NEW ORLEANS — Some of my early takeaways after looking at the schedule:
The Saints have just three prime time games, two of those will be on Thursdays, meaning short weeks of preparation.
The Saints have the second easiest schedule based on opponents’ winning percentage from a year ago. That means the Saints are set up for a pretty advantageous schedule moving into next season. Only four of their opponents had winning records last season and three of the four made the playoffs, so not exactly a murderer’s row of teams – again, based on last season’s performance, which will change for some teams this year.
When you look at the schedule, four of the first six are on the road, so it will be important for them to play well away from the Caesars Superdome. In the second half of the schedule, there is a three-game stretch where all three games are at home, against Detroit, Carolina and the Giants.
Really, when you look at the back end of the schedule, finishing at Tampa and Atlanta, if they aren’t in a position to at least make a post season push, you would almost feel disappointed. This was the second easiest schedule going into the season.
There really isn’t a team that stands out or a few teams that stand out that you would say are Super Bowl caliber teams that are on the schedule. Now, that could change when the season starts, but, initially looking at it, if the Saints aren’t in position at the end of the year to make a run at the postseason, you would almost feel as if it’s another wasted season for the Saints.
Bottom line, the Saints have a really good setup for the schedule in 2023.