The New Orleans Saints left their best-ever player in shock over the weekend.
Brees was in town to be recognized by the Superdome crowd at halftime, but in the game that surrounded that ceremony, New Orleans struggled in a loss to the Vikings that dropped the Saints to 1-4 on the season.
That wasn’t the shocking part, though, at least not in this context.
Brees learned how little the Saints use play-action fakes in their offense, and he couldn’t believe it.
Drew Brees Shock
This is what Saints beat writer Nick Underhill shared on X about this matter:
Drew Brees learned today that the Saints don’t use play action and is shocked about it just like the rest of us. I think it’d be fair to say that they’ve had the worst play action strategy in the NFL since the start of last season.
— Nick Underhill (@nick_underhill) October 12, 2026
According to Fantasy Points Data, the Saints have run play-action 19.6% of the time this season — but it sure does seem like they go long stretches without it.
The Saints use play-action only 19.6% of the time (tied for the 2nd-lowest rate).
Even in 2021, with Jameis Winston, Trevor Siemian, and Taysom Hill at QB, Sean Payton’s Saints used play-action 24.9% of the time. https://t.co/XA9t1sAhXn
— Fantasy Points Data (@FantasyPtsData) October 12, 2026
Play-action, for those not sure, is some kind of fake at the start of a play. Most often, it’s a fake handoff to the running back, but you can also fake a pitch or pantomime a handoff to a different player other than the RB.
The point is to make the defense think you’re going to do one thing but then do a different thing.
The Saints pretty much do what it looks like they’re going to do, which makes things much more predictable to the defense.
How Run Game Matters
Fans in the comments to the Underhill post from above are pointing out that the Saints aren’t running well, so play-action shouldn’t work as well.
That’s not how it works, though.
Play-action freezes the defense, even just for a split second, because they still have to at least believe it might be a run play even if the running game isn’t going very far. So that can still create openings.
It can also work in reverse. A team that runs a ton of play-action concepts can actually open up the running game, because the defense believes they’re going to keep the ball in the QB’s hands and throw — and when he simply hands off, it can actually be a surprise.
The high-powered Kansas City Chiefs, who are running the ball all over people with Kenneth Walker, have the highest rate of play-action plays in football so far this season at more than 39%.
The Saints, on the other hand, are surprising no one on the other side of the line of scrimmage. Brees certainly isn’t a fan of the approach.
Saints’ Terrible Strategy Shocks Drew Brees