The temptation to win now (17 Viewers)

[weunice]

I don't care what year it is.... Every year the mindset is.... We are winning the super bowl. Which remains until we are eliminated.

They are going to make a plan and put together a team for next season. IF that plan is about getting younger and creating an environment for the evaluation of that young talent for the long term, it will be what it is.

My expectation and hope is, once that team is put together, they will NOT tank. If they win 8 or 9 and end up with a lesser set of draft picks then call it what it is -- exceeded expectations and growth. Professionals play to win. Heck, high school kids play to win. You cannot take the competitor out of athletes and your true long term goal needs to be building the culture to win. Winning is about details, process etc. It is LEARNED behavior and it has high expectations. You cannot undermine that expectation.

Intentionally losing creates culture problems long term.
If they are serious about winning long term, they are NOT going to intentionally tank.
The process is about winning. Period.

Bowling is my game. Sandbaggers are intentional losers. They are a scourge on the game and nobody likes them. Integrity demands the highest effort --- always.

 

[Boy_of_wonder75]

I am not advocating that we avoid competing. But I am advocating that we focus on the long-term. The prospect of, say, winning the division 8-9 and losing a playoff game by four touchdowns does not excite me. If it happens, I can take a terrible 2025 season. In fact, I am expecting one. But I cannot take the continued embrace of mediocrity that adversely affects our chances of being a legitimate championship contender in three years or so.

Again, my approach for 2025 would be to begin whatever we need to do to have a favorable salary cap and to field a truly competitive team in 2027.

Absolutely not. There is no "long term" in the NFL, only now. Do whatever you need to do to win this year and then do it again the next and the next.

 

[Derek_B]

Lots of chatter about rebuilding and playing the long game, but with this schedule and a reset at head coach, how can you not be tempted to try to make a run at the playoffs? No other bottom 10 team in the league has a clearer path to a division title than the Saints. The Bucs are the 'best' team in a bad division. The Falcons are likely below average as it stands, and the Panthers still have a long way to go.

Has any team in NFL history ever had an easier-looking home schedule than the Saints in 2025?

Here's the home opponents along with their league-wide rank in terms of preseason odds:

Giants (31st best team)
Panthers (30th best)
Jets (29th best)
Patriots (27th best)
Falcons (21st best)
Cardinals (19th best)
Bucs (16th best)
49ers (6th best)

So basically one above average team on the entire home schedule. The Saints have a viable path to being favored in as many as four home games, and should have a very reasonable chance to win three others.

The road schedule includes a game at Titans, the consensus worst team in football, as well as the below-average Dolphins, and of course three in-division games against average to below average teams. The only highly likely losses on the schedule are road games at Buffalo, at LA Rams.

The Bucs have a way harder schedule by comparison. While the Saints draw the Giants, Bears and Titans, the Bucs face the Eagles, Lions (road) and Texans (road). No team is running away with this division. If Moore can make the offense competent, and if the coaching staff runs circles around what was here last year, the Saints seem like a viable sleeper.

Dont' worry, with this schedule we'll win just enough games to continue the tradition of never drafting the most important player on a football field in the first round.

 

[Taker597]

We had the easiest schedule in 2023 and barely able to squeak out at 9-8.

We immediately jumped up to the 13th hardest schedule in 2024 and got embarrassed.

We already been down this road.

 

[Bill]

Lots of chatter about rebuilding and playing the long game, but with this schedule and a reset at head coach, how can you not be tempted to try to make a run at the playoffs? No other bottom 10 team in the league has a clearer path to a division title than the Saints. The Bucs are the 'best' team in a bad division. The Falcons are likely below average as it stands, and the Panthers still have a long way to go.

Has any team in NFL history ever had an easier-looking home schedule than the Saints in 2025?

Here's the home opponents along with their league-wide rank in terms of preseason odds:

Giants (31st best team)
Panthers (30th best)
Jets (29th best)
Patriots (27th best)
Falcons (21st best)
Cardinals (19th best)
Bucs (16th best)
49ers (6th best)

So basically one above average team on the entire home schedule. The Saints have a viable path to being favored in as many as four home games, and should have a very reasonable chance to win three others.

The road schedule includes a game at Titans, the consensus worst team in football, as well as the below-average Dolphins, and of course three in-division games against average to below average teams. The only highly likely losses on the schedule are road games at Buffalo, at LA Rams.

The Bucs have a way harder schedule by comparison. While the Saints draw the Giants, Bears and Titans, the Bucs face the Eagles, Lions (road) and Texans (road). No team is running away with this division. If Moore can make the offense competent, and if the coaching staff runs circles around what was here last year, the Saints seem like a viable sleeper.

Some of these opponents are in rebuild mode like us, and some have a bit of a head start. I'm not sure that you can automatically assume they will be a worse team than our own. I know that fans want to 'win now' and want our organization to throw caution to the wind by doing everything to get us into the playoffs, especially with a seemingly favorable schedule on the docket. But this relentless 'can kicking' doesn't seem to be getting our team anywhere.

And what if we sell out to make the playoffs this year solely due to our favorable schedule? Then what? Will we be facing any of these 'weaker' teams in the postseason? Likely not. I don't know about you folks but I want to see the Saints in the playoffs when there is a reasonable chance that we can get past the first round of playoff games. Why cripple the following year's draft just to say we beat enough 'bad' teams to make the playoffs?

 

[Saint KayBee]

We had the easiest schedule in 2023 and barely able to squeak out at 9-8.

We immediately jumped up to the 13th hardest schedule in 2024 and got embarrassed.

We already been down this road.

Nobody got injured or aged or otherwise played below expectations. Everybody was on their A-game all season long; Schedule, a living and breathing lifeform, did that to the Saints. All that went wrong is Schedule’s fault. Thank you for clearing that up.

 

[WilliamBrees]

Lots of chatter about rebuilding and playing the long game, but with this schedule and a reset at head coach, how can you not be tempted to try to make a run at the playoffs? No other bottom 10 team in the league has a clearer path to a division title than the Saints. The Bucs are the 'best' team in a bad division. The Falcons are likely below average as it stands, and the Panthers still have a long way to go.

Has any team in NFL history ever had an easier-looking home schedule than the Saints in 2025?

Here's the home opponents along with their league-wide rank in terms of preseason odds:

Giants (31st best team)
Panthers (30th best)
Jets (29th best)
Patriots (27th best)
Falcons (21st best)
Cardinals (19th best)
Bucs (16th best)
49ers (6th best)

So basically one above average team on the entire home schedule. The Saints have a viable path to being favored in as many as four home games, and should have a very reasonable chance to win three others.

The road schedule includes a game at Titans, the consensus worst team in football, as well as the below-average Dolphins, and of course three in-division games against average to below average teams. The only highly likely losses on the schedule are road games at Buffalo, at LA Rams.

The Bucs have a way harder schedule by comparison. While the Saints draw the Giants, Bears and Titans, the Bucs face the Eagles, Lions (road) and Texans (road). No team is running away with this division. If Moore can make the offense competent, and if the coaching staff runs circles around what was here last year, the Saints seem like a viable sleeper.

The Rams may actually be a winnable game with what they're doing. That was looking like a loss before but if they don't have Stafford, they're not going to be as good. I get the sense McVay is rebuilding. If SF doesn't revert to 2021-2023 form, that's another W on our schedule. However, we're not going to win both those games with Rattler.

 

[WilliamBrees]

The HC said in his press conference they are not tanking.

 

[Taker597]

Nobody got injured or aged or otherwise played below expectations. Everybody was on their A-game all season long; Schedule, a living and breathing lifeform, did that to the Saints. All that went wrong is Schedule’s fault. Thank you for clearing that up.

Because injuries are going to magically stop and we'll somehow stop the clock on players declining even further.

 

[Taker597]

The HC said in his press conference they are not tanking.

Why would a head coach ever admit that even if they are!?

 

[sfidc3]

The overall weakness of the NFC South since all the stalwart QBs retired/moved on made it winnable even for DA. He of course screwed it up, though. I typed the exact same thing last year, but I'll do it again.....any semblance of "normal" in terms of injuries this next season just might translate to a playoff berth.

It's possible and at least for me, it is always the main goal of any season, make the playoffs and you give yourself a chance....

I don't care what year it is.... Every year the mindset is.... We are winning the super bowl. Which remains until we are eliminated.

Agreed, I don't get the point of the OP's post and in today's NFL things can turnaround very quickly, a good draft is what we really need....

 

[Pensacola]

The schedule is an afterthought to building a great team first and foremost. You do (management and coaches) whatever it takes to get to great and then stay there. Always searching for improvements throughout the entire roster, via every avenue. Who is on your schedule is irrelevant. Beating the lower tier teams now might get you to the playoffs, but not the superbowl.

 

[AARPSaint]

Agree that the best way, perhaps the only way, to right this ship is through the draft. Free agency costs too much cap space, and free agency activity has been appropriately modest lately. With the new regime, player evaluations of drafted players simply must improve and improve a lot. Just because a decent percentage of the drafted players start, play a lot of snaps, and/or get second contracts means very little if there aren’t stellar players and/or all-pros among them.

 

[Saint KayBee]

Because injuries are going to magically stop and we'll somehow stop the clock on players declining even further.

You cited Schedule as the determinant factor in the team’s success, not me

It is known that there was a lax approach to stretching in-season and an intense approach to pre-season practice in ‘24, both of which lead to injuries and are expected to be changed in ‘25

KM has no allegiance to any of these players and has basically said all position battles are open, which was the same approach Sean Payton took - in this case, it is less about culture buy-in (Payton had the cap space to ship guys out) and hopefully more about getting better, rising players on the roster onto the field while realizing there’s not much he can do outside of fair camp battles and “may the best man win”

Dennis Allen is gone, he can’t hurt this team or this fan base anymore, this is the time and opportunity to believe in the new possibilities ahead instead of continuing to judge the team through the DA lens

 

[Taker597]

You cited Schedule as the determinant factor in the team’s success, not me

It is known that there was a lax approach to stretching in-season and an intense approach to pre-season practice in ‘24, both of which lead to injuries and are expected to be changed in ‘25

KM has no allegiance to any of these players and has basically said all position battles are open, which was the same approach Sean Payton took - in this case, it is less about culture buy-in (Payton had the cap space to ship guys out) and hopefully more about getting better, rising players on the roster onto the field while realizing there’s not much he can do outside of fair camp battles and “may the best man win”

Dennis Allen is gone, he can’t hurt this team or this fan base anymore, this is the time and opportunity to believe in the new possibilities ahead instead of continuing to judge the team through the DA lens

I didn't start this thread... Which is *check notes*


Talked about how easy the schedule is ...