3 Saints Schedule Factors that Will Actually Matter (and 2 That Won’t)

How much does it matter the first 2 Saints opponents are on the road against tough foes? What about just 1 primetime game?

Quarterback Tyler Shough and the New Orleans Saints will spend their first two weeks of the 2026 NFL season on the road - at Detroit and at Baltimore. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

With the NFL releasing the 2026 schedule this past week, we are almost exactly in between the end of the past season and the beginning of the new one.

In other words, it’s time to set all of our sights on the future. For the New Orleans Saints, it’s taking a good, long look at where the team will have to go during this upcoming campaign and who they will have to play.

We have narrowed down three of the most important moments of this season – potential tipping points of the schedule that will have the biggest impacts on whether the team is in the running for a playoff spot for the first time in six years or if it will be just another stepping stone in the rebuilding process. (Or both.)

We also add in a couple of factors we think are being a bit overblown.

What Matters Most

Weeks 1 and 2

Each year of this rebuilding process, we say that it’s not necessarily about the who as it is the when.

Last year, the Saints were clearly not going to be playoff contenders, but they were hoping for a decent schedule to open with to build a little confidence with second-year quarterback Spencer Rattler starting and rookie second-round pick Tyler Shough waiting in the wings.

Instead, they got the opposite. After the season-opening loss to the Arizona Cardinals, four of the next five games – two of which included the eventual Super Bowl participants – were brutal. The team opened 1-5, which led to 1-8 and 2-10.

The 2026 Season Forecast 🌤️#Saints | @SeatGeek pic.twitter.com/TuNHMu7ttI

— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) May 14, 2026

This year, there’s almost no question the Saints’ toughest two games are right smack dab in the opening two weeks – at Detroit and at Baltimore.

If somehow they could find a way to win one of those, it could give the team a huge boost of confidence behind Shough and a few new big pieces on offense.

Only 1 Home Game in Weeks 11 through 15

IF the Saints can get themselves in contention to win the lowly NFC South, they will have to contend with a stretch toward the end of the schedule where they will spend plenty of time together on the road.

The good news is after the Week 2 game at Baltimore, the Saints will spend only one game over the course of the nest TWO MONTHS at an opponent’s stadium – Oct. 18 at the New York Giants – with an international game squeezed in.

However, New Orleans will be on the road in four of five weeks from the Sunday before Thanksgiving until the Sunday before Christmas with two of those games against division foes – at Carolina on Dec. 13 and at Tampa Bay on Dec. 20. (And games at Chicago and at Cincinnati.)

If they can find a way to navigate this tough stretch of games and go at least 2-3, possibly 3-2, that would go a long way to making this a successful season.

Only One Division Game in First 9 Weeks

Of the first eight games – and first nine weeks – the Saints will play only one division opponent, and it’s a doozy: the Atlanta Falcons in the 20th anniversary of the reopening of the Dome on Monday Night Football in Week 4.

This is Falcons Football: 2026 Compilation pic.twitter.com/JWM7ip9xoW

— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) May 14, 2026

If the team can find a way to get out to a 4-4 start or better, everything will be in front of them in the second half of the season, as we doubt anyone else will do much better than that in the mediocre NFC South.

Last season, the Saints went 3-3 against the division – including a sweep of the NFC South champ Carolina Panthers – and 3-8 against everyone else. Increase that to 4-2 and 5-6, and a division title is very possible.

What Doesn’t Matter

International Game

We already told you the Saints will only spend one week at an opponent’s stadium during a two-month stretch. That one week? A road game on New York, where they would be going anyway on the way to Paris to play Pittsburgh in Week 7.

Saints owner Gayle Benson worked with the NFL and was instrumental in helping bring the first regular-season game to Paris this fall. The Black and Gold will take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in France, Sunday, Oct. 25, in a game that can be seen on WDSU>>>https://t.co/gg8RWMinLi pic.twitter.com/gSYPAJCpgh

— wdsu (@wdsu) May 15, 2026

Meanwhile, the Steelers have to play at Tampa Bay the week before and then go to Cleveland the week after, while New Orleans will have a bye. Advantage Saints, especially in a game where the two teams seem to be even as we sit here in May.

Only One Primetime Game

Some fans have made a big deal that the Giants have a ton of primetime games coming off a bad season, and fellow NFC South rivals Atlanta, Carolina and Tampa Bay all have three each, while the Saints have just one.

Guess what changes that in the future? Winning. Use it as a chip on your shoulder if you’re a Who Dat, but we doubt seriously the Saints will be thinking much about it.

They might even relish the fact that after they come back from the international game in Week 7, they currently are scheduled to play the entire remainder of their schedule – both home and away games – at noon CT.