Rating: (0 votes - average)

The New Orleans Saints are trying to kick off their season on a good note for the first time since 2013 when the Houston Texans come to town for Week 1's Monday Night Football matchup inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

The reigning AFC South champions are coming off their third playoff appearance in four years, while New Orleans is the two-time defending NFC South champion and is coming off its second-straight playoff appearance.

A look at all the Saints and Texans' position groups, the intangibles and who has the edge:

QUARTERBACK: It's 19-year vet Drew Brees vs. third-year quarterback Deshaun Watson. The edge goes to Brees, but let's analyze the stats.



Watson played a full season last year after missing the rest of his stellar start of a rookie campaign due to a tore ACL. The Clemson alumnus tossed for 4,165 yards — ranking 11th in the league — with 26 touchdowns and rushed for 551 yards with five touchdowns last season. Watson's quarterback rating came out to 103.1, which was sixth among all quarterbacks.

Saints coach Sean Payton knows Houston's dual-threat quarterback, who he likened to Carolina's Cam Newton, isn't to be looked over.

Edge goes to New Orleans.

OFFENSIVE LINE: New Orleans' offensive line returns both its starting guards and tackles, with the only new face to the pipeline being rookie center Erik McCoy. Payton said on Thursday that the team won't announce the starter until gameday, but McCoy has solely taken reps with the ones since early in training camp.

The talent of Terron Armstead, Andrus Peat, Larry Warford and Ryan Ramczyk speaks for itself. New Orleans quarterbacks were only sacked 20 times last season, the second-lowest number in the league.

Edge goes to New Orleans.

RUNNING BACK/FULLBACK:

The Saints start two-time Pro Bowler, do-it-all back Alvin Kamara. The starting running back listed on Houston's depth chart is former Cleveland Brown Duke Johnson, after 2018 Pro Bowl running back Lamar Miller ended up on injured reserve for the season with an ACL injury.

Kamara totaled 1,592 yards from scrimmage last season (708 receiving, 883 rushing), while Johnson was primarily used as then-rookie Nick Chubb's backup, totaling 630 total yards (429 receiving, 201 rushing).

Edge goes to New Orleans.

more on NOLA

The Dude

Shooting yourselves in the foot. Edge - Saints

Beastmode

They can play off losing Clowney but that was a big hit to their DL. We have the better defense, run game, QB and ST.

I don't even think it will be a high scoring game. Hopkins is amazing but outside of that, a QB that has no problem taking a lot of sacks and Duke Johnson? Duke Johnson is not a starting RB. He's a good pass catcher but Watson is not good at throwing to RB's. I think we pounce on them.

Rugby Saint II

Edge goes to New Orleans and so does the win.

foreverfan

I Officially Start the Season... Cocky!
If you agree, hit the like button.



Not hitting the like button could result in being banned for tomorrows game.