Saints Snap Counts: Who Led In Playing Time for the New Orleans Offense In Week 5?

The Saints offense didn't have a particularly good day at the offense when they played the Chiefs.

Oct 7, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; New Orleans Saints wide receiver Rashid Shaheed (22) celebrates with wide receiver Chris Olave (12) after scoring a touchdown during the first half against the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

The Saints look to pick up the pieces are quickly close the book on their bad Week 5 loss at Arrowhead. New Orleans wasn't quite right after the pick on the opening drive, and it was just hard to watch this offense in action again. The Chiefs defense definitely did what they needed to overall, and here's a closer look at the offensive snap counts, playing time percentages and some thoughts from the game.

Saints Offensive Snap Counts - Week 5

Oct 7, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; New Orleans Saints wide receiver Rashid Shaheed (22) catches a touchdown pass during the first half against the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

The Saints offense held the ball for just 20:04 in the loss, totaling 220 net yards (174 passing, 46 rushing) while averaging just 4.3 yards/play on the 51 they ran. If you take away the big play to Shaheed, it's even worse. They picked up 14 first downs and went 4/10 (40%) on 3rd Down and converted their only Red Zone trip. They missed two 4th Down plays, and are clearly needing to find some type of spark to get them going.

• Landon Young, Taliese Fuaga, Trevor Penning - 53 (100%) Carr was sacked just once on the evening, and my initial thoughts were that Fuaga played pretty well. The interior had their hands full, while Penning had one play I can recall off the top of my head that he was out front as the lead blocker.
• Chris Olave - 50 (94%) Despite playing nearly the entire game, Olave finished with just 2 catches for 10 yards on 4 targets. Olave's brother said a lot on social media without saying much. Derek Carr said afterwards that it was frustrating and, “It’s not from a lack of me wanting to throw to — I tell [the media] all the time, everybody knows I want to throw it to Chris. Chris knows I want to throw it to Chris. It’s frustrating when you grab the sheet afterwards and see that because he’s an unbelievable player and an unbelievable person and a good friend. I never want that to happen for him.”
• Alvin Kamara - 47 (89%) Aside the nice run to start the game, Kamara had a very quiet night on the ground with 11 carries for 26 yards. He had 6 catches for 40 yards on 8 targets, but the Saints couldn't get him going in the run department. I'm a little puzzled why the team would keep trying to run inside when it wasn't working, and I know that KC was pretty good against outside runs to begin with. When it didn't work, it didn't work.
• Rashid Shaheed - 46 (87%) Shaheed was one of the best players on the field for the Saints on Monday night, hauling in 4 catches for 86 yards on 9 targets with the 43-yard score from Carr to put the game to 10-7.
• Lucas Patrick, Derek Carr - 44 (83%) Patrick started the game at center and then ended up going into the locker room with trainers in the second half. When he returned, he was back in the game at left guard. He didn't exactly look right when he was at center in the sense that you could tell he was playing through injury. He's tough as nails, there's no denying that. As for Carr, he's getting further imaging done on his oblique injury. It had nothing to do with the contact on the play, and that's a little more concerning. He finished 18/28 for 165 yards with 2 touchdowns and a pick that he called 'boneheaded and stupid' and turned in a 89.1 rating. A loss like this overshadows a cool milestone he hit in the game too.
• Juwan Johnson - 42 (79%) Johnson's playing time increased from last week, seeing him catch all 5 of his targets for 31 yards. New Orleans needs more players to get involved, and it's a start at least.
• Nick Saldiveri - 38 (72%) Saldiveri clearly got benched in the game, but it's unclear as to why. Further look at the tape will probably tell us.
• Foster Moreau - 28 (53%) Moreau helped close the gap to 3 points with his 6-yard touchdown hookup from Carr. He caught his other target and finished with 13 yards on 2 receptions.
• Connor McGovern - 24 (45%) Given the situation, McGovern stepping in to play center didn't seem that bad. That's what you get when you put a veteran in there who knows a little of what's going. With the way injuries are going and the play out there, it wouldn't surprise me to see him start against the Bucs.
• Mason Tipton - 19 (36%) Tipton caught just 1 of his 4 targets for 2 yards, and that slant play on the 3rd Down saw him run into Olave off the snap, otherwise it could have been a first down. I liked the effort he had on the pass that went out of bounds, and maybe he's not the ideal read on the 4th Down call, but it's just growing pains right now.
• Cedrick Wilson Jr. - 12 (23%)
• Jake Haener - 9 (17%) In relief, Haener went 2/7 for 17 yards and has 2 runs for 11 yards. Unfortunately, the game seemed out of hand late and the effort from some of the players seemed to reflect that. We'll see what happens with Carr this week, but Haener would be up if he can't go.
• Jamaal Williams - 8 (15%)
• Adam Prentice - 7 (13%)
• Dallin Holker - 5 (9%) I'm really not understanding why Holker isn't being involved more here. The Saints would roll him into the lineup prior to them starting an offensive series only for him to come out from substitutions. He feels like someone who could help in the passing game.
• Bub Means - 1 (2%)

Week 5 - Offensive Three Stars

1. Rashid Shaheed
2. Taliese Fuaga
3. Foster Moreau