Saints' offense passes one test, with Cowboys, Rams up next

METAIRIE, La. -- The New Orleans Saints' offense took almost three weeks of training camp to have its first standout day. After 11 practices of up-and-down offensive performances, it couldn't have come at a better time. The Saints hosted the Jacksonville Jaguars for a joint practice session last Thursday, and New Orleans' starting offense held its own against a Jacksonville defense that was No. 1 against the run, 21st in passing defense and 11th in total defense last season. It might have been the spark the Saints needed after weeks of facing their own teammates. It also came right before a few days of rest for the starters -- who didn't play in the first preseason game against the Jaguars on Saturday. The Saints lost that game 24-20 after a quick start that featured a 86-yard kickoff return by Ty Chandler and a 9-yard touchdown run by Audric Estime on the first play. Spencer Rattler started the game but struggled, completing 8-of-11 passes for 42 yards. He was also sacked twice and fumbled. Quarterback Zach Wilson came in during the second quarter and showed good chemistry with Bub Means and Barion Brown, both of whom had more than 70 receiving yards. He also threw a touchdown pass to Oscar Delp after a previous touchdown by Means was reversed. The starters will ramp things back up in California for a joint practice against the Dallas Cowboys on Tuesday followed by a joint practice session against the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday. Those practices will be the next big tests for the starting offense, as the Saints will face a Rams defense that led the league in total yards allowed last season and a Cowboys defense that finished second in that category. "I think more than anything, it was good to go against a really good defense in the Jaguars. And continually we're going to be able to do that the next couple of games against the Rams and Cowboys," Saints quarterback Tyler Shough said. "So, we feel really good where we're at, but we also know that we have so much more to go. We're nowhere close to where we need to be, but I also know that we're kind of light-years from where we were last year as well." The offense didn't take off immediately at the start of camp, but there were some standout moments, with rookie wide receiver Brown making a name for himself. There were ugly days, particularly on Aug. 11, when the defense won a red zone period by relentlessly pressuring and picking off Shough twice. The question of whether the offense was facing a good defense or simply struggling wasn't fully answered against the Jaguars, but both the offensive and defensive units came away happy after seeing where they stacked up against new competition. "I thought it was a great day. I think every single period I felt like we kind of had the edge a little bit," Shough said Thursday. "The run game was working really well. I feel like we had some good chunks in the pass game and there was some good, some bad. They were a really good team, too." Some highlights included a deep pass by Shough to rookie WR Bryce Lance, who was working against Travis Hunter. Shough targeted WR Chris Olave several times, including on a deep ball Olave fought for but which fell incomplete. Later the quarterback connected with Olave for a toe-tapping touchdown. Backup quarterback Rattler worked on his chemistry with reserve receivers such as Brown and Trey Palmer, who caught a deep ball and spiked it in the end zone after scoring a touchdown. "I think we don't necessarily use other teams as a metric, but it's also a competition-based sport. And so I think it was a good day to focus on us as an offense," Shough said after practice Thursday. "I feel like we really improved." Shough and the starting offense got about 50 snaps of work against the Jaguars' first team -- far more than it would in a normal preseason opener. Saints coach Kellen Moore said this allowed for an evaluation of the starters in a situation that has the intensity of a game, while letting the backups put together a stronger résumé with more work in the actual preseason game. "I think sometimes the challenge for these young guys is, you come to these preseason games and you wait till the fourth quarter for your eight snaps and one snap doesn't go your way and it gets magnified," Moore said. "These guys are going to get to play a ton of snaps, which I think is awesome for us because inevitably there's going to be some good snaps, there's going to be a snap you want back. And it allows us to let these guys respond to those situations and just keep playing." Moore hasn't said how he'll handle snaps in the Week 2 preseason game against the Rams after two more days of joint practices, but the practices will be critical for the continued development of the offense. Every snap is necessary to fix a unit that finished last in 2025 with a red zone efficiency of just 44.4%. The Saints' rushing offense finished 28th in yards per game and their scoring offense ranked 28th. Their field goal unit is in flux as well after Charlie Smyth took over for a struggling Blake Grupe last season. Smyth, now competing against former UFL kicker Tanner Brown, hasn't yet maintained his hold on his job in a battle that'll likely go down to the wire. He took a step back in Saturday's game against the Jaguars, missing a 52-yard field goal while Brown made both of his field goal kicks. Smyth made all six of his kicks against the Jaguars in practice, bringing his camp total to 33-of-41, while Brown missed a 51-yarder that went off the upright, bringing his camp total to 33-of-33. The red zone offense was having trouble converting field goals to touchdowns in two-minute situations to end several practices. The Saints added Travis Etienne Jr. in free agency to upgrade their run game, and Etienne has been leaned on heavily with the starting unit. With no live tackling in most of their practice periods, it's hard to know how that run game will translate to the regular season. "I feel like we've got to continue to grow and get better and I feel like it kind of helps us just jell and get those real live reps that some teams don't get until game time," Etienne said. "Going out there against a different defense, it was good to see what we did, get a couple of runs, a couple of things springing and see us all on one page."