1997 New Orleans Saints Statistics
National Football League (NFL)
Team Record: 6-10
Finishing 4th in the NFL's West Division of the National Football Conference
Coach: Mike Ditka (6-10)
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
1997 New Orleans Saints RosterTeam Record: 6-10
Finishing 4th in the NFL's West Division of the National Football Conference
Coach: Mike Ditka (6-10)
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
1997 New Orleans Saints Results
The New Orleans Saints of the National Football League ended the 1997 season with a record of 6 wins and 10 losses, finishing fourth in the NFL's West Division of the National Football Conference.
New Orleans struggled to score 237 points, worst in the circuit, while the defensive squad conceded 327. Heath Shuler threw for 1,288 yards. Randal Hill grabbed 55 passes for 761 yards. Andre Hastings was targeted regularly as well.
Ray Zellars carried the ball for a team-leading 552 yards for the Saints, while Mario Bates also buoyed the ground attack.
Sammy Knight picked off 5 opponent throws. Wayne Martin topped the defensive unit with 10.5 quarterback sacks, helping propel the defense to an overall total of 59 sacks.
Mike Ditka coached the team.
Click on column headings to sort.
Passing:
| Player | Att | Comp | Comp % | Yds | Yds/Att | TDs | TD % | Ints | Int % | Long | Sacked | Yds Lost | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heath Shuler | 203 | 106 | 52.2 | 1288 | 6.3 | 2 | 1.0 | 14 | 6.9 | 89 | 21 | 132 | 46.6 |
| Billy Hobert | 131 | 61 | 46.6 | 891 | 6.8 | 6 | 4.6 | 8 | 6.1 | 49 | 4 | 29 | 59.0 |
| Danny Wuerffel | 91 | 42 | 46.2 | 518 | 5.7 | 4 | 4.4 | 8 | 8.8 | 47 | 18 | 116 | 42.3 |
| Doug Nussmeier | 32 | 18 | 56.2 | 183 | 5.7 | 0 | 0.0 | 3 | 9.4 | 24 | 6 | 32 | 33.7 |
| Mario Bates | 1 | 1 | 100.0 | 21 | 21.0 | 1 | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 158.3 |
| Randal Hill | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0.0 | ||||
| Totals | 458 | 228 | 49.8 | 2901 | 6.3 | 13 | 2.8 | 33 | 7.2 | 89 | 50 | 317 |
Rushing:
| Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ray Zellars | 156 | 552 | 3.5 | 27 | 4 |
| Mario Bates | 119 | 440 | 3.7 | 74 | 4 |
| Troy Davis | 75 | 271 | 3.6 | 20 | 0 |
| Heath Shuler | 22 | 38 | 1.7 | 8 | 1 |
| Billy Hobert | 12 | 36 | 3.0 | 15 | 0 |
| Andre Hastings | 4 | 35 | 8.8 | 27 | 0 |
| Doug Nussmeier | 8 | 30 | 3.8 | 15 | 0 |
| Danny Wuerffel | 6 | 26 | 4.3 | 10 | 0 |
| Fred McCrary | 8 | 15 | 1.9 | 8 | 0 |
| Randal Hill | 1 | 11 | 11.0 | 11 | 0 |
| Wes Bender | 5 | 9 | 1.8 | 6 | 0 |
| Eric Guliford | 1 | -2 | -2.0 | -2 | 0 |
| Totals | 417 | 1461 | 3.5 | 74 | 9 |
Receiving:
| Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Randal Hill | 55 | 761 | 13.8 | 89 | 2 |
| Andre Hastings | 48 | 722 | 15.0 | 39 | 5 |
| Ray Zellars | 31 | 263 | 8.5 | 38 | 0 |
| Eric Guliford | 27 | 362 | 13.4 | 47 | 1 |
| John Farquhar | 17 | 253 | 14.9 | 42 | 1 |
| Irv Smith | 17 | 180 | 10.6 | 25 | 1 |
| Troy Davis | 13 | 85 | 6.5 | 18 | 0 |
| Mario Bates | 5 | 42 | 8.4 | 15 | 0 |
| Keith Poole | 4 | 98 | 24.5 | 49 | 2 |
| Fred McCrary | 4 | 17 | 4.2 | 11 | 0 |
| Brett Bech | 3 | 50 | 16.7 | 22 | 0 |
| Daryl Hobbs | 2 | 41 | 20.5 | 21 | 1 |
| Nick Savoie | 1 | 14 | 14.0 | 14 | 0 |
| Tony Johnson | 1 | 13 | 13.0 | 13 | 0 |
| Totals | 228 | 2901 | 12.7 | 89 | 13 |
Kicking:
Punting:
| Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Royals | 88 | 4038 | 45.9 | 66 |
| Totals | 88 | 4038 | 45.9 | 66 |
Punt Returns:
| Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eric Guliford | 47 | 498 | 10.6 | 32 | 0 |
| Andre Hastings | 1 | -2 | -2.0 | -2 | 0 |
| Totals | 48 | 496 | 10.3 | 32 | 0 |
Kick Returns:
| Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eric Guliford | 43 | 1128 | 26.2 | 102 | 1 |
| Troy Davis | 9 | 173 | 19.2 | 29 | 0 |
| Brett Bech | 3 | 47 | 15.7 | 30 | 0 |
| Fred McCrary | 2 | 26 | 13.0 | 15 | 0 |
| Jared Tomich | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 58 | 1374 | 23.7 | 102 | 1 |
Interceptions:
| Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sammy Knight | 5 | 75 | 15.0 | 39 | 0 |
| Anthony Newman | 3 | 19 | 6.3 | 17 | 0 |
| Mickey Washington | 2 | 30 | 15.0 | 30 | 0 |
| Eric Allen | 2 | 27 | 13.5 | 27 | 0 |
| Winfred Tubbs | 2 | 21 | 10.5 | 15 | 0 |
| Rob Kelly | 1 | 15 | 15.0 | 15 | 0 |
| Richard Harvey | 1 | 7 | 7.0 | 7 | 0 |
| Totals | 16 | 194 | 12.1 | 39 | 0 |
Sacks:
| Player | No. | Yds | Avg. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wayne Martin | 10.5 | 0.0 | |
| Joe Johnson | 8.5 | 0.0 | |
| Mark Fields | 8.0 | 0.0 | |
| La'Roi Glover | 6.5 | 0.0 | |
| Brady Smith | 5.0 | 0.0 | |
| Alex Molden | 4.0 | 0.0 | |
| Keith Mitchell | 4.0 | 0.0 | |
| Darren Mickell | 3.5 | 0.0 | |
| Richard Harvey | 3.0 | 0.0 | |
| Winfred Tubbs | 2.5 | 0.0 | |
| Pio Sagapolutele | 2.0 | 0.0 | |
| Jared Tomich | 1.0 | 0.0 | |
| Ernest Dixon | 0.5 | 0.0 | |
| Totals | 59.0 | 0 | 0.0 |
Defense and Fumbles:
| Player | Tackle | Solo | Ast | Brup | Fum | FRec | FYds | FTD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winfred Tubbs | 138 | 116 | 44 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Mark Fields | 98 | 88 | 20 | 0 | 2 | 28 | 1 | 4 | |
| Sammy Knight | 75.5 | 67 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alex Molden | 62.5 | 57 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| Wayne Martin | 58.5 | 54 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Anthony Newman | 58 | 53 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Eric Allen | 47.5 | 45 | 5 | 0 | |||||
| Richard Harvey | 46.5 | 43 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Mickey Washington | 42.5 | 40 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Joe Johnson | 42.5 | 39 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Pio Sagapolutele | 29.5 | 24 | 11 | ||||||
| La'Roi Glover | 28.5 | 24 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Brady Smith | 26 | 22 | 8 | ||||||
| Darren Mickell | 26.5 | 20 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 0 | |
| Keith Mitchell | 22 | 20 | 4 | ||||||
| Vashone Adams | 19 | 17 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Rob Kelly | 16.5 | 14 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Chris Hewitt | 14 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Jared Tomich | 11.5 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Austin Robbins | 6 | 6 | 0 | ||||||
| Je'Rod Cherry | 6 | 6 | 0 | ||||||
| Ernest Dixon | 3 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| Donovan Greer | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Heath Shuler | 8 | 3 | -20 | 0 | |||||
| Ray Zellars | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Danny Wuerffel | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Clarence Jones | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Randal Hill | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Brett Bech | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Eric Guliford | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Wes Bender | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Tony Johnson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Jerry Fontenot | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Andre Hastings | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Doug Nussmeier | 1 | 0 | -4 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Troy Davis | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Irv Smith | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Mario Bates | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Billy Hobert | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Totals | 879 | 781 | 196 | 0 | 34 | 27 | 15 | 1 | 17 |
Total Scoring:
| Touchdowns | Other | Total | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Rush | Rec | Punt | Kick | MFG | Int | Fum | Other | FG | X/C | Single | 2Pt | Saf | Points |
| Doug Brien | 23 | 22 | 0 | 91 | ||||||||||
| Andre Hastings | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 32 | ||||||
| Ray Zellars | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 | ||||||||
| Mario Bates | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 | ||||||||
| Keith Poole | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | |||||||||
| Eric Guliford | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | ||||||
| Randal Hill | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | ||||||||
| Heath Shuler | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||||||||
| Irv Smith | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||||||||
| John Farquhar | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||||||||
| Daryl Hobbs | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||||||||
| Mark Fields | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||||||||
| Totals | 9 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 23 | 22 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 237 |
