The New Orleans Saints are considered a top-tier team by the analysts over at Pro Football Focus, who ranked their roster among the league’s best teams. In fact, the only squads placed above the Saints are the two teams who met in last year’s Super Bowl: the New England Patriots (No. 1) and the Los Angeles Rams (No. 2).
PFF’s list considers the greatest strength, weakness, and variable of each team, as well as their top 24 player grades (rookies have their college grades listed, which is noted with two asterisks). They identify the connection between Drew Brees and Michael Thomas as the Saints’ biggest strength and strongest X-Factor, but make an odd choice by selecting center as the team’s most glaring weakness.
Nick Easton signed with the Saints as a free agent after playing guard with the Minnesota Vikings, and PFF assumes he will start over top draft pick Erik McCoy. Based off initial looks in practice, McCoy is very much in the driver’s seat for winning that job.
Here’s the top PFF grades on offense for the Saints last year:
QB Drew Brees (94.7), WR Michael Thomas (91.3), LT Terron Armstead (87.7), RB Alvin Kamara (84.1), RT Ryan Ramczyk (82.2), RB Latavius Murray (76.2), TE Jared Cook (75.7), C Erik McCoy (72.9**), WR Tre’Quan Smith (68.7), WR Ted Ginn Jr (67.2), LG Andrus Peat (43.2), RG Larry Warford (63.1)
And the top Saints PFF grades on defense:
DE/OLB Cameron Jordan (89.7), CB Chauncey Gardner-Johnson (86.3**), DT/DE Sheldon Rankins (81.8), SS Vonn Bell (75.3), OLB/ILB Demario Davis (74.5), CB Marshon Lattimore (74.1), FS Marcus Williams (73.7), DE Marcus Davenport (71.8), ILB Alex Anzalone (71.8), OLB A.J. Klein (69.7), CB Eli Apple (60.6), DT Malcom Brown (59.9)
The Patriots and Rams are listed above the Saints in this ranking, but PFF made it abundantly clear that the Saints are just as deep and talented as either of those two rosters.
