The New Orleans Saints head into their bye week with a problem that’s hard to ignore and even harder to solve: they’re 2-5, last in the NFC South, and two games back in the wild-card chase after a 16-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Paris.
That kind of start usually does not lead to January football. Since the NFL shifted to four-team divisions in 2002, 122 teams have opened 2-5.
Only nine of them managed to claw their way into the playoffs, a success rate of 7.4 percent. The math gets a little friendlier in the seven-team playoff era, but not by much.
Since 2020, four of 33 teams that began 2-5 reached the postseason, which comes out to 12.1 percent.
Still, Cam Jordan isn’t ready to toss the season aside. When he appeared on ESPN’s “Get Up” on Wednesday, the veteran defensive end sounded genuinely upbeat about what’s in front of the Saints, especially on offense and with Kellen Moore steering the operation.
“We’re sitting at 2-5, and I’m like, how did we get here?” Jordan said.
“Because we have such a high, potent offense. You talk about Chris Olave, Devaughn Vele, you know, not even inserting Jordyn Tyson, who’s coming back soon.
You talk about Tyler Shough, how he’s grown.
“… Kellen comes in and says, ‘Hey, this is gonna be our identity.’ He comes in a cool, calm manner at all times. He’s fired up and energetic in talking to his guys, just, ‘Hey, this is what we need to do.’”
The Saints may need more than optimism, though. One more win along the way would have changed the picture quite a bit.
Teams that start 3-4 have made the playoffs at a 14.5 percent rate since 2002, and that number jumps to 24.4 percent in the expanded postseason era. For New Orleans, there are already a couple of what-ifs hanging around that 2-5 record, including the overtime loss at Detroit on Sept. 13 and the four-turnover fourth quarter against Las Vegas on Sept.
Even with a little historical wiggle room, the Saints are in a tough spot. They are closer to the NFC South-leading Carolina Panthers, who are 3-3, than they are to any current wild-card team. And among the nine teams that have turned a 2-5 start into a playoff berth over the last 24 seasons, five won their division with a record of 9-7 or worse.
New Orleans also carries a problem that has been too big for most teams to overcome: a minus-32 point differential through seven games. Since 2002, only three of 76 teams that were 2-5 with a point differential of minus-30 or worse made the playoffs. Those exceptions were the 2002 New York Jets, the 2011 Denver Broncos and the 2015 Houston Texans.
But those turnarounds came with major changes. The Jets went to Chad Pennington, the Broncos turned to Tim Tebow, and the Texans lost Brian Hoyer and spent most of the year sorting out quarterback play. The Saints, by contrast, are not moving on from Shough.
There is one recent example that gives New Orleans at least a sliver of hope: the 2021 Philadelphia Eagles. They had a young head coach, a second-year quarterback drafted in the second round, and a 2-5 start with a minus-26 point differential before Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts helped them finish 9-8 and grab an NFC wild card.
That’s the hopeful version of the story. The more common one is not nearly as encouraging, and the Saints know the work starts now. After the loss in Paris, Moore laid out the task ahead.
“We’ve just gotta really dig in and solve this thing,” Moore said after the loss in Paris. “Any time you go into a bye week, you go into evaluation mode as far as identifying the things you need to work on and solving those.”
In Other News...
Saints Defense Is Forcing A Brutal Brandon Staley Conversation
A year after looking like one of the more reliable units in the league, the Saints defense has taken a sharp step backward in 2026, and the drop-off is hard to ignore. New Orleans returned most of its starters and avoided major injury trouble, yet the group has slipped near the bottom of the NFL in both points and yards allowed, a stunning turn for a defense that was supposed to be a strength again.
The biggest concern is that the problems are showing up in different places at once. The defensive line has not held up the way it did a season ago, even with Chase Young and Carl Granderson doing their part off the edge, while the linebackers have been exposed in coverage with opposing quarterbacks finding too much success when they are the nearest defenders. For a staff that was expected to build on last years foundation, the film is starting to raise an uncomfortable Brandon Staley conversation that New Orleans cannot avoid much longer. [Read more 🡒]
Saints Offense May Finally Be Getting The Receiving Help It Needs
The Saints have leaned hard on Chris Olave and Devaughn Vele for much of the season, and the lack of consistent production behind them has left the passing game thin in spots. Help may be getting closer, though, with Jordyn Tyson nearing the end of his recovery from the hamstring injury that has kept him sidelined since August, and his presence in pre-game warm-ups suggests the team is finally moving toward a healthier receiver room.
Tysons return would matter because the Saints have been searching for another dependable option who can take some of the load off the top two targets and give the offense a more balanced look. If he can get back into the mix, he has a chance to settle in as a meaningful piece of the rotation and give New Orleans a receiving boost it has been waiting for. [Read more 🡒]
Saints Draft Outlook Suddenly Hinges On One Big Coaching Question
The Saints are heading toward the draft with a familiar set of needs and a familiar amount of uncertainty, and the conversation around their first-round direction is already being shaped by the people in the building as much as the players on the board. Offensive line help and defensive front help both make sense, with Greg Johnson and Xavier Gilliam emerging as names to watch as New Orleans weighs where it needs the biggest immediate upgrade.
What makes this spot so tricky is that the Saints recent track record with drafting defensive linemen has not exactly inspired confidence, which puts extra weight on how the current coaching staff views development. If the staff change brings a different approach to teaching and usage, it could alter how the team evaluates its options up front and whether it leans toward a safer fit or a higher-upside swing. [Read more 🡒]