The wake of the release of the Saint’s 2024 regular season schedule sees many fans questioning if the team could see the postseason for the first time since 2020. NOLA.com’s Luke Johnson, who covers the Saints, says early season games against the Cowboys, Eagles, Falcons and Super Bowl champion Chiefs will test the Black and Gold.
“We’re gonna see if they [the Saints]’re any good,” says Johnson. “And on the flip side, we’re gonna see if they’re gonna be bad, right? I mean, some people are worried about that, that maybe after a couple mediocre years, they kind of backslide a little bit even more. And if that’s gonna be the case, we should know. We should know within the first three or four games of the season.”
The Saints had one of the easiest schedules last year but failed to make the playoffs. Johnson says based on 2023 win-loss records the 2024 schedule is not difficult, adding, “[e]ven with the defending Super Bowl champions [Kansas City Chiefs]; and the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles, who were both playoff teams; and the Green Bay Packers, who were a playoff team; and the Cleveland Browns, who were a playoff team… even with all those teams on the schedule this year, they [the Saints] still have the second-easiest strength of schedule in the NFL right now by the 2023 records. But, like, it doesn’t feel that way.”
Some games to look forward to this season are Jayden Daniels and the Commanders, Malik Nabers and the Giants and perhaps the most anticipated reunion, Sean Payton and the Broncos. Despite how shaky the Saints may seem, Johnson says they have a fighting chance against their old coach.
“It’s gonna be a really tough job for Sean Payton this year,” says Johnson. “If he has them [the Broncos] playing even decent football coming into New Orleans, he’s going to be doing a very good coaching job. I just think it has a chance to really get away from them. So it’s good they have the storyline in there, it’s going to be a lot of fun revisiting a lot of Sean Payton stories, but yeah, the networks definitely fought over the story and not the quality of the game on that one, I think.”
The Saints open the regular season with a game at home against the Panthers, kicking off at noon on September 8th.
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