State of the Saints: Special Teams

Special teams certainly has a couple of questions for the Saints going into 2023, but has the potential to be strong.

There's plenty of things going on with the Saints right now. In the course of just over a week, we've seen Sean Payton traded to the Broncos, major coaching changes, and most recently the visit of Derek Carr to the team's facilities. We're also fresh off Senior Bowl week, which gave us tons of great insight going forward.

We're back with our look at the Saints going into the offseason. We have already tackled the defense, and move on to look at the special teams unit.

State of the Saints: Safety | Cornerback | Linebacker | Defensive End | Defensive Tackle

Special Teams Overview

Sep 11, 2022; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; New Orleans Saints place kicker Wil Lutz (3) reacts with punter Blake Gillikin (4) after he kicked the go ahead field goal against the Atlanta Falcons during the second half at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Players Under Contract: Wil Lutz, Zach Wood, Alex Quevedo (reserve/future)

Free Agent Outlook: Blake Gillikin (restricted)

Priority Level: Medium

There were some high moments for the group during the season, mainly seeing Wil Lutz returning to the lineup after missing all of 2021. However, there was a noticeable drop-off in Saints special teams this year. Lutz ended up going 21-of-31 in 2022, turning in a career-low 74.2% accuracy on the season. The vast majority of the misses were from attempts that were 40 yards or more, although he missed two from the 30-39 range (9-of-11). He did make all 33 of his extra points as well.

As for Gillikin, he did have some drop in yards per punt, net, and a higher touchback percentage. However, he did have a better inside the 20-yard-line percentage on his 77 punts in 2022 and the unit as a whole surrendered less return yardage. There were a few times where he had bad shanks in critical moments of some games for the Saints.

As far as the return game, Deonte Harty ended up going out early in the season due to injury. He had a few good kickoff returns in his four appearances, but most everything fell on the shoulder of rookie Rashid Shaheed. He had Harty-like elements in the sense that when he touched the ball, there was always a potential for a big play. Harty is a restricted free agent going into the offseason, while Shaheed will undoubtedly take on a larger role in his second season.

We've touched on the restricted tenders before, and a ROFR (Right of First Refusal) will come in at a projected tag of $2,627,000. That's going to make it fairly difficult for New Orleans to bring Gillikin back at that price. Most all of the free agent punters, even the veterans like Thomas Morstead, came in at $1.5 million on the high side. So, Gillikin is going to have to come in at a reasonable price tag to stay with the Saints.

Long snappers are people too, and Zach Wood enters the final year of his four-year contract he signed in 2020. He's not the only one either, as Lutz is in the final year of his five-year deal from 2019. The hope would be that Lutz returns to a better form, and the good news is that he is very self-aware. For the sake of the Saints and their outlook next season, they need their special teams unit to perform at a very high level.

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