Deuce: If Saints want success in 2024 'they've got to get pressure'

There are a lot of ways the Saints could potentially improve in the 2024 season, but one area in particular stands out.

That would be pressuring the quarterback, a statistic in which the Saints ranked No. 28th in the NFL with 34 sacks last year, as well as 28thth in overall QB pressures (118), according to Pro Football Reference . That's an area WWL Radio color analyst Deuce McAllister stressed heading into training camp.

"If this team is gonna be successful they’ve got to get pressure off the edge," McAllister told Mike Detillier on SportsTalk.

Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Deuce McAllister in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here .

The moves the team made this offseason would seem to show they agree. The Saints signed former No. 2 overall pick Chase Young on a 1-year, $13 million deal and also brought in versatile linebacker Willie Gay in free agency. It's possible that Gay could take on a role similar to what we saw from Kaden Elliss and Zack Baun each of the past two years as they impacted the pass rush down the stretch of each season.

"We saw it, coach Allen he tried to get kind of creative later in the year with some of the rush schemes. You talk about putting some more speed on the edge, however you do it. If this team doesn’t get pressure, it’s gonna be a long year," McAllister continued.

"That’s the beauty of this league, because it’s a quarterback-driven league. It’s one where you have to pressure the quarterback. If your pressure — all of your pressure has to come from blitzing, it makes it really, really hard on the guys on the back end."

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MORE FROM DEUCE McALLISTER

How can Chase Young impact this defense

“If he’s healthy, can you go and be that top five pick? That’s what it really comes down to, I mean, because ... you have an opportunity to be able to be the 3 or the 4 pass rusher for this team. The Saints would love, they would love to play one defensive tackle, three defensive ends. They would love to be able to go to that NASCAR package, just because Bryan Bresee can be my D-tackle that’s in the game and the rest are defensive ends, so if you can get that type of speed and I can actually get to the quarterback, oh, I mean, they’re gonna do it often ... and it’s gonna come down to who’s healthy.

"What are you getting out of Payton Turner, what am I getting out of Foskey, has he taken the leap. Chase Young, are you healthy, can you give me anything. And so I think that will take so much pressure off of the guys like Granderson and you talk about Cam being able to say: Hey Cam, I don’t need you to have double-digits, go out there and get you 6 or 7 sacks and that’s a pretty good bounceback year. Now, Cam will tell you, nah, I want 10 or more.”

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What's the outlook for Kendre Miller heading into Year 2

“The problem is he hasn’t been healthy. That’s the problem. You haven’t been healthy enough to be able to show completely what you can do. We’ve seen spurts. We’ve seen moments, you know, and it was a touchdown that he had the latter part of the season that was basically like, man, this kid did everything wrong on this play and still goes and scores. So, the power is there, the speed is there. He’s an intelligent player where he can understand, he can make plays, he can make guys miss, he can punish.

"He’s got to learn how to stay healthy, and so what do I need to do to get my body into the shape that it needs to be in, ... extra treatment, if I need to go and get some prehab, if I need to even go ahead and have some type of scope or surgery or whatever it is, I am going to be willing to do that so I know I can be available every week, because ... if you’re not available for another year, for maybe only three or four games, you’re going to be at that point where they are saying: Hey, let’s just go get somebody else. I mean, and that's an unfortunate part, but that’s the nature of this business.”

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What are your expectations for rookie CB Kool-Aid McKinstry?

“I think the biggest thing is how comfortable will he be with this foot injury. He should be fine going into it. ... We haven’t seen anything from an injury standpoint from him since the rookies reported earlier this week, so it’ll be intriguing to see how much they give him, how much he can handle. ... He’s been around systems already as far as [Nick Saban's] system to understand and know from a defensive standpoint. And that was kind of Nick’s baby, he wanted those defensive backs, and so I don’t think he’ll be overwhelmed by how much information he gets on a weekly basis. It’ll be speed of the game, how quickly can he adjust and how much do I really, really trust my foot injury, you know, just coming off of that.”