I don’t know about that. Since the Benson family acquired the team in ‘86, the Saints are a bunch of games over .500 (I think .535).
Given the average age of NFL players and coaches, I don’t think there are many who would remember the pre-Benson era when the Saints were in the Browns-Bengals-Jets-Lions tier — and things change so fast that you cantilevered even include the non-Jets teams without qualification.