Everyone is talking about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as the team to beat in the NFC, and the New Orleans Saints have to be loving the position they’re in, essentially flying in under the radar, which is new for them.
The Saints have won 11 or more games and qualified for the playoffs each of the past three seasons, winning division titles in all of those. Had it not been for one of the most awful blown calls in NFL Playoff history, due to a non-call on blatant pass interference on Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman in the 2018 NFC conference championship game, there’s a good chance the Saints would’ve won a Super Bowl that year.
And now the team enters the 2020 season, hungrier than they’ve ever been (like Sports Betting Philippines), coming off an embarrassing overtime loss to the Vikings in the NFC Wild Card Playoffs. The crushing loss essentially cancelled out the Saints’ impressive 13-3 record, as they went one-and-done, and exited the playoffs as quickly as they entered.
But they’ll likely channel that motivation into this season, as they’ve done in the past, using adversity to fuel them, and they come into this particular campaign in a great spot. They have one of the most innovative head coaches in the game, Sean Payton, and future Hall of Famer Drew Brees, who, at 41 years of age, could be entering his final season. It’s safe to say the team is “all in” on this season, and the acquisition of veteran wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders gives them a vertical receiving threat to stretch the field and open things up underneath — something they really lacked late in the season last year, and it really hurt them. Add Sanders into what the team already has in Michael Thomas, Alvin Kamara and Jared Cook, and it’s safe to say this is the most weapons Brees has ever had around him.
And yet, the Saints don’t have to deal with the pressure of being the “team to beat,” as everyone is talking about the Bucs, now that they’ve signed Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski. Add those two in to offensive mastermind Bruce Arians, and it’s likely that the team will score a lot of points (on the Live Sports Calendar). But there’s a lot more to that, and there could be a steep learning curve for Brady learning a new playbook for the first time in his career, and to get on the same page as his receivers.
The Saints, on the other hand, have been there and done that, and we love them as the talk of the NFC heading into the 2020 season.
