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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Dylan Sanders

Saints hope offseason moves address last season’s poor showing in the red zone

The New Orleans Saints offense last season had their struggles, that’s no secret, but when looking closer there was one specific weakness: red zone offense. With Andy Dalton leading the offense, they had troubles closing the deal with touchdowns.

Just look at the numbers: the Saints’ red zone touchdowns percentage dropped from 58.93% in 2021 to 52.08% in 2022. Back in 2020, they were converting at a 71.62%. They finished 21st in the league last season, an unacceptable ranking if you expect to compete, after ranking 18th the year before and fifth-best in 2020.

A large number of their offseason moves could be seen as shoring up that portion of the offense. The additions of running backs Jamaal Williams and Kendre Miller really make sense when you look at their success in the red zone. Williams led the Detroit Lions to a fourth-ranked 66.18% red zone touchdown rate. A sneaky addition was A.T. Perry whose size will certainly help a wide receiver room that didn’t have a ton of red zone threats last season.

Here are all of the new additions and returning Saints red zone stats from last season:

QB Derek Carr

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

24 completions on 57 attempts (42.11%) for 170 passing yards and 11 touchdowns, 2 interceptions

3 carries for 7 rushing yards

RB Jamaal Williams

Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

57 carries for 107 rushing yards and 16 touchdown runs

2 catches on 2 targets for 5 yards

RB Kendre Miller

Raymond Carlin III-USA TODAY Sports

Stats at TCU

39 carries for 112 rushing yards and 12 touchdown runs

1 catch for 1 yard

WR A.T. Perry

William Howard-USA TODAY Sports

Stats at Wake Forest

9 receptions for 77 receiving yards and 6 touchdown catches

TE Foster Moreau

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

2 receptions on 5 targets for 9 receiving yards and 2 touchdown catches

RB Alvin Kamara

Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

20 carries for 38 rushing yards and 2 touchdown runs

7 receptions on 11 targets for 41 receiving yards and 1 touchdown catch

TE Juwan Johnson

Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

7 receptions on 11 targets for 73 receiving yards and 5 touchdown catches

TE Taysom Hill

Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

17 carries for 67 rushing yards and 6 touchdowns

2 receptions on 3 targets for 8 receiving yards and 1 touchdown catch

2 incompletions on 2 pass attempts

WR Chris Olave

Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

7 receptions on 10 targets for 63 receiving yards and 2 touchdown catches

WR Rashid Shaheed

Dustin Satloff/Getty Images

1 reception on 1 target for 8 receiving yards

WR Michael Thomas

Grant Halverson/Getty Images

3 receptions on 3 targets for 19 receiving yards and 3 touchdown catches

WR Tre'Quan Smith

AP Photo/David J. Phillip

1 reception on 2 targets for 18 receiving yards and 1 touchdown catch

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