clock. So maybe that skewed the numbers a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: But I think Brandon Staley is an excellent defensive coach.
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  Speaker 1: I think you have Chase hung who looks like he's
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  Speaker 1: in the prime of his career, his peak years. I
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  Speaker 1: hate losing to Mario Davis, but you brought in Cayden
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  Speaker 1: Ellis who's got three straight hundred tackle seasons. I think
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  Speaker 1: you are bad at cornerback. I'm very concerned about corner
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  Speaker 1: but safety is one of those spots, especially with the
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  Speaker 1: way they plan to use their safety and in this instance,
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  Speaker 1: particularly Jonah Sanker, who's probably gonna play that nickel the
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  Speaker 1: Alante Taylor role, at least that's what he did all
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  Speaker 1: throughout Mini camp and OTAs. And there was this big
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  Speaker 1: question like with that the Lorenzo styles, could they change
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  Speaker 1: it up a little bit. Well, we kind of got
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  Speaker 1: the answer because it was Sanker Ross Jackson did an
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  Speaker 1: awesome job covering that throughout all the offseason work over
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  Speaker 1: at Louisiana Sports dot Net. If you want to follow
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  Speaker 1: along for free over there, you can. But I look
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  Speaker 1: at safety as one of those situations where typically we
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  Speaker 1: say the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
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  Speaker 1: This is one where the Saints are hoping that some
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  Speaker 1: of the parts is greater than the whole. Where you
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  Speaker 1: may not have necessarily that elite level, top tier safety
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  Speaker 1: like you may not have I'm not even saying a
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  Speaker 1: Kyle Hamilton, like you don't have an Antoine Winfield, a
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  Speaker 1: Buddha Baker, a Kirby Joseph Azevier Watts. But what you
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  Speaker 1: have is a group of good, not great players that
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  Speaker 1: in totality playing is one the hope is it elevates.
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  Speaker 1: Now that doesn't always work out, and you know, I
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  Speaker 1: think maybe a great example of a position group where
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  Speaker 1: that that does work particularly is what the Saints were
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  Speaker 1: at receiver for a chunk of the Peyton Breeze era,
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  Speaker 1: where you had guys that weren't Pro bowlers or perennial
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  Speaker 1: all pro players. You know, Marcus Colston never made a
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  Speaker 1: Pro Bowl, Lance Moore was five to nine and no
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  Speaker 1: one would consider him a burner, but he found a
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  Speaker 1: way to get open, had great hands, he made plays right.
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  Speaker 1: You never had a Jamar Chase to Justin Jefferson as
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  Speaker 1: Ceedee Lamb, you ever had that guy. So but because
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  Speaker 1: it all functioned beautifully within the offense and guys that fit,
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  Speaker 1: you always had an elite offense. So my hope is
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  Speaker 1: this year at safety, that's how this grew. Where you
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  Speaker 1: may not have the superstar with an asteris because I
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  Speaker 1: think Lorenzo Styles could be that guy. Like athletically he's
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  Speaker 1: that guy, just will it translate to him being a
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  Speaker 1: great NFL safety out oft? Lo will see time will tell,
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  Speaker 1: hopefully will but that unit in totality hopefully will elevate
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  Speaker 1: to be good enough to compliment that front seven, which
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  Speaker 1: they clearly invested a lot in the front seven being
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  Speaker 1: better in and bringing back Chase Young, bringing back Cam
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  Speaker 1: Jordan and getting kid Nellis to get younger at linebacker,
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  Speaker 1: Danny Stutsman hopefully taking a step forward this year and
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  Speaker 1: drafting Christian Miller in round two to fortify the interior
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  Speaker 1: of the defensive line alongside Brian Berze. Yes, my hope
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  Speaker 1: is that front seven is. They clearly invested resources in
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  Speaker 1: being better in the front seven because they had to be,
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  Speaker 1: and hopefully in being better in the front seven if
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  Speaker 1: that forces teams to throw more that that safety group
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  Speaker 1: is ready to stand up against it. We'll see it's
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  Speaker 1: after further review