By Ross Jackson
First the first time since the early 2000s, the New Orleans Saints will miss the playoffs for a fourth straight year.
With the Atlanta Falcons’ 34-7 victory over the New York Giants, the NFC South division is officially out of reach for New Orleans. Sunday’s victory seals Atlanta’s eighth win. The Saints won’t be able to finish better than 8-9 on the season and the Falcons would win any tie-breaker scenarios with a better division record.
New Orleans will travel to take on the Green Bay Packers Monday night with no postseason ambitions. Instead, the team’s focus will shift to their future and young building blocks.
The 2002-to-2005 seasons were the last four-year playoff drought for New Orleans. That quartet of campaigns spawned major change that brought upon the team’s golden age of success from 2006 to 2020. Much like then, the Saints will embark upon their search for a new head coach this offseason.
They will hope to replicate at least some percentage of that success this time around.
