From a badly shanked punt to a series of frustrating penalties, the New Orleans Saints had a tough go of it on special teams in their 2026 preseason debut. It's led us back to one of our first criticisms of the offseason: not moving on from special teams coordinator Phil Galiano when qualified replacements were available. Instead of blaming the coordinator for a unit that ranked bottom-five in yards per punt, placing punts inside the 20-yard line and just league-average in penalties, punt return yards, and kick return yards, the Saints blamed it on the players and made moves to upgrade.
New Orleans made Ryan Wright one of the NFL's highest-paid punters, but his opening salvo left a lot to be desired. His first punt was great, traveling 55 yards from his own 9-yard line (Jacksonville picked up 10 yards on the return). His next try somehow traveled just 15 yards, starting at the Saints' own 32-yard line and falling out of bounds. The third punt went 52 yards from the New Orleans 34 and was fairly caught. Wright's fourth punt went 46 yards from his own 19 (the Jaguars gained 8 on the return), and his final punt of the afternoon went for 45 yards. It started near midfield at the New Orleans 46 and pinned the Jaguars offense inside their own 10-yard line. Take out the shanked punt and it's an average of 49.5 yards per punt, but the botched try takes him down to 42.6. That's not good enough.
What about the penalties? Rookie tight end Oscar Help drew a holding foul on a kick return, and linebacker Jackson Sirmon had a face mask on a later kickoff. Cornerback Dalys Beanum was fouled for holding on a punt return. Tight end Zaire Mitchell-Paden was also flagged for holding on a kickoff. All four of those guys would have to play special teams to dress out on the active roster during games, and outside of Delp, utility in the kicking game is the only way three of them would even make it through roster cuts. They can't afford these mistakes. It's a reflection on coaching and Galiano's crew not preparing them for the NFL.
We haven't even talked about the kicking competition. But at least that is trending up after Blake Grupe's performance sunk the Saints to the NFL's worst field goal success rate last season. Galiano shouldn't be fired because three players who probably aren't making the team got flagged in a preseason game and his veteran punter had one really bad kick and four good ones. But he and his assistants should draw more scrutiny after Kellen Moore pointedly kept them around after being hired as head coach and backed them when he could have gone in a different direction. The Saints are betting on Wright, a new gunner in Lorenzo Styles Jr., and new returners like Barion Brown and Ty Chandler turning their special teams around. Let's hope it doesn't come back to bite them.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Saints special teams under scrutiny after error-filled preseason debut