Whether it’s an electronic tablet or a paper pad, New Orleans Saints defensive line coach Todd Grantham will adapt to whatever tools ultimately resonate most with his players. Even the method of the message can be a case-by-case basis.
Whatever works, though. They’re the ones who need to study the intel anyway. Not him.
“Coaching is teaching,” Grantham said. “I think the thing that separates it is how do you get guys to learn and then play to their ability. Everybody’s going to be different that way. You kind of gotta cater to guys to get them to be able to take the information you give them and apply it to the field. Because it really doesn’t matter what I know. It’s what they know and how they can apply it.”
Thirty-three years of coaching really solidified that lesson for Grantham, and now he brings his wealth of knowledge and experience to New Orleans for Year 34.
The Saints hired Grantham back in February to fill the void left behind by Ryan Nielsen, who took a defensive coordinator promotion with the Atlanta Falcons. Grantham joins the staff with 22 years in the NCAA and 11 years in the NFL already on his resume. He spent last season as a defensive analyst for Alabama.
Saints general manager Mickey Loomis is very confident in the addition, and it’s apparently not the first time the Saints have shot their shot toward Grantham.
“We’ve known Todd for a long, long time and actually had some opportunities in the past that we thought he was going to be on our staff that didn’t quite work out,” Loomis said. “But he’s fantastic.”
Well, Grantham is tasked with essentially developing a brand-new defensive line.
The only returning starter from 2022 is defensive end Cam Jordan. His line mates — defensive end Marcus Davenport (Minnesota Vikings), defensive tackles Shy Tuttle (Carolina Panthers) and David Onyemata (Falcons) — were lost to free agency.
Only defensive tackle Malcom Roach and defensive ends Tanoh Kpassagnon, Carl Granderson and Payton Turner are back. But they all worked in rotating roles and combined for 12 starts last year — fewer than Jordan’s 16 solo.
In order to rectify that problem, the Saints drafted two linemen — tackle Bryan Bresee and end Isaiah Foskey — in the first two rounds. They also signed tackles Khalen Saunders and Nathan Shepherd through free agency.
“That’s a part of the National Football League,” Grantham said. “I mean, there’s gonna be some turnover. It’s just a matter of meshing those guys together to make sure that we’re all on the same page, our communications are clean on what we’re doing. And that just takes time, that takes being around each other. But we’re moving in the right direction with that.”
Grantham made his introduction two weeks ago with the rookie minicamp. He’s now meeting a majority of the team with voluntary offseason training activities, which began this week and run for another two.
Early reviews are mixed between new and old faces.
“It’s cool to have him as a coach,” Foskey said. “He brings a lot of enthusiasm into practice. He really knows a lot about my position, like the technique behind it. He studied all these years, football and technique.”
Take that opinion and compare it that of Jordan, who enters his 13th season in New Orleans and seems to be waiting on the welcome mat.
“He loves the idea that the D-linemen are supposed to eat — they’re supposed to be in the backfield, supposed to penetrate — and you like that,” Jordan said. “Now, we also love anything we see on paper. Let’s wait until we get to training camp, get some live bullets. Let’s see if it still holds the same weight.”
The Saints’ run defense fell off last season, allowing 130.5 yards rushing per game last year. That ranked 24th in the league after three consecutive seasons of finishing fourth overall. In 2018, New Orleans came in second.
Grantham isn’t worried about the stats, though. They can appear skewed.
Winning matters most.
“I like our attitude, and I like the way we work,” Grantham said. “We just got to start stacking days on top of day in the sense of always working to get a little bit better the next day.”
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