Despite a slate of games against several playoff teams — and both participants in last year’s Super Bowl — the New Orleans Saints project to have one of the easier schedules you’ll see around the NFL. Their opponents have a combined winning percentage of .490 from last season’s results, which places ninth-best in the league.
That looks even better when compared to the rest of the NFC South. Both the Carolina Panthers (.500) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (.502) are settled near the middle of the pack, while the Atlanta Falcons (.525) have one of the NFL’s steepest uphill climbs ahead of them.
Now, sure: this isn’t very informative, given how thoroughly teams change from one year to the next. The Buccaneers and Panthers are proof enough of that, with new quarterbacks under center in Tom Brady and Teddy Bridgewater, and an entirely new coaching staff getting to work in Carolina. But the fact remains that a number of teams playing the Saints this season were not very good last season, which should do a lot to build confidence in New Orleans’ chances of future success.
