Where did the New Orleans Saints finish in terms of overall health last year?
Finishing last in health in the NFC South, the New Orleans Saints were an absolute health nightmare last year. Multiple players at multiple positions suffered the injury bug this season and the team ended up finishing with a 7-10 record. The Saints were a very inconsistent team this past year, sometimes showing signs of excellence and then dropping the next game after being unable to put anything consistent together. In a tale of almost two different teams, health didn’t provide any help for Dennis Allen’s Saints.
Who on the Saints was injured?
Some of the biggest issues came on the offensive side of the ball. Starting with continued injury problems from WR Michael Thomas. After releasing a few videos showing the progress he had been making prior to seasons start and even going as far as calling out Fantasy doctors, Thomas once again landed on the injury report. This time a toe injury kept him out weeks 4-8 until he was moved to IR where he spent the remainder of the season. Saints fans could have possibly looked past it despite the continued issues had it not been for the fact that another receiving weapon in Jarvis Landry also showing up on the injury report for an ankle injury. The depletion of the receiving corps that looked dominant in preseason fell to Chris Olave who despite a few health issues randomly through the season showed that he was as good as expected coming out of Ohio State.
Y’all favorite fantasy doctor lied 🤥 #unfollow
— Michael Thomas (@Cantguardmike) July 27, 2022
An injury to Jameis Winston’s back sidelined him and eventually cost him his job to veteran Andy Dalton. The running back room also faced health concerns with Alvin Kamara injuring his ribs and Mark Ingram suffering an MCL injury. It is no wonder that the team was so inconsistent putting points on the board when much of the offense was on the sideline for significant time during the season. Even the offensive line was banged up including OG Andrus Pete dealing with a total of five different injuries over the course of the regular season. Despite the difficulties, the Saints received A’s and B’s on their NFLPA report cards in the strength and athletic training staffs and facilities showing that the strength and medical staffs have player trust. However, the lowest grade came as an F- in nutrition. Now if we know anything about player health and safety it is that you need all sectors of health to be aligned and even one being that far off can affect the players negatively. This will be something that Saints head coach Allen and owner Benson improve immediately to give themselves a fighting chance.
How did the Saints Banged Up Score look through the season?
Our Banged-Up Score (B.U.S.) trend shows the whole story. New Orleans started week 1 with a low B.U.S. and stayed that way over the course of the regular season. Aside from one big dip down to a season low 52.5 and spike back to a 68.6 it was essentially your normal NFL season taper. Unfortunately for the Saints they began with so many injuries that the slow decline led them to the bottom of the NFL in health. New Orleans finished the season with an average B.U.S. of 64.4, one of the lowest in the NFL. There average weekly ranking was 26.4/32, the lowest in the NFC South and fifth lowest in the NFL. There weekly ranking was also the second worst average ranking in the NFC behind only the Arizona Cardinals.
What do the New Orleans Saints need to fix?
It is no shock after looking at the Saints week-to-week injury reports and IR list that they struggled with health during the regular season last year and that it was a major contributor to their lack of success last year. Of course, a big elephant in the room continues to be the turf debate with Caesars Superdome being one of the few stadiums who still have slit-film despite data that suggests increased injury prevalence. With many of the Saints injuries being lower extremity it may be time for the team to look at a change. As The Predictors have been proving the last few years, health is a great predictor of success and with this being the case, teams should be doing everything they can to take measures to keep their stars on the field. With that being said, nutrition, turf type and other injury preventative measures should be at the top of the list for New Orleans this season to address.
