Play Volume Craters in Tyler Shough's First Start

What They're Saying

HC Kellen Moore: "Certainly there were some positives in there. Thought [Shough] handled himself well, and so we didn't get enough opportunities to compete. ... Thought he had some really good step-ups and kept his eyes downfield. Certainly, that's a really tough pass rush, but I thought he did some really good things."

AP's Dan Greenspan: "Shough's most productive drive came in the six-play, 71-yard possession at the end of the second quarter, capped by his first career touchdown pass to Juwan Johnson. He showed good awareness and ball placement to lead Johnson the short dig route."

2025 Fantasy Football Impact

Shough noted after the game "some history with" Johnson, who played with the QB at Oregon way back in 2019. Johnson tied for second on the team in targets Sunday and drew six targets among Shough's 30 pass attempts the previous game.

That makes a Johnson target on a decent 18.5% of Shough's pass attempts over the past two games.

More important for the offense, though, was Sunday's plodding pace. Check out the play total and time of possession vs. other New Orleans games this year:

It's one game, against a defense that's been performing well. And Shough's getting no help from a garbage run game. The Saints have fallen short of 60 rushing yards in three straight contests.

But the play pace will be worth tracking. If Saints play volume stays down, it'll chip away at the one remaining reservoir of value for the team's few worthwhile fantasy assets (i.e. Chris Olave).

Next comes a trip to Carolina for what should be a non-scary Panthers team. But they just beat the Packers in Green Bay and held three of their previous four opponents under 300 total yards.