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Saints open as early favorites against rival Falcons

The two teams always play each other tough, though.

By Chris Dunnells

The 2022 NFL season is finally here.

The New Orleans Saints (0-0) open Week 1 on the road against their division rival Atlanta Falcons (0-0).

Currently, the Saints are favored by 5.5 points against the Falcons according to DraftKings Sportsbook. Considering home teams are generally favored by 3 points as a matter of course, these odds essentially think the Saints should be able to beat the Falcons by close to two possessions.

Thinking back to each team’s respective offseasons, it’s not crazy to justify the Saints being favored this high. The Saints added (or are seeing the return of) high-powered offensive stars in Michael Thomas, Chris Olave, and Jarvis Landry, while the Falcons lost Calvin Ridley to a full-season suspension and Matt Ryan to a trade to the Indianapolis Colts.

These two teams always play each other tightly, and the prevailing theory is that you can “throw the win-loss records out of the window” when trying to predict a winner, and considering there are no win-loss records yet, it makes this Sunday’s game even more chaotic.

There’s always a reason we play the games.