Every offseason, teams and fans naively convince themselves that the upcoming year can be their year; they’ll be the lucky team that everything falls into place for. However, that will only happen for one team. Some teams will put together great seasons and fall short, and other squads will just have disastrous years, usually spurred by a nightmare scenario.
A nightmare scenario could be different for every team. For some, it could be a certain player getting injured, or a high-profile acquisition falling short of expectations, or many more things. Brad Gagnon, of Bleacher Report, recently detailed what every teams’ 2024 nightmare season would look like.
For the New Orleans Saints, Gagnon explained that a nightmare scenario would be another mediocre season, where the team is good enough to avoid drastic changes, but not good enough to actually win anything.
"A team with enough talent to compete but not enough to contend competes without contending and continues to refuse to commit to a rebuild."
- Brad Gagnon (Bleacher Report)
Saints must escape purgatory of mediocrity
Unfortunately for New Orleans, the franchise is already living this nightmare. In the last three seasons, the Saints finished 9-8, 7-10, and 9-8, missing the postseason all three years. Following the retirements of Drew Brees and Sean Payton, the Saints had natural opportunities to enter a rebuild. However, they elected to keep things in tact, trying to compete with the remaining part of the veteran core.
To date, that hasn’t worked out. Instead, it’s been three mediocre seasons for New Orleans, with each following offseason consisting of cap gymnastics to keep the team together. With this cycle, it has become clear that the Saints are delaying an inevitable rebuild. But, they’re determined to give things one more try in 2024.
If this season is more of the same, New Orleans will have no choice but to hit the reset button, and the franchise knows that. A playoff run could probably buy the team one additional season, but a rebuild is certainly coming.
