Breaking down Saints’ new-look offense without Sean Payton as Pete Carmichael Jr. takes charge

The 2022 Saints have a lot of new faces on offense, particularly at wide receiver.

Michael Thomas is returning to the fold from an injury, while Chris Olave and Jarvis Landry will round out the base of Jameis Winston’s receivers. On the offensive line, the Saints are returning four of their five spots, with Terron Armstead being the notable departure.

In other words, on paper, the Saints are in pretty decent shape. But they’re missing one major mainstay: Sean Payton, who retired after the Saints went a frankly miraculous 9-8 last year and missed the playoffs by a game.

Dennis Allen will take over as head coach, with Pete Carmichael Jr. finally becoming a true offensive coordinator for the Saints. Carmichael is very familiar with Payton, who was known for his expert personnel packaging and quarterback-friendly style.

In fact, if Payton has a coaching tree, Carmichael is a root. He first joined the Saints with Payton in 2006 as a quarterback coach before taking over the offensive coordinator job in 2009, the year the Saints won the Super Bowl.

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This is to say, while Carmichael is an unknown quantity for the Saints, expect to see a lot of similarities between himself and Payton.

Saints 2022 likely offensive starters

The Saints have a lot of new faces joining the roster on offense this season. While their identity is really on defense, they have potential to be potent offensively as well

Saints offense 2022: What we can expect will stay the same

There are, of course, going to be wrinkles to the Saints in 2022. But a lot of things are going to stay the same.

For starters, don’t expect to see the Saints move away from their relatively balanced personnel groupings. The Saints went 1-1 nearly 50 percent of the time, slightly below the league average. This is because Payton was known to move players like Taysom Hill around the formation.

The Saints are also likely to stay balanced in the run vs. passing game. New Orleans was third in the NFL in rush percentage last year, trailing only the Eagles and the Titans.

Winston doesn’t have the accuracy of Drew Brees, but he looked confident and competent last season for the Saints. While his 59 percent completion percentage was a far cry from the high-60s the Saints enjoyed with Brees, Winston had just three interceptions and threw 14 touchdowns while leading the Saints to a 5-2 record before suffering a season-ending injury.

The Saints are going to have to let Winston be Winston to succeed, and they’re undoubtedly hopeful Carmichael will be able to utilize what might be the Saints’ best receiving corps since Marques Colston was accompanied by Devery Henderson and Robert Meachem.

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Saints offense 2022: What will probably be different

Among the things Payton excelled at, two things stood above the rest: Personnel management and formation movement.

Alvin Kamara regularly moved around the formation, and the Saints were one of the best teams in the league at making personnel changes efficiently within the confines of the play clock.

There will probably be less of that this year, and not just because Payton is no longer at the helm. The Saints have every-down talent in 2022, and they’ll want to leverage that. Thomas, Olave, and Landry should, and likely will, be on the field most downs with Kamara at running back.

While Kamara will still split out, don’t be surprised to see less of it in 2022.

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The loss of Terron Armstead also looms large. James Hurst is the presumed starter for the Saints, so he’ll have to get blind-side reps for the Saints to know how effective he is there. The Saints are likely to stay somewhat underneath early in 2022 to get players comfortable.

Above all, however, is that the Saints should be able to run more concept plays in 2022. The peril of having role receivers around a player like Thomas is he’s going to run a lot of in or out routes that can make the most of his outstanding route-running. But with multiple strong route-runners in the fold, the Saints can do more to create opportunities for Winston downfield.

That’s all down the line, but the Saints offense can still be effective this season, even without Payton. They’ve been meticulous in how they’ve built this team. It will start up front, but if Olave hits the ground running, this may be the best receiving corps the Saints have put on the field yet. Carmichael should have the experience to leverage that into an effective group come this year, even if it takes some time to jell.

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