It’s interesting to me how the Saints are kind of lurking.
They won the NFC South four consecutive years from 2017-20. Last year, even after losing Jameis Winston to a torn ACL in midseason, and in their first year post-Drew Brees, they were able to cobble together a 9-8 season. This year, they don’t have Sean Payton, either. But they still have a boatload of talent, and a lot of the infrastructure from the Payton era remains in place.
And in the opener, what might’ve seemed like a layup wasn’t—yet, it led to a gut-check win in which New Orleans came back from 16 down in the fourth quarter for the first time in franchise history.