Saints looking at comfortable 2021 schedule even without Drew Brees

A new era of Saints football is beginning, as Drew Brees retired after 15 seasons in New Orleans. The newest Saints era begins this fall and we’ll find out the schedule on Wednesday but based on the Saints’ opponents for 2021, the schedule shouldn’t be too daunting.

In fact, New Orleans is No. 22 when it comes to strength of schedule for 2021, per John Breech of CBS Sports. The Saints’ opponents for the 2021 season went 131-140-1 a season ago and the winning percentage between all of those teams was .483.

It helps that the Saints will face the NFC East this year, which is an absolute dumpster fire of a division. Those are four games that the Saints should be favored in, even if they don’t have Brees quarterbacking their offense anymore.

Despite having a first-place schedule in 2021, the Saints’ schedule isn’t intimidating at all.

Here are the opponents New Orleans is set to face this year:

Home

• Atlanta Falcons
• Carolina Panthers
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• Dallas Cowboys
• New York Giants
• Buffalo Bills
• Miami Dolphins
• Green Bay Packers

Away

• Atlanta Falcons
• Carolina Panthers
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• Philadelphia Eagles
• Washington Football Team
• New England Patriots
• New York Jets
• Seattle Seahawks
• Tennessee Titans

The Saints have nine away games due to the addition of a 17th game, meaning they get the Titans on their schedule this year and that’s one of their tougher games in 2021. Without that game, there’d have been four tough teams on their schedule. Now, their toughest matchups will come against the Buccaneers (twice), Bills, Seahawks, Packers, and Titans. The Dolphins won’t be a cakewalk either.

The rest of the schedule looks pretty easy-going for the Saints though. The Falcons and Panthers are still trying to figure out their identities moving forward, the NFC East — as I mentioned — is a dumpster fire, the Patriots aren’t as scary anymore, and the Jets are, well… They’re the Jets.

The Saints might have a change at quarterback coming this year but it’s a good time for that change to be happening because of their lax schedule. The only thing that stings a bit is that the Bucs have the fourth-easiest schedule, making their road to repeating pretty dang easy.

Hopefully, the New Orleans Saints take advantage of their 2021 schedule and can get not only a fifth-straight division title but make a deep run in the playoffs as well. Their schedule makes them favorites to do so.