T-Bob Hebert, Co-Host, Off the Bench: The Saints will NOT make the playoffs. NFL games are decided by razor thin margins. Why then do some teams consistently end up on the positive side of that ledger while others consistently land on the negative? Because those margins are created by winning an accumulation of small moments during the 60 minutes. The Saints under Dennis Allen just simply lose too many of those moments and that will be their downfall.
Taylor Sharp, Video Producer, Off the Bench: No, I don’t think the Saints make the playoffs, mainly because I think they would have to get a wild card spot. Tampa Bay appears to be the best team in the NFC South. Who else would the Saints battle for a playoff spot? One of the Vikings, Lions, and Packers could get a Wild Card spot. The second best team in the NFC East could get in whether it’s Cowboys, Eagles or Commanders. The Saints can certainly do it, but it’ll be tough if they can’t win the division. It’ll depend on health for New Orleans more than anything else.
Alondra Villareal, Audio Producer, Off the Bench: No, the Saints will not make the playoffs. They beat a Bryce Young lead Panthers and a bad Dallas Cowboys team, then lost to a bad Eagles team. The Carr has broken down. They might be able to fight the Falcons for a wild card spot, but their loss to them doesn’t make me feel confident in that.
Charles Hanagriff, Co-Host, Live at Lunch: The Saints do not make the playoffs. I might have felt differently had they split the last two winnable games and were 3-1 instead of 2-2, but one game was the difference last year and may well be again. The Saints are better than their preseason projections, but probably not deep enough to make the postseason.
Hunt Palmer, Host, The Hunt Palmer Show: That first two weeks was fun. But they immediately regressed to the mean, They’ve been a .500 team this entire Dennis Allen era. That will continue, and they’ll be just on the outside looking in.
Jacob Beck, Audio Producer, The Hunt Palmer Show: Yes, they win the NFC South. We’ve seen what the Saints can do offensively, and their defense has played at a very high level. Injuries have hurt them, but if they can get through these next few weeks around .500 the schedule esses up and I think they can get to 10-11 wins, which should be good enough to win the division.
Matt Moscona, Host, After Further Review: No. Erik McCoy being out two months looks like it is exposing the Saints biggest weakness and they will likely dig too deep of a hole to escape. Also, two of the final three are at Green Bay and at Tampa Bay. It’s hard to imagine getting those if they’re still in the race in the final three weeks.
Matthew Musso, Audio Producer, After Further Review: No. Teams aere allowed to improve, and the schedule lightens up, but this team could be 4-0 if they didn’t beat themselves the last two weeks. That’s on coaching. It’s hard to believe they can overcome that moving forward. They’ve proven they can’t in the Dennis Allen era.
Paul O’Neill, Video Producer, After Further Review: I do not think the Saints will make the playoffs. I think they fall into the same category as last year where they will miss by a game or two, and we’ve already seen two games early on in the season they should have won. I believe those games will end up costing New Orleans a chance at the playoffs late in the season. Unless they can make up for those losses and win a few games that many don’t think you will win like the matchup with the Chiefs, Chargers or Packers. Their schedule does get easier down the stretch, so if they can find a way to get healthy and play like they did the first two weeks, they have an outside chance at a wild card. I do think they ultimately come up just a bit short by the end of the season with a record around .500.
