Film Room: How Klint Kubiak revitalized Derek Carr and the Saints' offense

After working as the San Francisco 49ers passing game coordinator in 2023, Klint Kubiak has reignited an offensive spark in the New Orleans Saints that hasn’t been seen for decades.

The Saints' success can be captured with one simple statistic: 91 points scored.

Only two teams in the NFL since the 1970 merger have put up at least 90 points through the first two games of an NFL season: the 2009 New Orleans Saints (93 points) and the 2024 New Orleans Saints (91).

Anyone with eyeballs and ears heard the noise this offseason after a lackluster 2023 season in New Orleans. Sure, it was nine wins and just one game short of the playoffs, but it did not feel that way.

The stats were empty. The schedule was weak. The division was weaker.

Eight of the nine victories came against teams that missed the playoffs. Six of them came against rookie or backup quarterbacks.

The hope-o-meter in New Orleans entering the 2024 season hit rock bottom… literally. A fan survey done by TheAthletic yielded results showing that 16% of Saints fans felt optimistic compared to pessimistic before Week 1. The number ranked dead last out of all 32 fanbases.

All of this makes the remarkable 2-0 start featuring blowout wins over Carolina and Dallas that much more remarkable.

So, what changed? How did the same Derek Carr from 2023 that ranked 20th in EPA per play outside of garbage time - filtered out plays where the team’s win percentage was below 10 percent or above 90 percent - turn into the gunslinging, confident signal-caller that was hitting Michael Jackson celebrations in the endzone Sunday?

The short answer: Offensive Coordinator Klint Kubiak.

Here is how he has utilized Carr’s skillset and mitigated the personnel weaknesses on this Saints roster:

Play Action (paired with pre-snap motion)

This isn’t anything revolutionary, except it looks that way to anyone that paid attention to New Orleans last season.

Per Mina Kimes, the Saints ran play action at the lowest rate in the league in 2023.

Guess who led the league in QBR on plays with play action? Quick answer, Derek Carr.

Take a look at this breakdown on the Saints offense:

New Orleans is the only team in the NFL running play action on more than half its snaps.

On Sunday against Dallas, Carr had 13 dropbacks with play action, and he threw for 231 yards on those plays. That is 17.8 yards per attempt.

Take a look at this play from the opening drive in Jerry World (via NFL on Fox):

First, note the situation. It’s first-and-10 from Dallas’ 44-yard line. It’s not an obvious passing or running down, which forces Dallas’ front seven to respect the possibility of a run and a pass.

The Saints motion tight end Foster Moreau across the formation from right to left. The main reason is to disrupt Micah Parsons who is rushing off the left tackle in Taliese Fuaga. Moreau then creates a combo block with fellow tight end Juwan Johnson, who checks and releases to the flat.

So you have now taken care of the game-wrecker in Parsons. While all of that is ongoing, Carr runs the play action with tailback Alvin Kamara. Watch No. 50 Eric Kendricks, the middle linebacker, crash downhill toward the line of scrimmage.

This opens the whole window for Carr to find wide receiver Chris Olave who is running a deep dig across the middle with Rashid Shaheed clearing out the outside corner on the right side of the formation.

The only read Carr has once he gets to the top of his drop is the deep middle third safety in Donovan Wilson. If Wilson crashes down over the middle to Olave, Carr would go over the top with Shaheed who is running an in-breaking post route on a corner with outside leverage.

Wilson picks his poison and goes with Shaheed deep, leaving Olave wide open over the middle for a 39-yard catch and run. The Saints and Kamara score on the next play, capping off a perfectly scripted seven play, 80-yard touchdown drive.

Here’s the full play at game speed:

Fast forward to the next offensive snap for Kubiak’s offense. Ever heard the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” Kubiak and Carr clearly have.

Simplification

This combination of a deep dig and a deeper post is normally referred to as a “Portland” concept in most offensive schemes. Kubiak dials it right back up on the second drive of the game, keeping it simple for Carr.

While a similar route design, New Orleans switches things up and sends fullback Adam Prentice across the formation to motion block. On this snap, the Cowboys line up their x-factor in Parsons on the opposite side of the formation to try to navigate around the double team and to give Parsons the easier matchup in Trevor Penning.

Off the play fake with halfback Jamaal Williams, Carr steps up into a rather clean pocket while Williams chips on the right side to help in protection.

Down the field, Dallas starts in a two-high safety shell instead of a one-high shell like the last play where Carr found Olave on the dig.

It is still a similar read for Carr, although tougher against this look. Kendricks gets more depth on this snap after getting caught in the wash on the previous while the corner at the bottom of the screen, Caelon Carson, gets good depth to cover Olave on the crosser despite playing as a cloud flat in Tampa 2 defense.

There is a window for Olave, but Carr knows Shaheed has game-breaking speed. He sees the safety closest to Olave bite down just a tad, Shaheed gains inside leverage on the safety before stemming his route toward the middle of the field and the defender’s hips are flipped entirely toward the outside.

The read: Let it rip.

Hit as he throws, this ball travels 56 yards in the air right into the breadbasket of a streaking Shaheed. 70-yard touchdown. 14-3 Saints.

This is what Carr can do in a system where everything is clicking. When you can simplify the pre-snap thought process and let him do more post-snap, this is what you get. A confident field general that can make any throw, and more importantly, is not afraid to make any throw.

Helping the Offensive Line

From the public eye, the offensive line looked like the weakest part of this Saints roster entering the year.

So, with questions up front and poor performances in the preseason, Klint Kubiak does everything in his power to help them out.

That includes but is not limited to: chip help with backs from the backfield and tight ends, running the ball on third downs, and not just third-and-1 and excessive use of play action and screens

All of this forces defenders on the line of scrimmage to think for an extra second. If an offense shows a willingness to run on third-and-3, you can’t fire off the ball downhill and try to get to the quarterback because you risk giving up the edge on an outside run.

This can’t be more perfectly displayed than a toss from shotgun on third-and-3 at Dallas’ 38 on the drive that made it a two possession game.

The Saints had incredible success attacking the Dallas edge rushers in the run game. According to NextGenStats, of Kamara’s 20 carries, only one went in between the two offensive guards up the middle. He tallied 19 carries for 112 yards and three touchdowns on runs outside the tackles.

On this play, the Saints attack defensive end Tank Lawrence to the wide side of the field to give Kamara more space to work with on the outside.

They motion Johnson across the formation to put him in a perfect position to set a crackback block on Lawrence to seal the edge. Off the snap, Lawrence begins his pass rush set and has no time to react to the toss before he is sealed.

Left guard Lucas Patrick pancakes nose tackle Mazi Smith. Center Erik McCoy and right guard Cesar Ruiz get to the second level and hold off linebacker DeMarvion Overshown.

The most impressive block on this play is probably undrafted wide receiver Mason Tipton holding his ground on Eric Kendricks to give Kamara a clear lane on the outside with left tackle Taliese Fuaga pulling out in front to lead block.

Perfect call. Perfect execution. Four plays later, Alvin Kamara scampered into the endzone to make it 28-13.

The game plan to mitigate this powerful Cowboys pass rush was brilliant. It could not have been scripted any better.

Just read what Parsons himself said after the game:

Klint Kubiak, Derek Carr and the Saints offense are on a historic pace. A date with the Philadelphia Eagles and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio awaits this Sunday afternoon in New Orleans.

Rocco Pellegrino is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email rdp5387@psu.edu