Saints 2025 Year in Review: Pete Werner had a season of ups and downs
· Yahoo Sports
New defensive coordinator Brandon Staley helped lead a New Orleans Saints turnaround on that side of the ball in 2025. Despite a relatively drastic change in scheme and philosophy, the Saints ranked 9th in total defense, 4th against the pass, and showed major improvements against the run. This happened in spite of preseason concerns about age and overall fit of some of the returning players.
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One of those questions surrounded linebacker Pete Werner, who had been with New Orleans for four previous seasons. A second round choice in 2021 from the Ohio State Buckeyes, Werner had a productive career and had been a fixture alongside Demario Davis in New Orleans. Going into 2025, there had been some limitations in Werner's game that had some concerned about his fit in Staley's system. Here's how it turned out.
Pete Werner Year in Review
- Position: Linebacker
- Age: 26
- Height: 6-feet, 3 inches
- Weight: 242 pounds
- NFL experience: 5 years (with Saints)
- 2025 season: 17 games (15 starts)
It was no surprise that Werner opened the season as a starter beside Davis. It's a role he'd had since midway through his rookie campaign. In those previous four seasons, however, Werner hadn't produced enough big plays. Coming into 2025, Werner had just 1 interception, 10 passes broken up, 4 fumbles forced or recovered, a half sack, and 14 tackles for loss. He was viewed as steady, but unspectacular. There were other flaws that were exposed in even bigger ways during the 2025 season.
Pete Werner had never been great in open space, but became a major liability in that area for the Saints this year. He was targeted with great success by opposing passing attacks, but also isolated and victimized in the open field by their running games. The weaknesses against the pass forced Staley to use Davis in much more of a coverage role instead of mixing up his versatile skill set, while using Werner to rush the passer to cut down his reps in the open field. This resulted in Werner recording a career-best 2 sacks and 3 pressures, but still not nearly enough disruption for the defense.
As he usually is, Werner was steady against the run inside the tackle box. He had 81 tackles, third on the team, and 50 solo stops while matching his career-best 4 tackles for loss. Werner was also credited with 15 missed tackles, by far the worst of his five-year career. He did recover 3 fumbles and broke up 5 passes, both a career-high output, in a year full of ups and downs.
Simply put, Werner's limitations and his struggles in space became a major liability for New Orleans. He often was taken off the field for the more athletic Isaiah Stalbird in obvious passing situations and even gave way to rookie Danny Stutsman down the stretch in some base alignments. With Demario Davis turning 37 and potentially entering free agency, the Saints have some pressing questions at linebacker.
Starting in 2026, Pete Werner will cost over $8 million against the New Orleans salary cap for the next two seasons. Even a post-June 1 results in a big cap hit with little savings, but Werner could be a trade candidate if the Saints look to bring back Davis and build around Stutsman, Stalbird, and another potential linebacker addition.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Saints 2025 Year in Review: Pete Werner had a season of ups and downs