Why? It's not like the Saints were 3-13 and had a bottom tier defense last year. The team was 9-8 and finished the season tied for 1st in the division last year.

And supposedly the weakest link, Pete Carmichael, is now gone and the offense is replaced with one that's more QB friendly and systematic.

The Saints 2024 season is going to come down to a handful a games that are realistically toss ups:

1. The Dallas, Philly, KC sequence in the first 5 weeks. Realistically the team could come out of that 0-3. Getting one upset here, especially on the NFC side, would go a long way towards being sucessful.

2. The 3 division games in the first 6 weeks. 3-0 is doable as the team last year went 3-0 in the last 3 and dominated in the process. 2-1 is realistic. Anything worst and you're probably right.

3. The #2 NFC position games: Green Bay and LA Rams. This is the year where the Saints can prove they can compete with quality opponents and these are the teams in the tier they need to show that.

4. Cleveland. Another quality opponent.

They come out with these 500 or above and 2-1 in the division, they are well positioned with the rest of their schedule to get to 10-7.

It's realistic. The only question is can they execute well enough to pull it off.

See what you get from me when every comment isn't just trash talk?

SFIAH