There are several unknowns surrounding the Saints heading into the 2024 season, and that's in large part centered around the new-look schemes of offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.
The new OC comes from a well-known scheme under the tutelage of his father, Gary, and the highly successful 49ers scheme after a year as their passing game coordinator in 2023. It's the Saints' first true offensive overhaul since Sean Payton took over in 2006, and fans will likely appreciate its foundations, as Kubiak explained recently on WWL Radio.
"I think we just want to be grounded in running the football," Kubiak told WWL's Mike Hoss and Deuce McAllister. "We want to have the identity that we can run the ball against 8-man fronts. That’s something we’re going to stress to our guys early in the offseason, building our play actions and moving the pocket off of that."
Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Klint Kubiak in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here .
While there are still questions in terms of the offensive line and how those pieces will handle the tenets of the wide zone-bases offensive sets, a run-first mentality is certainly something fans and the offense will appreciate. That'll be particularly true if it works, because it'll make for more manageable down and distance situations and put less on the plate of quarterback Derek Carr and the offensive line.
Star running back Alvin Kamara ran for a career-low 694 yards on his 180 attempts, and hasn't averaged over 4.0 yards per attempt in any of the last three seasons after clearing 4.6 in each of his first four. As a team the Saints' 3.6 yards per carry was tied for 30th, as was their total of 4 carries of 20-plus yards, and the season-long carry of 29 yards. The team was in the middle of the pack in rushing touchdowns (13/18th) and rushing first downs (112/15th).
Those numbers were buoyed a bit by a strong finish to the season on offense, spurred in part by improved red zone efficiency.
"[Red zone success is] not just one thing," Kubiak said. "It’s being able to run the ball down there, and that’s having an identity, you know, getting to run the ball and having success there on base downs in the red zone so you’re not getting into third and 6 from the 6, third and 10 from the 10, those are tough downs. You want to try to avoid those. You want to score on your base downs. That’s something that Coach Shanahan really harped on with those guys."
The 49ers' offense Kubiak hails from was among the best in the run game all season long, led by superstar Christian McCaffrey. They ranked No. 4 in yards per attempt (4.8), tied for 1st in rushing TDs (27), 3rd in rushing first downs (147) and 3rd in total rushing yards.
Where the 49ers' offense thrived the most was in the play action passing game, an area that the Saints found significant improvement later in the year. It's an area that head coach Dennis Allen said he wanted to see his team focus more in their offensive attack, and one where Carr himself said he's always felt the most comfortable.
“Play action is 10 out of 10 for me," Carr said earlier this offseason. "I have always loved it, always been a fan, always been a favorite, so that is — that’s exciting for me.”
With that in mind, the next step will be installing the system. The coaching staff was already deep into that process by draft weekend, and that will only get more intensive throughout the OTA, minicamp and training camp schedule.
"We definitely are going to load the guys up a lot mentally," Kubiak said, "and that’s a big part of this early process is figuring out how we’re going to teach our system in the best ways to get our concepts taught and understood, and when we’re gonna show the film, and when we’re gonna get on the grass. It’s fun part of the year right now planning for that process.”
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