Canal Street Chronicles
Football is so back.
The New Orleans Saints open the 2025 season against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon. This will be the first game of the Kellen Moore era, and after a tightly contested quarterback battle, second-year QB Spencer Rattler earned the week one start.
In 2024, the Cardinals’ defense was the definition of average. They ranked 16th in the league in points per game allowed (22.3) and were all around very mediocre. They lost a ton of depth on their defensive line to free agency, but made a couple big additions such as Josh Sweat and Calais Campbell.
The Cardinals are expected to roll out a starting defensive line that consists of Josh Sweat, Darrius Robinson, Calais Campbell and Dalvin Tomlinson. Sweat was a part of the Eagles’ Super Bowl team last year and recorded eight sacks before signing with Arizona. Robinson was the Cardinals’ first-round pick a year ago and had just one sack in 2024, but is expected to take the next step this year. Campbell and Tomlinson are both veteran tackles who can get after the passer and defend the run.
The Saints’ offensive line is expected to be much improved from last year’s unit. Kelvin Banks has already shown he’s a demon in the pass game, Eric McCoy is healthy again and should be one of the best centers in football, Taliese Fuaga is coming off a great rookie season and Trevor Penning is moving to guard, where they hope he can be more efficient. Unfortunately, we don’t know whether Penning will be available for the opener after suffering a turf toe injury in the first preseason game.
The battle in the trenches should be very entertaining. The Saints are hoping their line can play like it did in the first two weeks of the season before McCoy got injured last year. If they can, and they can get Alvin Kamara going early, it will open a lot of things up and allow Spencer Rattler to settle into the game. If they struggle on the ground, it’s going to put a lot on Rattler’s shoulders, and he hasn’t proved he can carry an offense.
I really like the Saints’ matchup with the Cardinals’ secondary. Arizona drafted Will Johnson, who they hope can be their CB1, but he did not look good in the preseason. Their other starting boundary corner, Max Melton, doesn’t move me much either. However, their slot corner, Garrett Williams, is coming off a really strong sophomore season, so he could give the Saints some trouble. The Cardinals also still have Budda Baker, who’s always a danger at safety, so Rattler needs to make sure he’s careful when unloading the football.
I think there’s a chance for Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed and Devaughn Vele to have success. I think there will be a lot of throws outside of the numbers to try and take advantage of the Cardinals’ two boundary corners, it will just be up to Rattler to connect.
Overall, I...
