10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About the New Orleans Saints
By John Hendrix
Jun 11, 2014; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) during minicamp at the New Orleans Saints Training Facility. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Whether you’ve been a long-time member of Who Dat Nation or not, the team has a laundry list of accomplishments, blemishes, and feats in their franchise history. After some extensive research, I’ve attempted to come up with ten things you probably didn’t know about your New Orleans Saints. Some of this information is from the Sean Payton Era, but not all of it.
10. The New Orleans Saints have a winning record against only seven total teams.
The Saints only have winning records against the Houston Texans (2-1 | 0.667), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (27-17 | 0.614), Buffalo Bills (6-4 | 0.600), Jacksonville Jaguars (3-2 | 0.600), Indianapolis Colts (7-5 | 0.583), Detroit Lions (12-9-1 | 0.568), and Oakland Raiders (6-5-1 | 0.542).
On a side note, the Saints are .500 against the Arizona Cardinals, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals, and Kansas City Chiefs. Two of those matchups (Bengals & Steelers) will swing the pendulum based on their respectable outcomes.
9. The team will reach 15,000 points this season.
The team currently sits at 14,997 franchise points. If you want to know who they’ve scored the most again, that’d be the Falcons (1,842). The bad news is that the team has 16,490 points scored against them, which results in a scoring differential of -1,493 points, or 213 touchdowns.
The great news for today’s Saints? Since 2006 (Sean Payton Era), the Saints have outscored opponents 3,571-2,848, which is a differential of +723, or 103 touchdowns.
8. The Saints may have won against the Falcons the most, but…
The Saints have also lost the most against the Falcons (43 wins to 47 losses). The 49ers are the only other team to beat the Saints the most, at 47 total losses.
7. Sean Payton is 20 wins away from tying Jim Mora.
Payton has coached in 112 games in seven seasons, Mora coached in 167 games in eleven seasons. Assuming there are no meltdowns this season and next, we could see Coach Payton break this record in 2015.
6. Drew Brees doesn’t hold every single franchise quarterback record.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but Drew Brees needs just eight more games to pass Archie Manning’s 134 total games played. Brees also doesn’t hold the record for most interceptions, as Archie holds that 156-124. Brees also has only the fifth longest touchdown pass in franchise history with 86 yards (Billy Kilmer holds that honor with 96 yards).
5. No current or future Saints player will ever become the franchise leader in scoring.
This might be a stretch for some, but when you think about the subject matter….Morten Andersen played for the Saints from 1982-1994, and he racked up 1,318 points in his career. The next closest player to him is John Carney (2001-2010), who has 768 points. That record isn’t going to be broken anytime soon.
4. The New Orleans Saints offense has more total offensive yards in the past eight seasons than Drew Brees has career passing yards.
Granted, this goes hand in hand, but would you believe that the Saints have 51,475 total yards of offense since 2006? For perspective, Drew Brees has 51,081 total passing yards in his career. This means that only four of the league’s all-time passing leaders (Favre, Manning, Marino, Elway) have more career yardage than the Saints have had in eight years. Elway (51,475) will be passed this year, and Drew should pass him as well.
3. The New Orleans Saints have led the NFL in total offensive yards five of the last eight seasons.
It may be cheating to include this stat being that I just talked about the offensive yards, but here’s the skinny: 2006 (6,264 yards), 2008 (6,571 yards), 2009 (6,461 yards), 2011 (7,474 yards), 2013 (6,391 yards). The team finished 2nd in 2012, 4th in 2007, and 6th in 2010.
2. Aaron Brooks holds a record over Drew Brees in something you wouldn’t believe.
Aaron Brooks is being inducted into the Saints Hall of Fame this season, whether you love it or hate, it’s irrelevant. To Brooks’ credit, he has set a record twice in Saints history for most consecutive games without throwing an interception. Brooks has done it twice, going six consecutive games from 11/23/03 – 12/28/03, and four consecutive games from 12/1/02 – 12/22/02.
1. It’s tough to be consistent.
With all of the explosive weapons on the Saints over the years, could you believe consecutive game records are relatively low? Here’s what I mean:
Most consecutive receiving games with a touchdown: 5
Lance Moore (10/26/08 – 11/30/08)
Marques Colston (12/11/08 – 9/20/09)
Robert Meachem (11/8/09 – 12/6/09)
Most consecutive rushing games with a touchdown: 5
Dalton Hilliard (10/22/89 – 11/19/89)
Ricky Williams (9/24/00 – 10/29/00)
To think that we may never have another Saints rusher (you would have thought Deuce McAllister did this) break this record seems a bit absurd. However, it is what it is.
What was the most shocking thing that stood out to you? Let us know below!