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With the NFL season just around the corner, it’s time for your favorite football team to get serious in training camp in preparation of playing the regular season beginning in September.
As a “Day 1” fan of the New Orleans Saints (circa 1967), we know how to party when times are good (like over the past 15-20 years) and, yes, we also know how to laugh it off when times aren’t very good (such as most of the first 30+ years of this football franchise).
With long-time quarterback Drew Brees finally retired and headed to the broadcast booth for NBC Sports this fall, your faithful Saints fan is getting mentally ready for an adjustment in his expectations in 2021.
No, I’m not planning to start designing a retro-look Saints paper bag to wear over my head like those fashionable head coverings of the 1970’s. Not yet. It’s just that I have this feeling in my gut that this season for the Saints is going to feel a lot more 1970’s than 2009 (the Saints’ one and only but wonderful Super Bowl season).
Why should I be so negative when the NFC’s Black and Gold team went a sterling 12-4 last season? Even without Drew Brees, this team should still be pretty good, right?
Perhaps, but I’m not sold on it. The karma coming out of the Saints camp this year just isn’t very good.
For one thing, wide receiver Michael Thomas, the Saints $100 million man, is not going to be ready to go at the beginning of the regular season (October, perhaps?) as he failed to get surgery on his injured ankle until this June. That’s more than four months after New Orleans lost a January home playoff game to eventual Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay.
Why did he wait so long to get surgery if he is the centerpiece of the Saints offense?
Nobody seems to know except Michael Thomas himself (who signed a 5-year, $100 million contract extension before the start of the 2020 season). In true 2021 style, we must forego investigative reporting by any remaining traditional news sources. Instead, let’s attempt to decipher today’s cryptic social media (Twitter) post from the Saints wealthy wide receiver himself.
“They tried to damage your reputation,” posted Michael Thomas earlier today. “You saved theirs by not telling your side of the story.”
That’s spooky, alright.
Let’s see if I understand you, Michael. You’re unhappy that you played on a bum ankle for much of last season and posted a career low of just 40 catches (vs. well over 100 receptions for the last four years). You are also probably less-than-thrilled that your new starting quarterback for 2021 will be either the famously inaccurate Jameis Winston or almost as famously inaccurate Taysom Hill (when either one is compared to the dart-throwing machine called Drew Brees).
After the Saints’ playoff loss to the Bucs, Michael Thomas sought a second opinion as to whether surgery was required for his ankle injury and then tried to rehab it on his own for a few months. It simply didn’t work, so he finally agreed to have the surgery performed in June. Alas, his decision and delay will now cost his team as the #1 wide receiver in the NFC will simply stand along the sidelines for up to the first half of the season while recovering.
The Saints management wasn’t happy Michael Thomas’ decision, either. They allege that Michael Thomas was dodging their calls for months after the 2020 season ended.
“The sky is falling” chirped the Twitterheads! The rumor mill is pushing a theory that the Saints are shopping Michael Thomas for a possible trade.
Yeah, right. The market for $20 million injured wide receivers that may have a long road back from a difficult ankle surgery just doesn’t seem plausible to me.
This is what can happen when the star wide receiver (who loves to post on Twitter) meets thousands of uninformed social media “General Managers” (who opine 24/7 on Twitter and other social media outlets). Nobody wins.
If you think this Michael Thomas story is bad karma, let’s now toss-in a little Aaron Rodgers gossip next!
Over the weekend, a former Packers teammate named Will Blackmon (who last played with the oft-disgruntled Green Bay quarterback twelve years ago in 2009) said emphatically that Aaron Rodgers will be playing quarterback for the New Orleans Saints a year from now in 2022. Isn’t it amazing how the press will run with such an unsubstantiated rumor these days?
If you are the two quarterbacks slated to fight for the Saints starting job this season, this will either serve to motivate your play in 2021 or have you looking over your shoulder toward the sideline after nearly every incompletion or interception to see when you are coming out of the game.
But wait, Saints fans! There’s more.
We learned today that Pro Bowl placekicker Will Lutz has an abdominal injury requiring surgery which will keep him off the field for an estimated two to three months. Former Dallas Cowboys kicker Brett Maher was signed immediately to fill the gap. Maher played with Dallas in 2018/2019. Saints fans aren’t likely to be thrilled about having a Dallas Cowboys reject as the team’s new kicker to start the year.
As of this writing, the New Orleans running game featuring All Pro Alvin Kamara is still good enough to keep defenses off balance. Speaking of defenses, the Saints continued to improve again in 2020 and finished the season as one of the NFL’s top ten defensive squads.
Of course, long-time coach Sean Payton always seems to have a game plan to keep opposing teams rocked back on their heels, too. With Drew Brees retired, though, Payton must become an effective molder of either interception-prone quarterback Jameis Winston or run-first threat Taysom Hill.
The Saints will go as far as either one of these quarterbacks develops in 2021. Based on the two quarterbacks’ on-field performance in the past few years, those of us in the WhoDat Nation are hoping for a miracle, but we aren’t foolish, either.
So, let’s take a quick summary of the reasons why I’m skeptical about the New Orleans Saints playoff chances in 2021:
- No Drew Brees. The team is not only missing his accurate passing, but the loss of his leadership on the field will be even more important than his passing yardage.
- The status of pouting and injured wide receiver Michael Thomas. His negative attitude is a distraction and won’t help the Saints offense deal with #1 above.
- Two quarterbacks who are vying for the starting job are hearing (true or not) the footsteps of last year’s MVP, Aaron Rodgers, as (perhaps) coming to town in 2022 and putting these guys onto the bench or out to pasture.
- The Saints Pro Bowl placekicker won’t be available for a few months, either.
The competition in the NFC South has improved in the offseason, so the New Orleans Saints cannot count on their recent cakewalk through division opponents as in previous years. The Saints must play Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers twice as well as an improving Carolina Panthers team and their long-time rival, the “Dirty Birds” from Atlanta. Non-conference games against playoff teams such as Green Bay, Seattle, and Buffalo should be really tough.
On the plus side, the Saints are fortunate to be playing the four lowly NFC East teams (Dallas, Philly, NY Giants, and Washington) in 2021. That should help to give New Orleans a chance to, perhaps, wriggle into the playoff picture if things start to click again by mid-season.
Coach Sean Payton is going to earn his money this year if these Saints can become a playoff contender and finish with ten wins. It’s also time for other leaders to step-up for New Orleans now that Drew Brees isn’t there to fire this team up every week.
I’ll predict a 9-8 (yes, 17 games this year!) campaign for the New Orleans Saints in 2021.
Though I’m hedging my bets, this is a team which will likely surprise us this year – one way or the other. The Saints might just be better than I’m expecting, or they could implode and fall to the bottom of the NFC South, too.
I really don’t want to have to find my 1970’s vintage paper bag once again!