1/ Last season, the #Saints targeted the WR position on just 50.1% of all pass attempts.

Targets are a talent metric, every bit the same way yards, receptions, YAC, EPA/play, yards/route run, and 1D/TD% are talent metrics. https://twitter.com/TJHernandez/status/1251642288364642304

2/ While that may seem silly at first, it really makes intuitive sense, once you think about what has to happen for a WR to earn a target.

First and foremost, the WR has to beat the defensive back he's matched up against and/or find the hole in the zone, where the QB is (...)

3/ (...) looking to deliver the football. That's not all the WR has to do, though. For a WR to earn the target, not only does he have to get open, he has to do it, before any of the other offensive players are able to.

4/ So, not only is the WR competing against the secondary. He's also competing against his own team.

The Saints were near the bottom of the league, marketshare to the WR position, so what? We at the top of the league in RB targets! We've got Alvin Kamara. He's a good player.

5/ Yes, he is a good player, a fantastic player, and I'll be the first one to tell you that.

NFL offenses are most efficient, when the QB is targeting the WR position, followed by the TE position, and lastly the RB position.

6/ While all three are more valuable than a rushing attempt, there's a significant drop off from WR to TE down to RB, in terms of per play efficiency.

Let's look at the six offenses who targeted the WR position at the leagues lowest rate: SF, OAK, PHI, NO, MIN, BAL.

7/ Not a bad group of offenses, right?

There is a difference, though, and that difference is where the leftover targets unfilled by the WR group were funneled afterwards.

SF, BAL, PHI, and OAK relied heavily on the TE position. Kittle, Andrews, Ertz, Goedert, and Waller.

8/ MIN and NO were forced to check down passes at or behind the line of scrimmage to RBs far too often. Often times, this is the best of a bad situation, but it hampers an offense nonetheless.

9/ When you ask an NFL offense to run 12, 13, 14 play drives, you're asking them to sustain a level of precision that's simply not attainable. You're playing Frogger on expert, when you could be playing on hard or even medium.

10/ Emmanuel Sanders will go a long way in alleviating this burden on the Saints offense. Last year, not only were the Saints not targeting WRs, when they were targeting WRs, they were only targeting Michael Thomas, da gaaawwwd.

11/ Increasing the talent level at the WR should have been a higher priority, after the 2018 season, and it wasn't. The Saints did a fantastic job with the limited draft capital they had, but draft capital was limited.

12/ We missed out on McLauren, Brown, Metcalf, and Samuel, because Mickey and Sean shot their gun, when they went up and drafted Marcus Davenport.

You hate to pay for the same sin twice, but that's what we did this past year.

13/ The Saints lost to the Vikings for the same reason they lost to the Rams the year before, an inability for WRs to create separation in the Playoffs, once things get tight.

14/ Manti Teo, Courtney Robertson, AJ Klein played LB next to Demario Davis against the Vikings in the Playoffs, and it still wasn't the reason we lost.

It's a long season and the Saints need to continue to add weapons to support Drew Brees and the next QB, whoever that may be.

15/ You want a LB? Sign one in Free Agency or one who is inevitably cut by a rebuilding team in the pre-season.

You want a WR? Draft one in the most talented WR class the NFL Draft has seen in a long, long time.

16/ What do y'all think? Agree? Disagree?

I'd be happy to hear any opinions to the contrary, doesn't bother me in the least.

Kenneth Murray stans take some getting used to, given Reggie Ragland and Anthony Hitchens won the Super Bowl last year, but we'll manage.