METAIRIE, LA. (BRPROUD) – The Saints are in the top spot in the NFL when it comes to scoring in the redzone.
In the last five games, New Orleans has passed its opponent’s 20-yard line 14 times, 13 of those drives ended with touchdowns.
“They {Saints coaching staff} put so much time into game planning,” said tight end Adam Trautman. “You have one of the best offensive minds in the history of the game upstairs, and then he surrounds himself with terrific coaches as well. I mean, our redzone offense is incredible. We put in obviously a huge package each week.”
“Sean {Payton} always comes to me every Thursday and says, ‘I’ve got some touchdowns for you we just got to get there,” so that’s some situational football,” said quarterback Jameis Winston. “I think calling plays in general gets him hype, but we’re honed in on third downs in the redzone. We like finishing with touchdowns. He always talks about the four-point play. What is the four-point play? That’s executing third down, so we can get seven instead of three.”
New Orleans will be without one of their best players on Monday. Quarterback and tight end Taysom Hill is out due to a concussion that he suffered in the win over Washington just before the bye week. Hill is an essential part of the redzone offense.
“Every time someone goes down, it’s always next man up,” said Trautman. “We say no one in the NFL gives a damn who you’re missing. You have to show up Sunday. Fans don’t care. No one cares. No one’s going to give you an excuse, and we understand that. It’s always next man mentality and we handle it really well all the time.”
During the week, New Orleans sets aside time to specifically work on the redzone, which is clearly working because their 92.9 redzone touchdown rate leads the NFL.