Game overview:
Well, I really enjoyed watching the three rookie QB games that I wrote up/published yesterday. I was really enjoying my job...until I watched this game.
Wow.
I could save you and I a lot of time and just type: ‘Everybody I was focused on studying stinks and/or was disappointing’, and let that blanket statement cover over everything and everybody. But I’m sure you want an explanation of who stinks and how much did they stink?
Game overview-wise...
The Saints are running out of gas and talent. I don’t have a good feeling about this team...never do, and Dennis Allen is a lot of the problem. They need to be torn down and rebuilt.
The Cardinals are young and enthusiastic...but not very good, but not bad. I thought Arizona could be a sneaky playoff team this season, as do many others...but I’m off that train now, after watching this...but my mind is still open, as most of the Arizona starters were not playing in this game.
Maybe it’s just the mood I’m in of seeing so many players of FF interest be so bad/disappointing here. It’s just one game, and a pro debut for some of the disappointments...and we have to give them some grace, but the bad taste is still in my mouth...I can taste it still. No washing it out of my mind or mouth.
Let’s get into it.
Scouting Notes from the game:
-- First, we have to talk about the horrid debut of Trey Benson (8-21-0)...and I am shocked.
When I first watched a tape of just his touches, I saw some negatives...but I could see possible excuses, and there were a couple decent+ moments too. I was unfazed, but not thrilled with my first look...I want everything to go my way on my favorite guys, so this was a mild letdown.
But then I watched the game in full, and hyper-focused on every time Benson was in the game – and it was worse the full watch/2nd-time around.
On the positive side of this, before I slam him... Rookie RBs especially, in their preseason debuts, can be tentative and look lost their first week...then come out and be totally different the next week or two. I can recall Nick Chubb scaring me to death watching his rookie preseason...he was so tentative and unimpressive, I thought, so I avoided Chubb that preseason, and warned about it...then he was ‘blah’ his first three weeks of his rookie regular season – but then he exploded in Week 4 and come Week 7 he was a starter and burgeoning star.
I thought Chubb was talented coming out of Georgia, but his knee injury and his shaky preseason scared me off...and ultimately it was a head fake visual.
This is all a cute story, but one ‘happy ending’ example does not mean it’s the law for everything going forward...but it is at least something I have to consider.
Why I thought Benson looked so bad was...super-tentative running the ball. Big hesitation when he took the handoff and encountered immediate resistance. I’ve seen some runners hesitate, especially rookies in debuts...but this was one of the worst hesitations and lack of ‘feel’ that I can recall seeing from a top RB prospect, one who is known for the opposite of that.
On one tote in this game, he’d push up the middle and push the pile 3+ yards...his power running was a pleasant positive, but the next touch he’d try to avoid congestion, freeze up and he looked like a fool. He also missed a block in pass pro that made him look like a scared 10-year-old not wanting contact...then he’d run the ball up the middle and knock guys over like bowling pins and win me back over again.
I guess I’d summarize it by saying: Disappointing, for sure. Not a total disaster. Rookie debut ‘grace’ possible, but he’s on my radar of fear (as we all like to be afraid of everything in FF)...if I see it again next week, I might have to bail...it was that bad. I better see improvement next week, or I have to start to think about how much patience I’m going to give here versus what I might be able to sell him off in a deal for. If I see the improvement/the normal Benson from my college scouting...then all is forgiven.
James Conner is smiling to himself somewhere...but part of the Benson issue may have been horrific O-Line play exasperating how this looked...but the other Arizona RBs didn’t seem to struggle as much...but there were several occasions where the Saints D-Line had busted apart the Cards O-Line right away when Benson/Carter were working. Four sacks and 7 QB hits on Arizona’s QBs too...and I think it was the Cardinals O-Line more than the Saints D.
Making this Benson viewing worse, I watched Braelon Allen right before Benson...and Braelon was everything I thought and more -- and his debut was the total opposite of Benson’s debut.
-- Spencer Rattler (9-17 for 70 yards, 0 TD/0 INT) was pretty rough here, but he was supposed to be bad according to my calculations/scouting...so, I’m not surprised by this. I’m just confirming...there’s nothing here. He’s a bad live action QB...but a cool 7-on-7 practice QB when you don’t have to worry about getting hit.
Jake Haener (9-13 for 107 yards, 0 TD/0 INT) was the #2 QB in after Derek Carr (2-6 for 12 yards) ran two series, ineffectively. Haener is OK-ish...definitely better than Rattler will ever be.
-- A.T. Perry (4-85-0/4) had a really nice showing here, in that he was ‘the look’ for the Saints QBs during his time.
Unfortunately, his time was with the 2nd-team. Cedrick Wilson (1-1-0/1) is going to start for this increasingly miserable-looking offense...as Perry has fallen from grace with Dennis Allen, it appears. Good luck with all that, New Orleans...
This is going to be another predictable, underwhelming offense for Denis Allen. Fortunately, it’s likely his last season at the helm of it (my easy prediction).
Perry is not a sleeper for FF 2024, unless Olave gets hurt...and then ‘who knows’ if that even helps? It’s not a Perry issue that I see, it’s a Saints offensive issue...and the new O-C thinks he runs the joint, and all he wants to be is Arthur Smith 2.0.
-- Taysom Hill (0-0-0/1) was in with the starters from the 1st-play. On the first play, Hill was lined up as a flanker. His second play, he was at fullback...then went in motion towards the sidelines for a designed in-motion flare pass (that got batted down by the D-End).
The Saints unofficial depth chart lists Taysom as the #4 QB. Various platforms have him listed as TE or TE/QB...and a few have him as ‘QB’ only.
He should be a listed/FF TE as a baseline, but we’ll have to see if any platforms get cute and make him a ‘QB only’ designation in September/October, which rips away the reason to chase him for FF 2024. You need him at TE or TE/whatever...preferably TE/RB.
-- The one IDP that kinda stood out was Arizona rookie OLB Xavier Thomas (3 tackles, 1 sack, 2 QB hits), but he may have been aided by a bad OT he’s working against.
