Who was the Saints’ breakout player from Week 4?

The New Orleans Saints’ week 4 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers resulted in a 26-9 loss for New Orleans. The Saints looked to be out of reach pretty quickly in this game, going down 14-3 by halftime. With the offense sputtering as it has to start the season, New Orleans would only put up six more points in the game. With that, we continue our weekly series by choosing one player who broke out in the previous game, and going over why their contributions were so critical to the game.

This week we have a player in their rookie season with the Saints, who has proven to be a valuable addition to the front seven so far. This week we have selected defensive tackle Bryan Bresee as the breakout player of the game, and here’s why:

The bright spot in a tough defensive showing

The Saints’ defense had pretty much their only performance you could consider “pedestrian” per se this week. After three straight games of holding their opponents to 18 or fewer points this season, they gave up 26 to the Buccaneers offense which was missing Mike Evans for the majority of the game. Is this “bad” by any means? Not really, no. But it is also not great considering the circumstances.

Regardless, Bryan Bresee seemed to be the one player on the defensive line Sunday to actually get some pressure onto Baker Mayfield. He ended up getting the only sack for New Orleans this week, which came in the 3rd quarter and pushed back Tampa Bay 7 yards.

He also ended up with 4 total tackles, 2 pressures, and 3 tackles for loss in the game. On one of those tackles for a loss he was able to make a quick swim move through the interior offensive line, which allowed him to bring down Rachaad White right after White took the handoff.

Continued success through four weeks

Though this is an article about weekly success, it is worth noting that Bresee has continually found success in each week this season as a rookie. He has taken only 45% of defensive snaps so far, yet has put together the following stats according to his PFF advanced analytics:

• 10 tackles (5 solo)
• 3 tackles for loss
• 2 sacks, 6 pressures, 4 QB hits
• Only 1 missed tackle in 11 attempts
• 1 pass deflection, 2 penalties, 124 snaps taken

Overall, he has been a quality addition to the Saints’ defensive line, and considering how the defensive tackle room was struggling immensely last season, this has been good to see. If he can continue this level of production as his snap count increases, he may end up with a full-time starting role by the later part of the season.

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