WhoDat!656

Interesting read.

The Saints had their first .500 in 1979 at 8-8 under Dick Nolan. That means the franchise started their history with 13 consecutive losing seasons.

The Saints wouldn’t have a winning season until 1987 which marked the time of their first playoff berth.

Very few of us remember anything pre Jim Mora (if we even remember/paid attention that far back) and as a Saints history buff I think it’s important that we remember the “good ol’ days”. Except they weren’t good at all. They were horrible.

Jim Mora’s first season was 1986 and the franchise finally started to see some success. That coincided with Tom Benson purchasing the team in 1985. So what I present to you below are the best players in Saints history prior to the team having any real success.

That might seem silly, but these guys laid the groundwork amidst all the pain and suffering for the team to eventually turn things around. Or maybe they had nothing to do with it whatsoever. But I present to you the best of what was definitely the NFL worst.

This is 11 starters on offense, 11 starters on defense, a kicker, a punter and a returner.

The All Time Saints team from 1967 to 1984 | The Saints Nation

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."

jeanpierre

My All Time Saints Squad...

Defense

DL Derland Moore
DL La'Roi Glover*
DL Jim Wilks
DL Wayne Martin

LB Rickey Jackson
LB Vaughn Johnson
LB Sam Mills
LB Pat Swilling*

CB Dave Waymer
CB Fred Thomas
SS Sammy Knight
FS Tommy Myers

Offense

WR Marques Colston
OT Stan Brock
OG Jim Dombrowski
OC John Hill
OG Jahri Evans
OT Willie Roaf
TE Jimmy Graham
WR Eric Martin
FL Wes Chandler
RB Deuce McAllister
QB Archie Manning

Kicking

P Tommy Barnhardt
K Morten Andersen

WhoDat!656

About the only changes I would make would be Carl Nicks and Brees.

Halo

Rickey Jackson..... Pat Swilling..... Vaughn Johnson.... Sam Mills.... the end.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, AMEN!

foreverfan

MatthewT

Arguably, the Saints had just as many great players between 1967 to 1984 as they did/do 1985 to present. The issue to me is the amount of average to good players is much better in the seasons after 1984 than it was in one's before.

Halo

Coaching.... we had some famous couches too, but they couldn't gather it together here. It's a pitty Archie Manning was hurt nearly all of the two seasons Hank Stram was head coach. Those two seasons we literally had no QB. If only he had one more season.

hagan714

Go by ownership.

playboy years

non playboy years

Halo

That too.