HEROICS: New Orleans Saints Need Travis Etienne Jr. To Ignite Lions Upset, Keep Pressure Off Shough

This is the Locked On Podcast Network, celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Hey, Drake May here. As a pro quarterback, I know I can't do it alone. I have to trust my team, and that goes for my money too, which is why I use Betterment, the trusted investing and savings platform. Their automated investing tools always have my back. Just like my old line, over a million people already trust Betterment to build their wealth, so I know I'm in good company. Start building yours at betterment.com or download the app. Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed, paid client ad, views may not be representative. See App Store and Google Play reviews. Learn more at betterment.com/ambassadors. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Shaved ice by the beach, a trip to the state fair, and a throwback flick at the local drive-in. They're more than just items to check off the summer bucket list. There are also opportunities to earn 2% daily cashback when you use your Apple Card with Apple Pay. Apply for Apple Card now and use in minutes with Apple Pay. Subject of credit approval, Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City branch. Terms and more at applecard.com. A big day might be on the way for Saints quarterback Tyler Shough, but it's not him that New Orleans needs to be a hero on Sunday. You are Locked On Saints, your Daily New Orleans Saints podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What is good, Who Dat Nation and Who Dat Family? I am your host, your Saints reporter and your friend, Ross Jackson and today's episode of Locked On Saints is brought to you by our friends at Kalshi where you can download the Kalshi app for a limited time and use code LOCKEDON and get $10 when you trade $10. On today's episode, the New Orleans Saints trenches are going to establish the tone and must do so early against the Detroit Lions on Sunday. The Saints captain selections leave a little bit of surprise for Saints fans, but we're going to kick everything off today with who the New Orleans Saints need to be the hero of Sunday's matchup and 2026 debut in Detroit. We got all that and a little bit of land for you on today's episode. So let's get into it. It's not Tyler Shough, but running back Travis Etienne Jr. that the New Orleans Saints needs to be a hero on Sunday in order to make this game. Well, in order to make the upset possible for New Orleans, let's call it what it is. Look, Tyler Shough, as we broke down in yesterday's episode, is going to see some favorable opportunities in the middle of the field, as well as in the 10 to 19 yard area, at least based on what Detroit's offense looked like last year. But if the Saints want to ensure that the first thing they're going to have to do is establish the run. Because not only is that going to make the day a little bit easier for quarterback Tyler Shough, it's going to make things a little bit more challenging for the Detroit Lions as well. Let's look at last year where Detroit scored 481 points over the course of the season. Jared Goff did over 4500 yards, tossed 34 touchdowns in the process. Jahmyr Gibbs saw 18 total touchdowns, over 1800 scrimmage yards. Meanwhile, we watched Amanra St. Brown reel in over 1400 receiving yards and 11 receiving touchdowns. That is a very good trio on the offensive side of the football. They will be down center Cade Mays. And as our late friend Mike Detilie was beginning to remind us, that has a pretty big impact on your offense's ability to be successful. We'll break that down a little bit more on Friday. I want to carry forward some of the work that he was doing on that. But for New Orleans, I think the thing that helps them out the most defensively in terms of throttling all of that down is controlling the football on the offensive side. And that is where Travis Etienne Jr comes in. Travis Etienne Jr is going to be the Saints' top running back. He's going to be effectively the bell cow back going into this matchup. The expectation is that Audrick Estimé will be back on the practice field this week, maybe as early as today and therefore is expected to likely take the field on Sunday. We'll see what happens with Kendre Miller. We'll see what happens with Alvin Camara. But this is a run game that one way or another, no matter how many of those four guys are on the field or available on Sunday, the run game is going through Travis Etienne Jr. That's the way this is going to work and that's the way the Saints should go about this. The Saints should make Travis Etienne the centerpiece of their offense on Sunday. One of the biggest reasons is because it's going to take a lot of pressure off of Tyler Shough, like we mentioned before, the ability to run the football, pick up those incremental gains, get in a little bit of a rhythm as well and be able to build off of what you're doing in the run game through the play action game is only going to make things easier for Tyler Shough. More opportunity, more time to scan the football field, a little bit more variation on the offense, defense not knowing if they're going to run or pass. In certain situations will help them keep the pressure off of Shough, both figuratively from the pressure of the game and quite literally, when the pressure comes down from a guy like Aidan Hutchinson who had 14 and a half sacks and over 100 pressures last season. He is going to want to get after Tyler Shough. He is going to want to make impacts at the quarterback there. And if they want to, the New Orleans Saints, not give him the opportunity to do exactly that, establishing the run right away is going to be a massive part of that. The other big part of it too is getting him involved as a receiver. We have seen more and more and more running back screens all throughout the offseason and training camp. I would expect to see that be a core part of Kelly Moore's game plan going into 2026 as well. So you run the ball, you run the ball, you run a play action, you run the ball, you're doing all this stuff successfully. Then all of a sudden you run a play action and instead of attacking downfield or in the middle of the field or in the short area of the field, you dump off behind the line of scrimmage on an overly aggressive defense that perhaps over pursues trying to get after the quarterback on that play action, get the ball to Travis Etienne Jr. with some lead blockers out ahead of him and allow him to go and pick up some yards. Now, the additional part on top of that is going to be playing a clean game of football. Don't hurt yourself with turnovers. Don't hurt yourself with penalties. Penalties were such a big piece of the Saints offense and the negative side of their offense last year. Flip that around, get that disciplined play going to make sure that you're in a situation where you're maximizing your abilities as opposed to having to play from behind the sticks. But if you want to consistently get ahead of the sticks, building up the run game first and foremost is going to be a big part of that. Then after that, you get Chris Olave involved in the passing game, and then you're building up your attack. The Saints released their depth chart going into week one. Chris Olave was listed as a top-wide receiver with Devon Vali at number two, and then the third-wide receiver that was listed as a starter was Barion Brown. A lot of that is because Barion Brown will be involved in doing a lot of his deployment, very likely from the slot. But do expect Kevin Austin Jr. or Cedric Tillman or Trey Palmer or Jalen Moreno-Cropper to be elevated or find their way to the active roster at some point over the course of the week. But in any case, being available for this team on Sunday so that have the passing options available to be able to take advantage of this weakened Detroit secondary. But it's going to start with the run game. But it doesn't mean that the downfield attack won't be there. A guy like Barion Brown getting involved, attacking the field downfield from the slot off of play action because you've successfully set up the run game, that's going to be very exciting. That's a fun way to begin to build your offense and find what your rhythm looks like, and how to build and scaffold off of what it is that you're establishing early on in the game. Doing the same thing with Chris Olave, doing the same thing with Devon Vailie, attacking the middle of the field, stretching the field with Chris Olave, quick slants and allowing these players also to be able to go and pick up some yards after catch, especially the Barion Browns, Bryce Lances, the guys that they have on this team with some elite speed. Being able to elevate all the things that these players do well is going to start from one place and one place only, and that is the New Orleans Saints backfield. So that becomes a big part of it. And then also, as you're controlling the game, you're putting a lot more pressure on Jared Goff to be a hero. And that's exactly the situation that you want him to be in. You want him playing off of his back foot. You want him playing uncomfortably. You want that offense on its heels. If you allow them to dictate what happens, you're going to end up playing from behind. And as we've seen with the New Orleans Saints, they did that a lot last year, outscored by 121 points in the first half last season, second most in the NFL. They can't allow that to happen. So Shucks Job, as he builds off of a successful day for Travis Etienne Jr, if they can get that done, Shucks Job then becomes to play efficiently, not be a hero. Etienne picks up yardage, allows you to be able to create manageable down. You then get to build off the play action. Chris Olave and these wide receivers get involved. You have this Tyler Shuck clutch third down ability, one of the best third down quarterbacks last year, that you can also build off of, then finish drives. If you can do that, all of a sudden, you're on a path to an upset in the Motor City. Coming up next, the New Orleans Saints have built out their team captains for 2026. We'll take a look at all of them, the surprises, and some of the cool stories behind them as well. Let's get to that next as we continue on with today's episode of Locked On Saints, part of Locked On Podcast Network, your team, every day. Today's episode of Locked On Saints is brought to you by our friends over at Quo, that's spelled Q-U-O. It's the online phone system built for businesses that allows you to be able to keep your entire team up to date with your customer's needs by bringing calls, texts and voicemails together all in one place, so that teams can see the full conversation, respond quickly, stay organized, and already know the needs of their customers. We've all been there. I was there just the other day dealing with some other internet issues, and you have to talk to one person, then you got to tell the next person everything that you just told the first person, then you talk to a third person, you got to repeat everything all over again. 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You'll walk away with up to $350 in bonus bets over at FanDuel today. Plus, whatever you win by betting the Saints against the spread. I think the Saints can cover in this one. If you do too, head over to fanduel.com to get started today. Make this the most rewarding NFL season ever with FanDuel. Visit fanduel.com to get started. That's fanduel.com. All right, family. The New Orleans Saints have named their team captains and in the process created maybe some surprises. For New Orleans Saints fans, let's break down the captains, the surprises and the cool stories that come along with them. We appreciate you very much as always, making us your first listen and being an every dayer on today's episode. Make sure you go and check out our good friend Dylan Sanders over at Locked On Saints. We get two five-minute episodes every day, four vertical videos every day. He is grinding four years ago. And check him out on your favorite social media or wherever you get your podcast, including on YouTube as well. Check out Locked On Saints Hit Today. Go ensure our guy Dylan some love. Don't forget, we'll also be back on Thursday, tomorrow evening with our Saints squad show previewing the game as well. So come and join us as we're live ahead of Thursday night football. All right, so the New Orleans Saints have named nine, 2026 team captains. And I like the collection of captains that they have this year. A lot of guys are repeating, but there's also some first time guys. Now, last year, the Saints, of course, with a quarterback competition and a young quarterback room did not have a quarterback as one of their team captains. Well, hello, Tyler Shough. Tyler Shough gets his first year as a team captain as he continues to cement his roots and cement his place as a cornerstone player for this franchise. Tyler Shough is one of three offensive captains, Tyler Shough, Eric McCoy, as well as David Edwards. David Edwards is a really interesting one. I wasn't sure if the Saints would go that route or not. Now, remember, these are all player-voted. These are not picked by coaches or anything like that. So when I say the Saints, I'm really talking about the player roster here. I wasn't sure because David Edwards is a new player to New Orleans, and a lot of first-year guys sometimes get passed on, even though they make sense. That certainly wasn't the case last year for a guy like Justin Reid. Brandon Cooks was coming back to the team, and so that all made sense. But so we do see it every now and then, but I just am never sure how rosters are going to go about that. But David Edwards ends up getting his opportunity to serve as a team captain with the New Orleans Saints his very first year in New Orleans. Meanwhile, Eric McCoy returns for his fourth season as a captain. I believe that he's one away now from having the full gold badge, right? You'll see the captain's badge. It's a seed and it's got four stars under it. The star goes gold for each year that you're a captain. Once you get to four years, you get to that fifth year, the whole badge goes gold and he's one, one captain year away from doing exactly that. Eric McCoy has long been a standard bearer for this team. No surprise there. Here's where there was another surprise over in the defensive side. Things are actually doing four team captains on defense. We're used to seeing three, three, and two. Three on offense, three on defense, two on special teams. This year, we're seeing three, four, and two and the four captains on defense, Cameron Jordan coming back for his 12th year as a captain. Justin Reid going into his second year with New Orleans as a captain. Edge rusher, Chase Young, a guy that we have seen grow more and more and more and further establish himself as a part of the leadership of this team, the standard bearers of this team, the tone setters of this team, the culture bringers of this team. He is one of those guys. Kaden Elliss, who has been a captain before, much like Chase Young, Chase Young was a captain in Washington for a couple of years. If I remember correctly, it was 2020 and 2021. He is now a captain for the first time since then here in New Orleans, the first time in 2026. Kaden Elliss was a captain, I think, certainly his last year in Atlanta, but he might have been there multiple years actually, but now he is a captain in New Orleans. Cool to see him return to New Orleans and immediately get a captain badge. This gives the Saints the typical rhythm that they like, which is a captain in the secondary and a captain at linebacker and a captain at defensive line, but now they've got two captains at defensive line. This feels like a piece of the passing of the torch, if you will, from Cam Jordan to Chase Young with both of those guys being captains this year. This is expected to be Cam Jordan's final year in the NFL, final year with the New Orleans Saints, and then Chase Young gets to carry it on beyond that. Contract extension is eventually going to be in conversation for Chase Young. Going to be very interesting to see how that goes, but this leaning into him more as a captain, his teammates entrusting him with that captain badge, I think that that's going to end up helping that conversation along, even though I think that's a conversation that will probably happen very quickly once the contract extension convo happens with the Saints and Chase Young's representatives. I did ask Chase during training camp, I should have pulled the clip for it, I'll pull it for another episode, but I did ask him, what would it mean to you to have that captain badge this year? He mentioned that that would mean a lot to him, and that would resonate for him, and that he loves this team, he loves his teammates, and to have them vote on him and entrust him to be a captain, to be a standard bearer would mean the world for him. Well, now he gets to live that out here in 2026. One of the cool stories from this captain selection. Then finally, for special teams, a pair of special teams captains or a pair of captains that we associate with special teams, I guess I should say, Zach Wood, who goes into his now fourth season as a captain, as the longest running special teamer that the Saints have on their roster. We've seen guys like Will Lutz, Thomas Morstead, those guys be special teams captains before. But now with two new boots on the ground for Ryan Wright at Kicker, excuse me, at Punter, as well as Daniel Carlson at Kicker, it felt like Zach Wood coming back for another year as the long snapper, coming back for another year as the captain of that special teams unit, particularly that piece of the rotation made a ton of sense and that's exactly what happens here. He maintains his captain badge. Meanwhile, Chris Rumph II gets his captain badge. We picked him as a kind of a dark horse for a captain. We were kind of between him and Isaiah Stahlberg, the logic being, okay, you get somebody in the field goal, punch operation as a captain, but then you get one of your core special teamer coverage guys in as a captain, a la JT Gray years ago and for a number of years here in New Orleans, JT Gray. The two guys that made the most sense were Chris Rumph and Isaiah Stahlberg. Isaiah Stahlberg led the team in special teams tackles last year. Chris Rumph was number two. It felt like it was going to be one of those two guys. Chris Rumph, also a longtime disciple of Brandon Staley, played a full 17 games last year for the first time in his career and contributes over in the defensive side. This made sense. I think a lot of people saw Chris Rumph and went, Chris Rumph? But really, like from the special team side, this makes perfect sense for New Orleans. Not only from the special team side, look at what Chris Rumph has done this offseason. He went from being an edge rusher to a linebacker, no complaints. Said, yeah, absolutely, I'll do that. It ends up being a guy that's spending a lot of times, even though he's an edge rusher, spending a lot of his time on special teams. What did he say? Yeah, all right, I'll do that. He became a fantastic special teamer for this team. It makes perfect sense that he ends up being the captain selection as well. Chris Rumph, Zach Wood, not Zach Woods, that's the actor. Zach Wood is the, I'm surprised it's the first time I've ever done that, is the special teams, are your special teams captains, Cameron Jordan, Chase Young, Justin Reid, Kaden Elliss, all your defensive captains, Tyler Shough, Eric McCoy, David Edwards, are your offensive captains as well. Those four before were your defensive captains, like I said, special teams again, but you get the idea. The thing that also strikes me with this is how many new names are on the captain list from a couple of years ago. We're so used to talking about the same captains, that it's super interesting now to see the whole new era completely taking over the captain badges at this point. So pretty exciting stuff for the new era of the New Orleans Saints. Congrats to those guys who now get to go on and be the standard bearers for this team as they move ahead. Coming up next, the New Orleans Saints trenches are going to set the tone and they'll need to do so early if they want to set up for an upset victory against the Detroit Lions. Let's get that next as we continue on with today's episode of Locked On Saints, part of Locked On Podcast Network, your team, every day. Today's episode of Locked On Saints is brought to you by our friends over at Kalshi, the best place to go to get in on all of your predictions. The NFL season is going on, everybody's predicting everything. Well, head over to Kalshi, America's number one prediction market platform and you can trade on all of those predictions in a live market. It's awesome. For instance, going into this season, Tyler Shough, trending at 70 percent to throw for more than 3,000 passing yards in 2026. So a $100 trade can equal up to $145 right now. If he does it, you can get in on that and much more over on Kalshi. 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The New Orleans Saints must establish and set the tone early in the trenches if they want to set themselves up for a potential upset victory in Detroit. We appreciate you very much as always for being here with us, making us your first listen and being in every day. Don't forget for your second listen today, you got to go check out Locked On LSU, man. 51 to 10 victory up against Clemson, Matt Muscona has got that for you. Couple of player of the week nods, he's got that for you. The potential of being voted out of the SEC, he's got that for you. There's so much going on with the LSU Tigers right now, and Matt is doing a fantastic job covering it each and every day, showing up for you over on the Locked On LSU podcast. Part of the number one sports podcast network, Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I mentioned earlier Aidan Hutchinson, 14 and a half sacks last year, really, really good player. Oly McNeil also on that defensive line, I think Williams also on that defensive line, really, really talented players along that Detroit Lions defensive line. They also have Peyton Turner on Injured Reserve. So New Orleans will have to make sure that they establish the tone early, in terms of keeping a handle on Aidan Hutchinson, protecting Tyler Shough, but also getting the run game going. I talked in the first segment as we started off today's show about making sure that Travis Etienne Jr is a centerpiece for this New Orleans Saints offense in this game. In order for them to do that, they're going to have to make sure that they are paving the way on the offensive line. If we look back to last season, now remember, last season doesn't tell us everything that we need to know when it comes to matchups and things like that, because rosters have changed, coaches have changed, all those other things. The New Orleans Saints were the number 28 rushing offense in the NFL last season. They were in the 30s, 30, 31, 32 when it came to yards per carry. The Lions defense was number 14 in the NFL. That's upper half, not elite, but top 15, top 16, top half of the league just outside of the top 10. This is an area where New Orleans is going to have to figure out how to get it done. They've got to be able to move the ball on the ground or, or use that short passing game as an extension of the run game. That might be a little tough, but they can find a way to do it. Detroit last year was a number 20 passing defense in the NFL. They're very injured going into this one. No Brian Branch, no Kirby Joseph. You've got guys like DJ Reid and Rocky Asin. Over on the outside, Rocky Asin is up and down. DJ Reid is really good. New Orleans is going to have to figure out a way to set up that passing game and be able to take advantage of that passing game. But winning in the trenches is what's going to set the tone to allow them to be able to do that. Because again, if they can run the football, you can set up the path. We went through that. But even beyond that, even beyond that, Detroit is a physical football team. That is a football team that wants to punch you in the mouth. They're disciplined, they're well-coached. All of it goes very well. The New Orleans Saints need to match that. The New Orleans Saints need to be disciplined. The New Orleans Saints are well-coached. And so going into this matchup, two very, very promising teams that are both looking, by the way, to go from last in their division to the playoffs this year, both the Saints and the Lions in that same conversation, Saints that are on a six-win season, Lions that are on a nine-win season last year in a really good division. The game in the trenches is going to be the game for this. So guys that just got captain badges, Eric McCoy as well as David Edwards, they're gonna have to establish the tone early. Kelvin Banks Jr, Talia Sifuang on the edge, they're going to have to establish the tone early. There's gonna be some testing for those tackles as they're matched up with Aidan Hutchinson, the help that you give them, the play calls going away from them, all of those other things, all of that is gonna factor in. They're gonna have to have and they will have a game plan specifically for Hutchinson. It's gonna be the Hutchinson game plan and they're gonna make sure that that's all taken care of. On the flip side, on the defensive side, Saints defensive line, same thing. Gonna have to establish a tone early. Don't let Jahmyr Gibbs get going. There's no David Montgomery there anymore. They gotta figure out who the compliment is for Jahmyr Gibbs or Jahmyr Gibbs is gonna have to work as a bell cow back. We have seen that be not so great for players of his style in the NFL, but he's incredibly talented. We mentioned over 1800 scrimmage yards last year, it's the type of season you'd love, you'd be ecstatic to see Travis Etienne Jr have a year in 2026, right? And so this defense needs to be ready, this defensive line needs to be ready for that matchup. It's a good thing for New Orleans that they've got guys like Chase Young, Carl Granderson, perhaps Cam Jordan will see if he ends up making it back because these are good edge rushers, but these are also very good run defenders. Anfreny Jennings, Kristen Miller, Devon Godshaw, Nathan Shepard, all these guys are going to be brought up to task in this matchup as well to make sure that they are ready to defend a run game that is looking, looking to get established early, find the rhythm and take advantage and take over this game and dictate. The terms Saints can't let that happen in the trenches. All right, let's get to a little bit of land yet, but the real ones made it to this point in the episode. Did you know that the New Orleans Saints have gone from being the 30th highest-spending team, which means the third lowest-spending team, on their special teams trio of punter, kicker and long-snapper to now being number 12 in the NFL in spending on special teams. That is how much the Saints funneled in to their triumvirate of Daniel Carlson, Ryan Wright, as well as long-snapper Zach Wood, captain, long-snapper Zach Wood, in order to make sure that they're on the right side of the special teams conversation in 2026. That could end up having an impact as early as this week. Look, the spread is six and a half. I don't think that the game is that wide open. I think that game ends up being a little bit closer. Maybe Detroit opens up early and the Saints close the gap a little bit. Maybe that's the way that it goes. But, all of a sudden, having a veteran field goal kicker, having a veteran punter could end up working in the Saints' favorite. The Detroit Lions passing offense last year ranked number three in the NFL. The Saints passing defense ranked number four. How do you make sure that you end up being on the right side of that equation as the better of two good factors? Starting field position. Starting field position, game situation, all of those things. That is how you do that. And so pinning them back on the punt side, not shanking punts, not doing those things where they get really great field position to start, where your defense is already starting on its heels. No, give your defense the opportunity to go out there to attack. That is a worthwhile investment for the New Orleans Saints that we may see be a big time factor as early as this coming Sunday, because that's when football is back. Saints football isn't that incredible. All right, coming up in tomorrow's episode, Matt Derry of Locked On Lions is here for our crossover Thursday to help break this game down even more. We appreciate you very much as always, making us a part of your day, part of your routine for saying yes to me in the show. If you see me, please say hi. And if you need anything else around your New Orleans Saints in between these episodes, make sure you follow me on your favorite social media at Ross Jackson, N-O-L-A. Hit me up. I'm in a lot of families doing them, how you living? Let me know how you moming them. And trust you, Dat Nation, I'll holla at you. Hey, NFL fans, I'm Brian Peacock, and that is Matt Williamson, host of the NFL Six Pack, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. NFL Six Pack brings you the latest NFL news and analysis and breaks down all of the weekly action. A six pack of takes daily on the playoff pushed in the 2025 season, or if your team's in draft mode, yeah, we'll hit that too. All right here every day on the Locked On Podcast Network, the NFL Six Pack, subscribe on YouTube, or everywhere you get your podcasts.