The New Orleans Saints haven’t won in over a month having lost three games in a row, but they’re still in playoff contention being that they’re only one game out of first place in the NFC South.
The Saints have been favored to win the NFC South for most of this season, but the oddsmakers at now have them on the outside looking in at +400, with the Atlanta Falcons the new favorite at -200.
The Falcons defeated the Saints and Week 11 and are now on a two-game winning streak after defeating the New York Jets last week to take sole possession of first place at 6-6.
The Saints are currently tied for second with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 5-7, and the Bucs now have slightly better odds of winning the NFC South than the Saints at +375.
The Falcons and Bucs are set to face each other this week, with the Falcons likely becoming even heavier favorites with a win, but a Bucs win would shake things up being that they’d be tied for first.
The Saints will be taking on the Carolina Panthers in what’s all but a must-win for them considering a loss would either drop them to two games out of first if the Falcons win or have them a game behind both the Falcons and Bucs if the Bucs win.
The Saints have lost to both the Falcons and Bucs this season and still get to face them again during the last two weeks of the season, but they’ll likely need to win at least two of their next three games for those contests to matter.
The Saints are 5.5-point favorites in this week’s home contest against the Panthers and will likely be favored again at home next week against the New York Giants, and it will be important for them to win those considering they’ll likely be road underdogs the following week against the Los Angeles Rams.
The Bucs have two games left with opponents sporting .500 records or better in the Packers and Jaguars, whereas the Falcons only have game left against said opponent in the Colts, which is another reason why they’re now a heavy favorite.
The Saints quarterback situation is also in flux with Derek Carr in concussion protocol and dealing with other injuries, so it’s likely that the Saints will have to turn to Jameis Winston for this week’s contest and maybe more.
The bottom line
The Saints still have life and will be back in the hunt assuming they win their next two games to get to 7-7, but I don’t have faith in them delivering wins against both the Bucs and the Falcons for me to feel like +400 is a value on them to win the NFC South.