Are the 49ers or Saints the best team in the NFC?

The San Francisco 49ers are undefeated, but the New Orleans Saints only have one loss. Which team is the best in the NFC: the 49ers or the Saints?

The San Francisco 49ers may be the last team in the NFL to remain undefeated, but there are a few teams that could stake their claim as the best in football. One of those teams used to be NFC West rivals with the 49ers in the New Orleans Saints. Are the Saints the best team in the NFC or do they have to look up at the 49ers for the time being?

On this week’s episode of Stacking the Box, FanSided‘s Matt Verderame and Mark Carman, along with former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, look at the crème de la crème of the NFC and decide which team looks better at the top of the NFC: the 49ers or the Saints (12:20)?

“I think that the Saints are probably just the slightly better team,” said Schwartz. “I don’t feel great about saying that, but it goes back to just the faith I have that the Saints have been there before. Come crunch time, come the playoffs, I trust them a little bit more.”

Schwartz would point out that these two teams will have to play each other in a few weeks, but for now, he does have good reason to side with the Saints over the 49ers. New Orleans has played a tougher schedule thus far and have missed starting quarterback Drew Brees for most of the season due to him sustaining a thumb ligament injury.

Carman would point out that the last several teams to be the last team to drop a game didn’t go on to win the Super Bowl. Some of those teams include the 2018 Los Angeles Rams, the 2016 Minnesota Vikings and the 2015 Carolina Panthers. While the Rams and the Panthers won the NFC that year, Minnesota didn’t even qualify for the playoffs that year.

Overall, you could argue for either team as the best in the NFC at this point. But like Schwartz said, these two former division rivals will still have to play each other at least once before we really know. They’ll meet during the regular season in a few weeks and may end up clashing in the NFC Championship in late January potentially.

Here are a few other topics discussed on this week’s episode of Stacking the Box:

• Have Geoff and Matt had Twitter meltdowns? (0:35)
• Did the Patriots get exposed on Sunday? (3:11)
• Titans TE Delanie Walker joins the show (14:55)
• Geoff and Verderame give their best Week 10 game (43:55)

All this and more!

Subscribe to Stacking The Box and follow Geoff Schwartz, Matt Verderame and Mark Carman on Twitter.