It’s not often that you'll hear someone say a six-win team that finished last in the NFL’s worst division two years in a row has raised the bar.
But that’s what the New Orleans Saints have done the past 10 months. It began with a solid stretch in December to end the 2025 season, then spilled into free agency in March and the draft a month later.
So if you’re a Saints fan and you’re all in on just how good 2026 could be, just know you’re not alone.
The players believe it, too.
You could tell from a disappointed Tyler Shough eight months ago after he had just finished the final game of his rookie season. The Saints lost 19-17 to the rival Atlanta Falcons that January day, capping off a fifth straight season where they headed to the couch instead of the playoffs.
Despite a second straight season with a losing record and the third sub-.500 mark in four years, there was a beam of optimism from Shough and the rest of his teammates as they exited Mercedes-Benz Stadium. A team that started 2-10 clawed its way to a 6-11 record by the time the curtain closed on the 2025 season. Most of those wins came against bottom feeders, but a win is a win.
Was it all fool's gold? Or do Shough and coach Kellen Moore really have things pointing in the right direction?
“(I like) the way we kinda grinded and finished and built that closeness together,” Shough said after last season's finale. “The core of what we showed is really encouraging, but (it) also leaves that bad taste in my mouth.”
Now the Saints get a chance to remove the bad taste from last season and every other season they've endured since Drew Brees retired.
Expectations are suddenly high again in New Orleans.
This isn’t quite a playoffs-or-bust season, but it’s close. The fans expect this to be different. The players in the locker room do, too.
This isn’t suggesting that you make Valentine’s Day reservations for SoFi Stadium, which is the date and place of Super Bowl LXI. But a winning record and a chance to win the NFC South for the first time since 2020 are reasonable expectations.
The division is again the weakest in the NFL, and the schedule appears manageable. But the real reason for optimism rests on the right arm of Shough and the pieces Mickey Loomis has surrounded him with. Saints veteran defensive end Cam Jordan summed it up best in June.
“I think we look phenomenal on paper,” he said.
Games aren’t won on paper, though. On the flip side, they aren’t won in Vegas, either. The betting oddsmakers have set the over/under for Saints' wins at 7½. If the Saints hit the under, this season should be looked at as a failure.
Center Erik McCoy understands the expectations.
“Having a young quarterback that you’re expecting to be the guy is a big part of it,” McCoy said. “The moves this offseason were exciting. These last two draft classes emerging and blossoming into their own. And the closeness as a team. You can’t do it without a close team. You can’t do it if the team has a whole bunch of 'me' guys. I don’t think we have any of those.”
Moore’s team bonding excursions this offseason, ranging from bowfishing trips to refurbishing neighborhoods in the city, helped build that camaraderie. Reminders are painted on the walls of the locker room.
“We over me.”
“It’s all about us.”
“Do hard better.”
“Be our best regardless of the circumstance.”
The circumstances will come, as training camp and the preseason showed. Defensive tackle Bryan Bresee tore his ACL on the first day of camp. Team leaders such as Alvin Kamara and Jordan also are dealing with injuries as the season begins. So is rookie receiver Jordyn Tyson, selected with the No. 8 overall pick in the draft.
Moore's team dealt with injuries last season, too. So that has prepared him for the setbacks they have already had and the ones that will pop up during the season.
“We know in an NFL season what it’s going to take,” Moore said. “There are going to be some highs and some lows. But I think we have the right kind of guys to navigate it.”
Defensive end Carl Granderson, who has been with the Saints since 2019, made the playoffs his first two seasons. He hasn’t been back since. That’s gotten stale.
“We had a whole offseason to reflect on the last season and see where we went wrong at,” Granderson said. “That was the biggest thing coming into this season. The reflection and wanting to do better than last year. We haven’t been good like we know we could be the last four or five years. The expectation is there this year. I don’t think we were at that level last year.”
Linebacker Kaden Elliss was drafted by the Saints in the seventh round in 2019, and he played his first four seasons in New Orleans. He played the past three seasons with the Atlanta Falcons but signed back with the Saints this offseason. He knows what the city is like when the Saints are rolling, and he can sense the buzz that’s brewing.
“There is a lot of belief in the group that’s been assembled,” he said. ”You love to see the excitement the fan base has for us. At the end of the day, it’s a belief in ourselves. I feel the excitement, the energy and the belief. Now we’re just ready to keep working for it.”
Most of the players on the roster never have tasted the playoffs. Guard David Edwards is one of the few who has. Edwards, who signed with the Saints in March, has been on playoff teams each of the past six seasons: the last three with Buffalo and the three before that with the Los Angeles Rams. So he knows better than most what a playoff team looks like. Based on what he’s seen thus far, he expects his personal playoff streak to continue.
“This is a hungry group,” Edwards said. “This a group that wants to be successful. These guys want to have a good process and want to prove people wrong. So you combine that with the offseason and the talent. There is a lot of good stuff here. It’s our job to go prove it on the field.”
The pieces are in place.
It's time for the Saints to prove it.