The Saints will play their starters again tomorrow against the 49ers, per source. Expectation is that they'll get a decent amount of work.
— Nick Underhill (@nick_underhill) August 17, 2024
The New Orleans Saints will roll out their starting offense and defense against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Dennis Allen alluded to this earlier this week when saying Taliese Fuaga would play if possible like other healthy players.
When Derek Carr expressed his desire to play in the first preseason game, there was a curiosity of how much starters would play and if the Saints would deviate from last year’s plan.
The answer is yes. Starters played two series in the opener opposed to one a year ago. Allen rolling the first-team out there again is another deviation from last year’s preseason strategy.
The difference in success likely impacted the difference in approach. If the Saints looked like a well oiled machine offensively versus the Cardinals, they may have not seen an extra drive in the debut or an extra week of preseason action. There’s also a chance Allen saw last year’s results and deviated from last year’s plan.
Cancellation of joint practices is also a factor. The Saints’ starters didn’t get multiple days of practice against the 49ers. NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill says the expectation is that they’ll get a decent amount of work in the game. It’s hard not to connect to this to the lack of days working against the 49ers in practice.
At the end of the day, the Saints offense needs this. They looked disjointed and uncomfortable last week. Carr and company could benefit from what Underhill expects to be “a decent amount of work.”
