Saints What If Wednesday: What if interference was called in 2018 NFC Championship?

How the future of the Saints and NFL are affected

Jalen Hurts.

That's right, in this "what-if" scenario, the Saints end up with Jalen Hurts. Oh how zany.

Meanwhile, the Eagles still deal Carson Wentz, but after their terrible 2020 season, THEY are in fact the ones who move all the way up to the third-overall slot in the 2021 Draft (they had the capital to do so), and take Trey Lance from North Dakota State, the same school as the aforementioned Wentz. How do you like that?

Back to the Saints though, with Dennis Allen still at the helm, just a year earlier, and Jalen Hurts starting his first full season in 2021, the Saints losing to the Bucs just as the Eagles did, but Hurts shows remarkable improvement. How much of a leap does Hurts take in this version of the 2022 season?

Well, with Michael Thomas more willing to play to go along with Chris Olave and a good, not great, offensive line and the veteran defense, the Saints take advantage of weak NFC, win the division, and fight all the way to the conference championship, where they eventually fall to the 49ers led by Mac Jones (another supposed choice in real life) as they didn't have quite enough pass-rush to rattle the youngster. As you can guess, the Chiefs still win Super Bowl LVIl, only it's the first for Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid, which still comes at the expense of the 49ers.