New Orleans Saints must win out or face a potential first-round exit
The No. 1 seed shouldn’t be overly important for the New Orleans Saints but being a top-two seed should be one of their highest priorities.
If the New Orleans Saints failed to win out, they’ll be leaving the door open for either the Seattle Seahawks or the San Francisco 49ers and also the Green Bay Packers to top them, forcing the Saints into the No. 3 seed in the NFC.
Sadly, the NFC will only have one matchup that should be relatively easy for a top team.
That’ll be against the winner of the NFC East which will likely be an eight-win Cowboys or Eagles team, a lock for the No. 4 seed in the NFC. That would then, assuming they don’t win out, force the Saints into fighting for their life against a quality opponent early on.
The Minnesota Vikings have almost locked up the No. 6 seed, assuming everything goes as planned. With the Vikings at No. 6, it’ll be paramount that the Saints find a way to succeed down the final three weeks of the season.
Although it’d be at the Superdome, playing the Vikings would be no easy task for New Orleans. The Vikings will show what they’re really made of against the Packers on Monday Night Football next week, allowing teams to gauge their level of play.
If the Packers and 49ers find a way to win out, the Saints may find themselves as a sad No. 3 with injuries debilitating their defense. The No. 3 would force a difficult matchup but on top of that it’d likely also force a matchup with the No. 2 seeded Pakcers and potentially then the 49ers.
It’s not that it’d be impossible, but it’d be far easier for the Saints to play two games, one against the Vikings or Packers and the other to win the conference.
There are many options for these last few weeks in the NFC, and with three extremely winnable games, the Saints must win out to ensure they make it through Wild Card weekend.