The Falcoholic
Doubling down for years has cost the Saints, and they should continue to pay the piper in 2025.
For a long time, the New Orleans Saints were one of the darlings of the NFL mediasphere. This was a dual function of lamprey-in-a-human-suit Sean Payton attaching himself to reporters and a sustained level of small market competence the rest of the NFC South simply didn’t measure up to. From 2009 to 2013, the Saints were one of the better teams in the NFC minus one 7-9 season, and they rebounded from three straight 7-9 campaigns to post five straight winning seasons from 2017 to 2021. That plus a relentlessly attention-seeking head coach and a few standout stars will get you plenty of respect, and the Saints reveled in it.
Those days are over. While they exceeded expectations and went 9-8 in 2023, they went 7-10 in 2022 and 5-12 in 2024, turning in a -60 point differential last year and cycling quarterbacks and coaches along the way. They have a new head coach and a new starting quarterback in 2025 with Derek Carr retiring, but this is nobody’s idea of a great roster, filled as it is with young players still needing to prove themselves, free agent signings that had to be made on a budget, and stars who are aging out of greatness. The Saints have an annoying habit of sticking around and staying relevant when you’ve counted them out, and perhaps they will climb out of the muck they find themselves in sometime in the back half of this decade.
Now, though? The Saints seem like a strong bet to find themselves in the basement of the NFC South, which is why I’m kicking off a divisional opponent review with them with no small amount of glee.
It was a disaster, though they still beat the Falcons once because they’re the most annoying team in the world.
After a blazing hot start that saw the Saints go 2-0 and get Derek Carr bewildering MVP buzz, the team predictably crashed down to earth. Carr got Olave hurt on a hospital ball, Kamara went from putting up five touchdowns to managing just three over the rest of the season, and Carr himself ended up hurt, cratering the offense. So after winning their first two games, the Saints lost their next seven, which got Dennis Allen fired hard in favor of high-end special teams weirdo Darren Rizzi, who turned around and went 3-5 the rest of the way.
The end result was the worst record (5-12) that the Saints have had since the 2005 season, and the big collapse the team has been flirting with by doubling down on a creaky roster for years. Would it be the wakeup call New Orleans leadership needed to blow it up and start over?
To answer the question in the previous paragraph: Not really, but kind of. The Saints have avoided adding more fuel...
