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The New Orleans Saints have not been to the Super Bowl for 10 years, but if you listen through the league, you'll hear Drew Brees, Sean Payton and Co. be featured as one of the premier title contenders for 2019.
And after their 2018 season has ended largely due to a controversial call in the NFC Championship game, it's probably a fair evaluation. After all, the Saints are among the most talented teams in the NFL, starting with a long-time duo of coaches and quarterbacks who have won huge games over the years.
Is the hype of 2019 a bit too much, though? Or are the saints right to be considered candidates for Lombardi? Brees is heading for a major decline? Or is he still his MVP caliber?
As we enter the season, let's look ahead and make five bold predictions:
1. Saints break the curse of the NFC championship
For three consecutive years, the team that failed in the NFC Championship game was completely eliminated from the playoffs the following season. But that will not happen with the Saints, no matter how much they lose their title loss to the Rams. It does not look like the transition from 2013 to 2014, when the team began to realize that its core of the 2009 Super Bowl had been turned into an elite production. The current configuration remains among the best in the league and, even in a difficult division, they have enough weapons on both sides of the ball to allow them to return to the playoffs.
2. But they do not return to the NFC championship
Even though they will be back in the playoffs, the Saints will not come back to the title game. In fact, it is not because our team broke the fate of the NFC championship that we broke it convincingly or easily. New Orleans is too good not to be in the playoffs, but they are not as "locked" in the Super Bowl as specifiers and experts would like you to believe. Drew Brees is entering a critical 40-year season which, in the best of cases, is due to a slight global regression and, at worst, to a potential platform for a sharp drop. The offensive is lacking for some long-time leaders. And the division is tough.
3. Teddy Bridgewater begins at least a game
Brees will be fine in 2019. He probably has not finished throwing 5,000 yards. His performances in 2018 were obviously not ideal, but this guy is a pro, and he's been doing it right since forever. One thing that could easily catch up with him, though, is his age, and we mean by that physically – not in terms of production, but in terms of body. Even if it's only for a week, Bridgewater seems to deserve a chance in a game that counts. Brees lacks the action behind an interior that is still going on in the days after Max Unger, that seems more than feasible, and that would help explain New Orleans' inability to go to the NFC championship.
4. Running continues
Sorry if it offends Latavius Murray's fan club, but we're probably underestimating what Mark Ingram's departure means for this Saints attack, especially for the floor game. Alvin Kamara has more than enough juice to keep playing big games, and he will remain a force capable of catching Brees balls out of the backfield. However, when it comes to pure land and sterling, behind a line that replaces Unger and with a slower and steeper Murray, which replaces Ingram, who brought not only the power, but also the direction of cloakrooms, there will inevitably be a decline. In a system based on the control of the balloon and the clock, this could be problematic.
5. The defense will rank among the top 10 units
On the plus side, besides Brees still displaying Pro Bowl caliber figures and the Saints returning to the playoff picture, the New Orleans defense has a lot to offer. Once the league laughs, including during the team's race to his last Super Bowl victory, this unit will easily catapult from the top 15 to the top 10 as long as the training continues in high school and Marshon Lattimore gets closer. rookie-year form. Each level of defense is filled with solid beginners and thanks to the constant efforts – or slight improvements – of guys like Cameron Jordan, Demario Davis, Marcus Davenport, Marcus Williams, etc., they will help keep the Saints in almost every game .
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