Saints News

By Clint Buckley | 247 Sports

Earlier this month, New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton became the NFL’s face of the COVID-19 pandemic after testing positive for the coronavirus. He remains the only player or coach from the league to reveal a positive test.

Payton, 56, was one of the 160,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. The crisis has put a stop to most recreational activities in the nation as leaders have called for widespread social distancing among its citizens.

“When you’re basically at home with the symptoms that I had, 85 to 90 percent of people will have mild symptoms and recover fully," Payton told "Sports Talk" on WWL last week after being cleared from the coronavirus. "The CDC basically puts out, prior to getting cleared, you have to be three days fever-free … Then also, a week from when you first felt symptoms. I’m closer to 10 days now. I’ve been fortunate … I’m feeling a lot better.”

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By John Sigler | Saints Wire

Still at home during an extended period of self-isolation after his positive coronavirus diagnosis, New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton has begun making the media rounds to help pass the time. That included an interview with ESPN’s “Get Up!” morning show in which he discussed the vision for backup quarterback, touchdown-catcher, and punt blocker Taysom Hill.

However, Payton also touched on their future with Drew Brees — or a lack of one. Payton says the 2020 season will be the last hurrah for Brees in the NFL.

“The unique situation with our team and with our quarterback Drew Brees, he’s announced he’s coming back for his final season,” Payton said.

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By BtBoylan | SI

In the middle of March, Saints head coach Sean Payton became the first known member of the NFL to test positive for COVID-19. Since the announcement from Payton via Adam Schefter, the long-standing head coach has been deemed 100% recovered from the virus but the effects of COVID-19 still haunt the NFL. After his own first-hand experience Payton sees April as perhaps the most challenging month to date.

“I think this month of April is going to be our most challenging. You’re listening to all the experts talk about it, and for this country, this is going to be an extremely difficult month, not just in New Orleans, but New York, California, Michigan, Washington. As we’re sitting here, just the rate this thing is accelerating is alarming. It’s unfathomable how quickly this thing can take a life of its own where there’s population.”

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By John Sigler | Saints Wire

Just how good is the New Orleans Saints offensive line? After re-signing left guard Andrus Peat (a two-time Pro Bowl alternate), they’re set to return all five starters from lats year’s unit. That’s an impressive feat in itself, but it means a lot more after you dig into what the analytics have to say about offensive line performance around the league.

Fortunately, analysts like the crew at Football Outsiders are on the cutting edge of quantifying how well the big blockers up front play. The Football Outsiders staff contextualizes their main grades well with a number of different factors, but we’ll be focusing on two key categories to determine how the Saints perform: adjusted sack rate (reflecting performance in pass protection) and adjusted line yards (which demonstrates run-blocking efficiency), which are each contextualized for factors like down, distance, and opponents.

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