Saints appear to have gotten gift from NFL schedule

With the NFL set to officially release the 2023 schedule, the New Orleans Saints appear to have lucked out. It's another reason for Saints fans to be excited.

While the NFL's official schedule released is met with more and more fanfare each year (somehow), the fact of the matter is, the actual opponents for each team are known by the general public well ahead of time. The New Orleans Saints are no different. With this knowledge, many Saints fans are excited to hear a particular stat about their team's opponents in 2023.

While the Saints biggest rival, the Atlanta Falcons, have the easiest strength of schedule statistically in the entire NFL at .417, the Saints are not far behind with a .427, the second-easiest strength of schedule in the NFL.

The NFC South is wide open. However, that isn't because of the quality of the four squads. It's because of the lack thereof. Fortunately, the Saints appear to have a better roster than Atlanta, or anyone else in the division, on paper.

The thing is though, games aren't played on paper, they are played on the field. If these stats are anything to go off of, the games on the field don't appear to be much of a gauntlet for the Saints.

There is a lot of mystery surrounding the quarterbacks in the division. We don't know what the young guns will be, so with that being the case, the Saints SHOULD have a leg-up (or arm) on the competition with Derek Carr. The key word of course is should.

All in all, this strength of schedule stat could mean something, or it could mean nothing once the season actually starts for the New Orleans Saints. Still, it gives fans even more of a reason to be optimistic than they already were at the very least, and that certainly is something.