Saints Playoff Picture: NOLA on outside looking in after 4 straight losses

What does the New Orleans Saints playoff picture look like after the black and gold have dropped four straight games? Well, it’s not good, as one would suspect.

At one point, the Saints had a pretty firm grasp on the No. 6 seed in the playoffs and continued to hold onto it after a loss to the Titans. Unfortunately, they’ve continued to spiral out of control from there, dropping to the No. 7 seed last week and now on the outside looking in altogether.

What is the Saints playoff picture after week 12?

1. Arizona Cardinals (9-2) – BYE
2. Green Bay Packers (9-3)
3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-3)
4. Dallas Cowboys (7-4)
5. Los Angeles Rams (7-4)
6. San Francisco 49ers (6-5)
7. Minnesota Vikings (5-6)

IN THE HUNT: Atlanta Falcons (5-6), New Orleans Saints (5-6), Philadelphia Eagles (5-7), Carolina Panthers (5-7)

As you can see, the Saints would not be in the playoffs if the season ended today.

The Wild Card matchups would be the Vikings at Green Bay, the 49ers at Tampa Bay, and the Rams at Dallas. Credit to the 49ers who battled back from a tough start and now find themselves as the No. 6 seed in the postseason standings.

The NFC isn’t nearly as complicated as the AFC where most teams appear to still be in the running realistically. In the NFC, we know that the Cardinals, Packers, Buccaneers, Cowboys, and Rams are making it, which means there are two spots for the remaining six “contending” teams to fight over.

The Saints haven’t played well over the past month and fans probably won’t have much confidence in them to make a deep run if they were to make it into the postseason. That being said, it’d keep their streak of consecutive playoff appearances intact.

New Orleans faces the Cowboys on Thursday Night Football this week and then hits the road for an away game against the three-win Jets. If they can’t get past the Jets, it’s not crazy to think that they won’t win many, if any, more games this season.