Vegas Projected Win Total - 9

The Saints finished a disappointing 7-9 last season, but are projected for 9 wins coming into 2015. That was their second losing season in the past three years, despite having one of the league's most elite quarterbacks. It appears they're looking to move more towards the running game with their offeseason moves, but the offense will still go as Brees goes and he's never needed an elite crop of receivers to produce in the past. With the loss of Jimmy Graham to the Seahawks, we'll have to see who steps up for the Saints in the passing game as their go-to guy.

Impact Fantasy Players

Drew Brees - Brees still is what he is, an elite quarterback at times, but one that struggles when he's not in a great environment. His struggles on the road have been well documented over the past couple seasons, especially when he's outdoors, but that just makes it easier on us daily fantasy football players. Brees is an easy guy to ignore when he's outside, especially with safety net Jimmy Graham out of the picture. However, he's remained just about as good as anyone at home and indoors over the past couple of years, so there's still massive upside here despite it looking like the Saints are moving towards a more run-heavy approach. A lot of Brees' production will come down to what their defense looks like, because if it struggles, there's no doubt he'll be throwing at least 550+ pass attempts once again this year.

Mark Ingram - The much maligned Ingram was ignored despite the departure of other runners heading into last season and most owners regretted doing just that. He led the NFL in carries from inside the 5 yard line last season with 20. Look for Ingram to be a workhorse back this season for as long as he can handle it as the Saints mix in Spiller on passing downs and spread out wide, much like they've used Darren Sproles and Reggie Bush before him. Ingram could easily reach 20 touches per game assuming the Saints defense can keep leads and keep them in games as much as possible. He might not reach the 73% of carries he handled for the Saints last year, but he should be impressive at anything close to that.

Impact Fantasy Youngster

Brandin Cooks - The Saints don't have any rookies expected to make a big fantasy impact, so we'll look at a Cooks, who had his rookie season cut short by thumb surgery. With Graham, Kenny Stills and Robert Meachem all departing with a total of 208 targets between them, Cooks should be stepping into a massive role. Through 11 weeks, Cooks was in the Top 20 in the NFL in receptions with 53. He accounted for just 16.8% of the targets in games he played in despite showing some elite playmaking ability. Expect that number to rise dramatically in his second season, as he'll head into the year far and away the most talented pass catcher on the roster.

Storylines

With offseason moves, it looks like the Saints will break the 40% run play mark for the first time since they won the Super Bowl in 2009. They've been a pass-heavy team ever since then and Brees has led the NFL in passing attempts since that season. They know they can't rely on Brees to do that much longer, so look for them to run nearly 45% of the time this season, with around 70% of those carries being from Mark Ingram. They'll also continue to use the screen passing game to pick up easy yards. Don't look for nearly as many deep balls from Brees as we've seen in the past, especially in the second half of games.

Stock Watch

Up - Marques Colston

Colston is an old man at this point in the receiving world, but he was never a speedster to begin with. Now that there are so many target up in the air and no Jimmy Graham to target on crucial plays, look for Colston to make one last run as a useful fantasy receiver, which he's proven he can be over and over again. With Brees still throwing him the ball, he should have a ton of catchable ones, but don't expect a ton of yards after the catch or big plays from the aging wideout.

Down - Khiry Robinson

Robinson has proven time and time again to be a capable downhill runner, but the Saints clearly prefer him as a backup plan. They paid Mark Ingram, who played well ahead of Robinson last year when healthy and also signed CJ Spiller in the offseason, making Robinson an injury-replacement afterthought once again heading into 2015.

Projections

QB

NamePass AttemptsPassing YardsTDYards Per AttemptFantasy Points Per Game
Drew Brees6244,954327.920

RB

NameRush
Attempts (#)
Rush
Attempts (%)
Rushing YardsTDYards Per AttemptsPasses
Caught (#)
Fantasy
Points Per Game
Mark Ingram22470%926114.12913.3
C.J. Spiller9830%45024.56812.1

WR/TE

NameTargetsReceptionsYards Per
Reception
Receiving YardsTDFantasy Points
Per Game
Brandin Cooks1178013.41,079614.5
Marques Colston996514.7959612.4
Josh Hill704710.850768.2

DEF

SacksInterceptionsFumbles RecoveredDef. TDFantasy Points Per Game
42131017.1

Daily Fantasy Outlook

The Saints fantasy outlook comes down to their defense. With Drew Brees behind center and Sean Payton at the helm of the offense, they are going to score points. However, if the defense can get it together, this has the look of a much more run-heavy team than we've seen recently. However, if the defense struggles to slow down opposing offenses, we could see yet another massive passing yardage season from the aging Brees.





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