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In the four decades before Drew Brees and Sean Payton arrived, the New Orleans Saints finished only two seasons with a top-five offense: the high-flying 1979 team led by Archie Manning, Chuck Muncie and Henry Childs and the 1969 team, which competed in the pre-merger 16-team NFL.

In the decade since Brees and Payton took control in 2006, the Saints have led the league five times and finished in the top five every year but 2010, when they finished sixth. In the same span, they have led the league in scoring offense twice and finished in the top 10 eight times.

It's an almost unprecedented run of offensive prolificacy. The Saints' average of 403.2 yards per game over the past decade is the highest in NFL history. Their average of 27.4 points per game in the same span is second only to the current New England Patriots (29.1).




No NFL team has generated this much offense for this long since the great San Francisco 49ers teams of the 1980s and mid-1990s. Statistically, the Saints are putting up historic numbers that rank with the greatest offenses in NFL history.

And if they keep it up, they very well could one day claim the mantle as the greatest offense of all-time.

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lee909

Im sick of hearing how great the yards per game is.

Yards mean nothing if you end up not getting the ball over the line.

AsylumGuido

The Saints were eighth in the NFL last season in points per game. Points per game is what you get when you get the ball over the line.

lee909

Scoring 6pts a game less than the team that topped the league and 9pts less than 2011. This offense has generally gone backwards in post scoring for the past few years. The Saints best two seasons 2009/2011 they average 30+ ppg. They have averaged 25ppg for most of the past 4 years and have had 1 winning season in that time

AsylumGuido

No doubt, but the defense was also much better and spent far less time on the field giving the offense more opportunities. I never said this offense was as good as 2009 or 2011, but with a healthy Ingram and an upgrade of Thomas over Colston AND a much improved defense, I do expect this year's offense to be more productive than last season's.

foreverfan

Saints need to lower offensive and increase defensive turnovers.

We are second to the Pats because Payton doesn't draft LSU Players.

halloween 65

There was nothing Like the 2011 Saints O. A thing of beauty to watch. Made teams install D's to take it down over the years and they have.

burningmetal

There are a log jam of teams every year that average around 25 points a game. Ranking eighth in points isn't much different from being 15th or 16th. This hasn't been an elite offense the last two years. Factor in the garbage yards/points at the end of blowouts we have been on the wrong side of, and it puts things into perspective a bit better. I roll my eyes every time I read something about the Saints "high powered" offense.

I think it will be better this year, but I just honestly can't get around that leaky O-line. People will constantly bring up the old days, but nobody on those teams were making 20 million a year. There is a different expectation now. Aside from the defense needing to be better, this offense has to be better than just good. Quite frankly, they were awful at times last year. The Redskins game, the Eagles game, the Cardinals game and the Texans game were all miserable. There were a couple more that were less than inspiring. There was also the game against Tampa where Drew got hurt. Everything went wrong in that one.

There's been no consistency. It would be nice to see that again.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard that, the NFL would fine and suspend me.

Rugby Saint II

Sometimes future HOF'ers are leading the league at the time in stats. But they usually do have a good team surrounding them.

WillSaints81

It was that or the oline?