The Saints came out of their bye week with no game on the schedule and somehow still ended up in a worse spot.
New Orleans entered Week 8 tied with Tampa Bay for last place in the NFC South. By the time the weekend wrapped up, the Saints were standing alone in the basement.
The Buccaneers and Falcons played each other, which meant the division couldn’t break cleanly in New Orleans’ favor, but a Tampa Bay win paired with a Carolina loss was still the best possible setup for the Saints. It just came with the ugly side effect of leaving them by themselves at the bottom.
The bigger problem is what the standings now say about the division around them. Carolina and Atlanta losing left the three teams ahead of New Orleans with three wins apiece, while the Saints are stuck on two.
There was a path where two teams could have entered the next week with four wins, and that would have been a far worse outcome. Atlanta winning would have been bad on its own, too, since the Saints already lost to the Falcons.
For all the movement elsewhere, the Saints have given nobody much reason to think they can take advantage of a division that is still very much up for grabs. They’re the only NFC South team without a divisional win, and they’re also the only club in the group to lose to Atlanta, with everyone having already played the Falcons.
That’s why the Saints’ place in the standings feels earned. The division is crowded, but New Orleans hasn’t shown the kind of fight that suggests it can climb out of the hole.
Tampa Bay, meanwhile, is the team making the most noise. The Buccaneers are quietly picking up steam, and they don’t feel heartless.
The Saints do, and they may be the only team in the division that can be described that way.
The Panthers have been inconsistent, but they’ve still flashed enough success at different points this season. Atlanta has had its moments too, including last week’s win over the 49ers.
Tampa Bay’s recent stretch looks different. The Buccaneers fought through a game with a backup quarterback, pushed the Steelers to overtime, and have now won two straight division games.
They did it with 64 yards passing in one game and 0 yards on three attempts this week.
That kind of momentum is a bad sign for a Saints defense that has trouble stopping the run.
And for New Orleans, the slide feels tied to something deeper than one bad Sunday. When the Saints were punching above their weight early, they played with all the heart in the world.
At the time, that looked like a strength. Now it looks like that may have been all the heart they had for the season.
Things haven’t been the same since Week 2, and the collapse against the Raiders was the moment everything turned.
In Other News...
Gayle Benson Sends Saints A Clear Message About This Season
Gayle Benson made it clear this week that the Saints are not being judged solely by their 2-5 start, at least not in the moment. The New Orleans owner said she has confidence in the players effort and signaled that the organization will take a broader look at the roster and staff once the season is over, a familiar stance for a team trying to steady itself while the losses pile up.
There has already been one notable change on the coaching side, with the Saints parting ways with run-game coordinator T.J. Paganetti after the rushing offense struggled badly. Benson also touched on the leagues growing international footprint, including the possibility of New Orleans being part of an NFL International Series game in Italy as the league expands its Global Markets Program there, adding another layer to a season that still has plenty of questions attached to it. [Read more 🡒]
Browns Face A Bigger Question Than The Offense In New Orleans
The Browns head to New Orleans on Sunday with both teams trying to steady themselves after recent losses, and the matchup carries a little more weight than a simple rebound spot. The Saints come out of their bye week as slight home favorites, which says plenty about how odd this season has been for both sides and how much the market still trusts New Orleans to sort things out at home.
Much of the attention will naturally fall on the Saints offense, where Chris Olave remains the most important name to watch even as his production has cooled from the strong start he gave them. Cleveland has its own issues to clean up, but the bigger question in this game may be whether New Orleans can use the extra week to re-establish itself before the pressure around the season starts to tighten. [Read more 🡒]
Saints Reach A Roster Crossroads With Deadline Pressure Building
With the Saints still sorting through a difficult stretch, the next few days have become about more than just the game plan. New Orleans is evaluating injured players Jordyn Tyson, Travis Etienne Jr. and Kelvin Banks Jr. for possible returns to practice, a sign the staff is at least hoping to get some bodies back in the mix as it tries to steady the roster.
At the same time, the front office is keeping an eye on the bigger picture. Kendre Miller and Justin Reid are among the names being monitored as possible trade candidates if the Saints decide to sell, which adds another layer of uncertainty to a roster already facing important decisions. Nothing has been finalized, but the pressure is building as New Orleans weighs whether to push forward with what it has or start reshaping the group around it. [Read more 🡒]