The following is an excerpt from Warren Sharp's 2025 Football Preview book. In addition to Warren's deep, detailed write-up on all 32 NFL teams, each chapter features page after page of full-color charts, stats, and heatmaps as well as penalty analysis from Joe Gibbs. Click here for a full FREE chapter from the 2025 Football Preview.
Penalties are an under-discussed aspect of NFL success and failure. Average teams can become playoff contenders with good discipline, and good teams can become great simply by winning the penalty battle.
Let's look at how the New Orleans Saints performed from a penalty perspective in 2024 and where they can improve in 2025.
How Did Penalties Impact the New Orleans Saints?
The Good
- The Saints defense ranked No. 1 in generating offensive holds on opposing offenses. That marks the third consecutive season the defense has ranked in the top three in this category.
The Bad
- The Saints averaged 9.1 yards per penalty surrendered, higher than the league average of 8.1 yards.
- The Saints offense accounted for an above average 55.5% of the team's overall penalties. That's too high a percentage for an offensively challenged team with subpar quarterback play.
- The offense was abysmal at generating automatic first downs via penalties, ranking in the bottom five of all offensive units last season.
- The Saints ranked No. 1 for unnecessary roughness penalties.
Grade: C
The Saints have one of the easier schedules in the NFL this season. The question is: Do they have the talent necessary to take advantage of that?
The Saints have a rookie head coach in Kellen Moore, an aging defense, and no long term answer at quarterback.
New Orleans will toil away in relative anonymity, one of three teams this season with no primetime games on their schedule.
The season will be about Moore establishing a culture at a Saints franchise that feels directionless, although it may not translate into winning many games with the lack of overall talent.
The reality is this Saints team remains a strong candidate to finish with the league's worst record in 2025 and be on the clock with an eye toward the first overall selection in the 2026 NFL Draft.
This analysis continues in the 2025 Football Preview
Order Warren Sharp's 2025 Football Preview to get penalty analysis for all 32 NFL teams.
Warren Sharp’s 550+ page full-color PDF, the 2025 Football Preview, is unlike anything you have previously read. Stunning visualizations, including new heat maps, are built with the reader in mind. Innovative, next-level thought process abounds in every team chapter and article.
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Warren Sharp's book shares insights into the players, coaches, teams, and philosophies with one goal: to prepare you for the 2025 NFL season with the smartest information delivered in the fastest, most direct way possible for optimal reviewing and retention.
- Team Chapters previews are in-depth, data driven & full of actionable info
- Fantasy Football player profiles, predictions, and ranks
- Vegas Odds forecast team wins, division rankings, lines for all 2025 games
- Coaching strategic advice for teams, play calling analysis & team tendencies
- Front Office Analysis positional spending, roster construction & cap analysis
- Reasons to bet over/under win totals & analysis of futures betting market
- Rookie draft class deep dive into impact for every team
- Rankings for every positional unit on every team with analysis
