The biggest X-factors for each Conference Championship team Feat. Kansas City Chiefs, New Egland Patriots, Saints and Rams 

New Orleans Saints:

Offense – Taysom Hill

I thought hard about putting one of the secondary receivers on here and I actually already had Tre’Quan Smith written down, because I think the rookie has the ability to take a short pass to the house. However, you never know who will be on the field when the Saints throw the ball outside of Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara for the most part. Therefore I went with maybe the biggest X-factor in all of football right now. When Taysom Hill first was inserting into the offense in week three it felt more like a little gimmick to throw defenses off balance, but Sean Payton has put together a package with the former undrafted free agent quarterback out of BYU. That dude is a freakish athlete, being built like a linebacker with 4.3 speed and a cannon of an arm, but his best feat is the fact he doesn’t give a damn about who is in front of him. He covers kicks, returns them, runs jet sweeps, lead plays, go downfield as a receiver or play traditional quarterback. There’s only so few guys in the league, who can run by the secondary on one play (and actually get interfered with) and then hit the same throw to his running back a play later, which was unfortunately called back. As smart and precise as Drew Brees is on the short and intermediate level, you saw Hill throw a perfect deep ball on the exact seam route Drew missed twice earlier in that game.

Talking about how the Saints will use unique quarterback, I already mentioned the versatility he brings to the table, but let’s get a little more into his role on offense. Hill is an additional threat on the edges on those jet and fly sweeps, which opens up cutback opportunities for the Saints backs, as that action freezes the backside edge defender. Not only can he truly be a downfield weapon in the passing game for some snaps, he doesn’t shy away from getting his hands dirty as a blocker either and New Orleans have actually used him a couple of times at the point of attack on those screens to the other wide receiver out of motion to a short set, which teams around the league have been running to death this season. What he does when he is lined up as a quarterback is also pretty special, because unlike Brees he gives his team a numbers advantage inside the box. As teams run a ton of nickel and dime defenses, when Hill runs the ball on lead and power plays, those guys have an extra guy when the running back is being used as a blocker. Payton will once again use him in short-yardage situations on third and possibly also fourth downs. While Taysom has taken the snap from shotgun and actually made simple reads as well as a passer, I will look at one aspect specifically. When number 7 comes onto the field, the Saints move Brees out to one of the wideout spots and he has barely come out of his stance in those situations. This has been set up all year long for the ball going to Brees on a double pass and hitting some type of deep crosser. This is the time Payton loves to pull that kind of stuff out.

Defense – David Onyemata

When Sheldon Rankins went down with a torn Achilles last Sunday versus the Eagles, I thought they lost their third-best defensive player and a key piece to their Super Bowl run. The third-year defensive tackle out of Louisville had become the disruptive 3-tech specialist I expected him to be when I watched him dominate the competition at the 2016 Senior Bowl similar to what Aaron Donald did a couple of years prior. With eight sacks, twelve tackles for loss and a large presence in the opposing backfield he was one of the top upfield interior D-linemen and would have made the Pro Bowl is the NFC didn’t have three freaks like that already. With him out the load will fall on teammates David Onyemata and Tyler Davison to hold up against the run and push the pocket, after those guys had primarily split time at that shade nose spot for New Orleans. When you run a defense with four down-linemen and you face a zone rushing attack like the Rams bring to the table, you not only need big guys to hold their but rather you need somebody on the inside to beat blockers to the spot and either make the back change directions or chase him down from behind as he picks his hole. I primarily focused on Onyemata here, because I think he is the better player of the two and more equipped to fill that type of role. Fellow defensive lineman Alex Okafor was asked about Onyemata earlier this week and he said “Big O plays with an edge and reckless abandon” – good for me.

I already explained the role of that 3-tech defensive tackle playing on the outside shoulder of the guards for the majority of snaps in the base sets and how important Rankins has been there. Onyemata certainly doesn’t quite have the same quickness that his injured teammate brings to the table, but he can play half the man and at least drive him into the backfield to force Todd Gurley and C.J. Anderson to either cut inside that block or widen their running lane, which puts less pressure on those defenders on the edge to deal with the burst of Gurley and takes some thump out of Anderson when he arrives at the linebackers. Through sixteen games with Rankins in the lineup the Saints were the number two rushing defense, allowing just 80.2 yards per game. So Onyemata will be crucial in that aspect against a Rams rushing attack coming off a 273-yard performance. With 4.5 sacks and six more QB hits he also brings some upside as a pass rusher. I also think another young D-linemen in Trey Hendrickson could be used as an interior rusher in sub-packages, as the Saints might look more towards using “Big O” as a part of twists to free up his teammates along the front.