So much of the intrigue surrounding the New Orleans Saints’ home opener with the Tennessee Titans can be distilled down to one matchup: two-time NFL rushing champ Derrick Henry against a Saints run defense that lost its luster a season ago. Can Henry take over this game, or are the investments New Orleans made along its defensive line going to pay off?
It’s kind of difficult to survey the Titans offense last year because Ryan Tannehill was injured and limited to just a dozen games, so take many of these numbers with a grain of salt. The Tennessee offense may bounce back in a big way with a healthy Tannehill under center.
Buy Saints TicketsThey’ve made moves to upgrade their passing attack, too, by signing a big-time playmaker at wide receiver in DeAndre Hopkins. But their rebuilt offensive line looks like a vulnerability the Saints can exploit. Let’s review each team’s performance from 2022:
2022 scoring
Saints defense: 20.3 points per game allowed (9th)
Titans offense: 17.5 points per game (28th)
As we’ve alluded to before, it’s tough to evaluate the Tennessee offense seeing as they were without Ryan Tannehill for much of the season. He threw 13 touchdown passes in 12 starts, but the quarterbacks who filled in for him — Johsua Dobbs and Malik Willis — combined for 2 touchdown passes in 5 starts. The offense collapsed without a viable backup, averaging just 15.4 points per game without Tannehill, but they didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard while averaging 18.4 points per game with him. Now Tannehill is healthy and has more weapons at his disposal than a year ago.
2022 rushing
Saints defense: 130.5 rushing yards per game allowed, 24th
Titans offense: 125.4 rushing yards per game, 13th
Tennessee ran well last year, but most of it was due to Derrick Henry — his 1,538 rushing yards made up 72.2% of the Titans’ season total. They added Tyjae Spears to the depth chart behind him and the rookie’s big-play potential is well-documented. The big question is whether their rebuilt offensive line (all five starters are either new to the team or playing a different spot than they did last year) can make room to run up front.
2022 passing
Saints defense: 184.4 passing yards per game allowed, 2nd
Titans offense: 171.4 passing yards per game, 30th
Tennessee’s passing attack was forgettable at best last year, which is why they replaced their offensive coordinator — but the decision to promote from within and keep many of the same receivers in place is concerning. How much better will they be? DeAndre Hopkins could do a lot to elevate Tannehill but this figures to be another low-volume passing game. They would rather be running, especially on a Saints defense that was more vulnerable against the run than the pass last season.
2022 on third down
Saints defense: 41.6%, 25th
Titans offense: 36.5%, 23rd
The Saints were surprisingly vulnerable on third downs last year, ranking bottom-10 for much of the season. Conversely, they were highly effective when challenged on fourth down (42.1%) with a top-10 unit.
At the same time, Tennessee fielded an inefficient third-down offense while also ranking bottom-10 throughout the season. And they too improved on fourth down by converting more than half their tries (52.9%).
2022 penalties
Saints defense: 42 penalties (26th) for 439 penalty yards (30th)
Titans offense: 55 penalties (25th) for 409 penalty yards (28th)
The Tennessee offensive line was a serious problem last year, which is why they worked so hard to rebuild it in the offseason. Most of their offensive fouls were for holding (24) or false starts (23), with a couple of delay of game penalties and ineligible receivers downfield sprinkled in. They need their rebuilt front line to get on the same page quickly.
Defensive holding (14) and pass interference fouls (9) killed the Saints last year, contributing to 267 free yards for the opposing offense. You’d hope those would go down with Marshon Lattimore, now healthy and starting at cornerback again, but 6 of their 14 defensive holding fouls and 4 of the 9 DPI penalties were against Paulson Adebo, who is still starting. He has got to clean it up.
Titans' most important offseason additions
The Titans’ biggest offseason investment on offense is clear: DeAndre Hopkins, who received more than $10.9 million in guarantees to slot in on top of their receiving corps. He’s done nothing but make plays throughout his career with different teams and now he’s the unquestioned leader in that room; 2022 first round pick Treylon Burks is hoping to build on his poor averages as a rookie (3 receptions for 40.4 yards per game) but injuries have been an issue for him early on.
Tennessee also signed a new starting left tackle from the Philadelphia Eagles in Andre Dillard, and they’ve brought in Chris Hubbard to start at right tackle after a few years with the Cleveland Browns. Neither blocker has been very impressive to this point in recent years. Starting right guard Daniel Brunskill was another modest free agent pickup.
What about left guard and center? Aaron Brewer climbed the depth chart for a few years to start the entire 2022 season at left guard, but he’s moving to center this year after the Titans drafted Peter Skoronski in the first round out of Northwestern. The rookie is highly regarded but that’s a ton of moving parts at a critically important position group. Communication issues could be a problem up front for Tennessee.
The Titans’ entire draft class was spent upgrading the offense. After picking Skoronski in the first round, they added backup quarterback Will Levis in Round 2, Tulane running back Tyjae Spears (a New Orleans favorite, unfortunately) in Round 3, and tight end Josh Whyle in Round 5. Their other late-round picks included left tackle Jaelyn Duncan (Round 6) and wide receiver Colton Dowell (Round 7). Out of that group, Skoronski and Spears figure to make the biggest impact.
Ryan Tannehill's history vs. Saints
Tannehill has turned in a couple of solid games against the Saints, but his effort hasn’t translated to many wins. He’s 1-2 against New Orleans in his career, having completed 65.2% of his passes and averaged 244.7 passing yards per game while throwing 5 touchdown passes (also running for a score) against 3 interceptions. But those mistakes and negative plays have been killer. Tannehill has been sacked 11 times and fumbled twice. Those are self-inflicted wounds the Titans have been unable to afford.
