SmashMouth

For the third straight season, the New Orleans Saints failed to eclipse the .500 mark at any point in the season, something they have in common with only the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The players and coaches think the 2016 team was different than the previous two squads that finished with the same 7-9 record, but heading into the offseason, the Saints face the same questions they've been unable to answer the past couple years.

Head coach Sean Payton said Monday night on WWL-AM 870 he plans to return for 2017, which should put to rest rumors regarding his future, and Saints players think winning next year is the best way to prevent similar reports from starting during the season.

Meanwhile, a return will make Payton the only active coach in the league to sustain three straight losing seasons with his current team. To a man, the players think wholesale changes aren't necessary because of the young core in place -- the 2016 draft class being a key reason -- and the growth in some areas this past season. The locker room didn't splinter during a trying year, and the Saints like the change in culture from previous seasons.



But, the team -- and in particular quarterback Drew Brees -- realizes it can't keep saying next year if it wasn't to avoid what punter Thomas Morstead described as an "empty feeling" walking off the field in Week 17.

"At some point you got to get tired of losing, you know what I'm saying?" linebacker Dannell Ellerbe said. "Nobody likes losing. If leadership needs to step up and demand more, it's been two years for me being 7-9. That's not what I'm about. We're going to have to do what we have to do to get better on defense."

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