Nasty NFLSZN Fades to Take

The Liam Coen offense is definitely friendly to RBs catching passes out of the backfield, but now Etienne moves to New Orleans. Many are infatuated with Etienne this season because he’s coming off of a career year and goes to an ascending offense with Tyler Shough. Not to mention Alvin Kamara will likely be out for a bit to begin the year with an MCL sprain, and is also headed for a reduced role at this point in his career. 

But what is this reduced role? A receiving back. When Kamara returns (which is seemingly sooner than people think), he will be the primary pass-catching option out of the backfield for Shough. And if you know anything about a Kellen Moore offense, that’s not really an advantageous place to be anyway. Kellen Moore offenses are not very friendly for receiving backs, especially when it comes to TD production. Moore has been an offensive coordinator since 2019 and only once has an RB of his had three receiving TDs. Here's what every RB under Kellen Moore has done with him calling plays, which he will continue doing this season:

• 2019- Ezekiel Elliott 2, Tony Pollard 1
• 2020- Ezekiel Elliott 2, Tony Pollard 1
• 2021- Ezekiel Elliott 2, Tony Pollard 0
• 2022- Tony Pollard 3, Ezekiel Elliott 0
• 2023- Austin Ekeler 1
• 2024- Saquon Barkley 2
• 2025- All Saints RBs 0

And if you look at Etienne’s TDs from last season like this one below, they are all heavily schemed. Four of them were swing screens behind the line of scrimmage with a set of blockers in front of him, One was a texas route where Lawrence knew exactly where he was going the whole time, and the last one was a wheel route against a linebacker in space.

In this Saints offense he’ll still catch a few passes, but they’re more likely to be checkdowns rather than designed targets especially in the red zone. Saints RBs totaled just 6 red zone targets last season (Kamara 5, Neal 1). Why? Because not only does the offense have red zone options in Chris Olave and Juwan Johnson, but they have Tyler Shough’s legs as well. He had 13 red zone rush attempts in his 11 games last season. While Taysom Hill’s 13 rush attempts are also vacated, I think those get filled by Shough (and Jordyn Tyson when he comes back) rather than with Etienne catches. If he finds a way to bust some crazy plays downfield to get three I’ll tip cap.

The 3rd year man out of Utah had a terrific sophomore campaign. After not recording an INT in his rookie season, he broke out with 3 in 2025, not including a 4th in the playoffs. But this fade begins by taking a look at those INTs…

Yep you saw that right. That was Chris Olave throwing a meatball marinara sub to Spencer Rattler on the goal line on a Philly Special. A well-diagnosed play and hell of a catch, but Olave lobbed that to the endzone like it was slowpitch softball. Obviously an insane fluke play there. Let’s check out the next one…

I’ve seen worse punts from actual special teams units than that Tua throw. On the first drive of the game by the way. But yeah that’s a Tua turkey club into double coverage, thank god he’s not in the division anymore for this square. How about the last one?

Good throw Baker! Overthrew a drag route by a billion yards into an empty space filled with quite literally nobody other than Cole Bishop for about 5 yards each way. Another great catch, but one that obviously should’ve had no chance to be made.

All this to say that I think those INTs by Bishop aren’t exactly repeatable. And sure, a large chunk of why I say that is because of how they took place, I think anyone with two eyes can tell you that. Now you could say “well why does that mean it can’t happen again?” Especially with 4 games of Geno Smith and Malik Willis in division games, it’s a valid question. 

But Bishop made his mark in his collegiate career as an elite safety in the box who could tackle in space really well. Due to the state of the Bills defense and their scheme last year, he was utilized in a passing component a lot more.

This year should look a little different. They made some additions in the secondary to the tune of Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and Dee Alford in free agency and Davison Igbinosun and Jalon Kilgore in the draft. Say what you want about CJGJ and Alford being past their primes but their style fits perfectly with what new DC Jim Leonhard wants to do defensively. He’s known for a very aggressive style of defense tailored to the strengths of his personnel.

CJGJ, Alford, and Igbinosun are guys who bring physicality and the ability to play on the boundary. That takes a lot of pressure off of Bishop to fill that role as he did at times last year. His usage should turn back to how it looked in college where it’s a lot of playing in the box and his pass game responsibilities are covering larger tight ends and the flat.

He made his mark last year by just being in the right place at the right time. I think the new scheme and personnel around him won’t allow him to be in those places nearly as much. He won’t quite be Jamal Adams, but I think that style of safety suits him best and could certainly help a Bills run defense that has struggled for years now too.