It feels like forever since the Saints have been relevant
Curious, as I can only see your 2011 SR sign-up date and don't want to surmise that that's how long you've been a fan or that you're very young. How old are you and how long have you been a fan of the Saints?
I can promise you, there is a significant difference between the feeling of 3-13 vs. 9-8.
3-13 usually entails some crazy 0-8/1-7 type start, to where you're not even paying attention the last two months of the year and you're embarrassed to even identify publicly as a fan of the team. Hell, even this very message board would become a ghost town.
I am 39 y/o and have been a Saints fan since elementary. I became a bigger overall NFL fan at 21 y/o when I started gambling on it lol.
My personal feeling about the ‘23 Saints wouldn’t change if they won three or nine games.
I understand what you’re saying about having playoff hopes until the end being the reason that nine wins is better than three wins, but I personally lost playoff hopes after the Bears win.
The loss at GB was terrible!
They won the turnover battle, won the penalty battle, scored a special teams TD, and had a 17pt lead in the final quarter and still lost. Losing Carr late in the game is not a good enough reason to still lose that game. Payton lost Jameis at the beginning of the Tom Brady led TB game and still beat them easily with Trevor Seimian! Good coaches find a way and DA proved what he’s made of with that game.
Then they follow the GB loss with getting blown out by the Bucs at home. DA once again proving what he’s made of coming off the horrible GB loss.
Then, the last straw for me was when the Bagent led Bears came to the dome and turned the ball over five times and the Saints still only beat them by one score. That was a pathetic win.
Those three games were enough for me to see that they weren’t the best team in the division and wouldn’t make the playoffs. Those three games confirmed what we already knew about DA. So, I personally lost playoff hopes mid way through the season.