Saints’ special teams earn high marks in annual rankings. Here’s where they finished.
On the same day that returner Rashid Shaheed was named an All-Pro, the New Orleans Saints’ special teams were also honoured.
The Saints were placed second by seasoned football writer Rick Gosselin in his yearly special teams ranking, which was released on Friday.
Longtime NFL pundit Gosselin, who has covered the league for 50 years and currently has his own website, used 22 kicking-game variables to
construct the rankings and then allocated points based on those ranks.
The Houston Texans led with 236 points, and the Saints concluded with 252 points. The rating is greater for lower numbers.
Gosselin’s rankings show that the Saints have historically performed well as well.
“This was the fifth Top 5 finish for the Saints and their coach Darren Rizzi in the last six seasons,” Gosselin wrote. “New Orleans finished in the Top
10 in 13 categories, either leading or sharing the lead in five of them and finishing in second in two others. New Orleans allowed a sterling 5.6 yards in punt coverage to lead the league.”
Despite starting rookies at punter (Lou Hedley) and kicker (Blake Grupe), the Saints came in second place. Even though Grupe and Hedley had
setbacks along the way, they improved during the season. In 2023, Grupe made 30 of 37 field goals; however, he missed none of his 40 extra-point
attempts in the final four games of the season. Hedley, on the other hand, had 31 punts within the 20. The Saints were sixth in the league in terms
of punt percentage (41.3%) downed inside the 20.
Elsewhere, the Saints got a terrific season out of returner Shaheed — who also earned his first Pro Bowl nod along with being named to first-team
All-Pro. Shaheed ranked third punt return average in 2023 (14 yards per return) and he returned a 76-yard touchdown in a Sept. 24 loss to the
Green Bay Packers.
Furthermore, Gosselin pointed out that New Orleans had solid coverage. Three disruptive plays by the Saints were technically blocks but were not
recorded as such. Zack Baun caught hold of a ball that was officially counted as a 1-yard punt in Week 1. Linebacker Nephi Sewell forced a fumble
when he got to punter Johnny Hekker in a Dec. 10 victory over the Carolina Panthers, which allowed D’Marco Jackson to recover the ball and score
a touchdown. Subsequently, during the Los Angeles Rams game on December 21, safety J.T. Grey mishandled a punt, which resulted in it being
shanked beyond the line.
Leave a Reply