Saints 2025 Season in Review

The Saints' leading receiver this year — Chris Olave — also threw a pass. He went zero for one with an interception. That tells you everything about New Orleans in 2025. Here's what the data says about why the offense bottomed out, what the defense quietly did right, and the one player who carried this team when nothing else worked. Six and eleven. Out of the playoffs. A quarterback room that rotated between Tyler Shough and Spencer Rattler, a backfield that lost Alvin Kamara by Week 13, and a defense a lot better than the record suggests.

Let's start with the team-level picture. The Saints' offense finished at minus 93.7 total expected points added — how much the unit hurt their scoring chances every snap, all added up — ranking 27th, bottom-six territory. The defense posted minus 60.8 expected points added allowed, and on defense a big negative is a good thing — that's 10th in the league, top third. Above-average defense, offense dragging them under. Takeaways landed at 21 — 10 interceptions, 11 fumble recoveries — middle of the pack. And the season was boom-or-bust in the worst way: blown out by 31 in Seattle in Week 3, blown out by 24 by the Rams in Week 9, then four straight wins from Week 14 through 17 once the schedule softened. Steady this was not.

Now let's talk about the passing offense. The headline: minus 51.2 total passing expected points added on 641 attempts — minus 0.08 per dropback, 27th in the league. Bottom-six by the metric that matters most. The sack problem is part of why: 49 sacks allowed on 671 dropbacks, a 7.3 percent sack rate. The quarterback room split with neither side moving the needle — Shough started 11 games at an adjusted net yards per attempt of 5.9 (25th among qualified starters); Rattler got nine starts at 5.2 (30th). The bright spot was Olave, who genuinely smashed — 100 catches on 156 targets for 1,163 yards and 9 touchdowns on a 29 percent target share. He was the offense. The defining throw came Week 15 against Carolina: third and 8 from their own 38, Saints down 7-3, Shough hit Olave on a deep right go route for 62 yards and a touchdown — plus 6.6 expected points added on one snap. The whole passing game in microcosm: when Olave won deep, this offense worked. When he didn't, it didn't.

Now let's dig into the rushing offense. This is where it got ugly. The Saints averaged 3.7 yards per carry, 28th in the league — 16th percentile. Total rushing expected points added of minus 50.2 on 437 attempts ranked 31st. Second-worst in football. And it wasn't a Kamara renaissance — 131 carries, 471 yards, one rushing touchdown at 3.6 a pop, with minus 95.4 rush yards over expected on the season, minus 0.7 per attempt. That's 48th among qualified runners. He played through Week 12 and was gone. The run game was a steady drag, not boom-or-bust — bad almost every single week.

Next up, the pass defense. This is where the Saints quietly had a season worth talking about. They allowed minus 24.5 expected points added through the air across 17 games — 66th percentile, comfortably above average. The pass rush was the engine: 45 sacks, 10th in the league, 72nd percentile. And the third-down stop rate was elite — opponents converted just 35 percent, 91st percentile. Top-five in football at getting off the field. The signature moment was Week 5 against the Giants, fourth quarter, Saints up 19-14: Cam Skattebo took a handoff at the 12, Bryan Bresee punched the ball out, Jordan Howden scooped it at the 14 and ran 86 yards the other way for a touchdown. Nearly 12 expected points on one snap. That play turned a one-score game into a comfortable win, and it captured the defensive identity all year — when this unit got their hands on the ball, they made it hurt.

And the run defense was the single best thing on this football team. Minus 36.3 total rushing expected points added allowed — 97th percentile, top of the league. Yards per carry allowed sat at 4.2 across 498 opponent carries, and only 12 rushing touchdowns surrendered all year. This unit consistently set the edge and forced opponents into obvious passing downs week after week. Steady, not flashy — and the reason the defense as a whole graded out as well as it did. When the offense was getting muffed and the quarterback room was a coin flip, the front seven against the run was the one thing you could count on.