New Orleans Saints safety Tyrann Mathieu joined the secondary this season with some high expectations.
Mathieu, a former LSU superstar, was looked at to help replace Marcus Williams and other talent in the secondary in The Big Easy.
The start was a bit slow for “The Honey Badger.” It took a bit of at time for him to get comfortable with a new staff and defense.
After about the first month of the year, his talent began to shine through for the Saints.
By the end of the season, he was making elite plays for New Orleans on defense. That was a bit of the story of the season for the team in general, though.
The defense struggled in the first half of the season. It was peculiar.
Then, like a switch, the defense started playing better ball. It was one of the best units in the NFL in the second half of the season.
Mathieu was a massive piece of that as he improved his tackling and also forced some important turnovers for the Saints.
He also set a new record for his own impressive career this year, so that’s pretty cool.
In his 10th NFL season, @Mathieu_Era posted a career-high 91 tackles ⚜️
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) January 10, 2023
In the regular season finale at the Dome, the New Orleans native tallied eight total tackles, an INT, and a forced fumble 💪 pic.twitter.com/GXVrOWuHyK
Mathieu was also among the best players at his position for the season in total.
Pro Football Focus ranked him in the top five for safeties based on their advanced grading.
The Saints had five players graded among the Top 10 at their positions this season, per @PFF:
— Jeff Duncan (@JeffDuncan_) January 11, 2023
QB Andy Dalton, 7th
TE Taysom Hill, 6th
S Tyrann Mathieu, 5th
LB Demario Davis, 5th
LB Kaden Elliss, 6th
This advanced stat of the week is powered by Boston Scientific!
For Mathieu, they are all positives to build off of for next season.
Hopefully, it’s one that finds a bit more success on both sides of the ball for the Saints.
