Saints Bringing In Special Teams Coach This Week To Help Unit

Jay Glazer of FOX Sports reports that the Saints plan to bring in a special teams coach this week to help their current unit moving forward.

The Saints lost to the Broncos in Week 9 after Denver blocked an extra point and returned it for two points. On Thursday,  Saints kicker Wil Lutz had a field goal blocked and nearly returned for a touchdown.

Carolina was able to still get it in the end zone on offense right before halftime, so it still proved to be very costly for New Orleans.

Saints HC Sean Payton recently expressed disappointment with the unit’s play the past few weeks.

“We put ourselves in a hole, clearly in the first half with how we played,” Payton said, via NewOrleansSaints.com. “The turnovers, the sequence, the blocked field goal, that’s a 10-point swing. Two weeks in a row now we are struggling just to kick a PAT or a field goal, it’s disappointing.

“Fundamentally we have to be able to kick an extra point,” Payton added. “If we come up short we have to be able to kick a field goal that’s a makeable one. We have just struggled in that area. It cost us in New York, it cost us last week in Denver and it cost us again tonight. We have to be smart enough in the game early, to understand the turnovers aren’t good, and punting is not a bad thing. When you are playing a good defense like this you put yourself on a short field and it’s going to result in points. We already know that we are playing with a close margin of error or else you win 50 of these you lose 50. So I think that we have to be a lot smarter and certainly as head coach I have to do a better job of that point of emphasis.”

Greg McMahon is the currently the Saints special team’s coordinator.

We’ll have more regarding who will be brought in as the news is available.