The expectations for the New Orleans Saints in 2026 were sort of all over the place. On the one hand, the Saints finished on a strong note a season ago and looked prime to take over the weak NFC South. On the other hand though, could they keep that momentum up for an entire season?
Through the month of September, the Saints took the fans on one heck of a ride. They nearly knocked the Lions off in Detroit to kick the season off (and in all honesty, should have won that game). The following week they shocked the entire league by taking down the heavily-favored Ravens in Baltimore.
That 1-1 start set the Saints up for a home showdown against the Raiders, who shockingly started 2-0. As we saw, the Raiders were no slouches, beating New Orleans on their home turf and dropping the Black and Gold to 1-2 on the year.
Saints might be 1-2 but they have strong potential
A 1-2 start isn't detrimental for this team, especially being in the NFC South and it's not even looked at as a bad start for this young team. Cody Williams of FanSided handed out grades to every NFL team for the month of September and gave NOLA a fair grade of a B-.
"I was never one of the people going full bore in on the New Orleans Saints this season. Their defense still looks a little too long in the tooth to meaningfully compete and contend this season, even if there are parts on both sides of the ball I'm high on. That's what we've seen play out after a 1-2 start. Tyler Shough and the offense look like the real deal, but the defense hasn't been able to come up with enough stops. Given the woes of the NFC South at large, though, maybe that's enough to propel New Orleans to a division title even still."
It's hard to argue with this logic. The Saints' defense has certainly had its moments of positivity but giving up 35 points to the Raiders definitely soured the mood a bit, especially with how easily Brock Bowers got open and made plays. That was a bit rough to see.
Williams gave the Saints their flowers by applauding the efforts on offense though and that's well-earned. Tyler Shough might have had a costly fumble in the loss to the Raiders but he threw four touchdowns and has definitely put the league on notice with how well he's played during the first three games of his sophomore season.
The formula is there with the Saints and it's easy to see how this team could win the lowly NFC South and reach the playoffs for the first time since the 2020 season. On the other hand, the cracks are there, as they're expected to be for a young team still figuring out the kinks. Kellen Moore appears to have the team on the right track though and the 1-2 start is proof of both his success so far and the young team having young team moments.
In their Week 1 loss, the offense struggled early on but as soon as they got their feet wet, it was an entirely different team. The defense had kept them in that game early on too. It was the opposite story in Week 3, as the defense couldn't contain the Raiders and the Saints' offense started strong and then faltered in the waning minutes.
The hope is that the Saints continue to learn from these types of games and can become the kind of team many expected them to be this year. If so, a playoff appearance and maybe even a playoff win both feel imminent. But this team has to walk before it can run.
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