The Saints 2026 Schedule is Tougher Than it Looks: Here’s What Really Matters

If one were to simply go by last year’s final records, the New Orleans Saints will have the second-easiest slate of games in the NFL for the 2026 season. In fact, only the Cleveland Browns, who will play the Saints in Paris in late October, have a schedule that will feature teams that had a worse winning percentage last year.

Opponents of the Saints finished .434 last year, and that’s far behind the third-easiest schedule – Bengals at .450 – and fourth-easiest in the Colts at .465.

However, there’s more to it than simply going by last year’s records.

The past three seasons in a row, the Saints have been in a similar situation with bottom-5 toughest schedules. It hasn’t helped their record very much, and in the end it was misleading.

For example, not only did New Orleans play both Super Bowl participants last season, but six of their opponents finished with 11 or more victories, and two had 14 wins.

When it comes down to it, how the schedule is put together becomes nearly as important as the teams who actually are on there. Last year, the Saints were a rebuilding team whose only chance at real success was to play the easiest part of the schedule early to gain some confidence.

Instead, exactly the opposite happened. After losing a tough game at home to Arizona in the opener, New Orleans faced three teams in a row that eventually ended the season with a combined record of 38-12.

New Orleans Saints vs. Arizona Cardinals — The opener in 2025 for the New Orleans Saints and then-starting quarterback Spencer Rattler came against the Arizona Cardinals. They lost that one and then six of the next seven to start 1-8. | Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

After gaining their first win in Week 5 against the lowly Giants, the Saints went through their second toughest span in their schedule, and lost four more in a row – three to eventual playoff teams in New England, Chicago and the Los Angeles Rams – to start 1-8.

It didn’t matter after that who was on the docket, although Tyler Shough took over as the starting quarterback vs. the Rams and never looked back. By facing eight consecutive teams with losing records to finish the year, Shough and the Saints finished up 5-3 for an overall record of 6-11.

2026 opponents

2026 Saints Schedule to be released on May 14

The NFL will announce its remaining 2026 International Games on Wednesday, May 13#Saints | @SeatGeek https://t.co/4AI9FhlZS8
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) May 8, 2026

Home: Atlanta, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Arizona, Green Bay, Las Vegas, Minnesota and Pittsburgh

Road: Atlanta Carolina, Tampa Bay, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit and the New York Giants

International (Paris): Cleveland

So what about this upcoming season? Like we said, we’ll find out how it lines up Thursday (May 14), but here are the best-case and worst-case scenarios for the Saints:

Best case: Start at home vs. NFC South foe

The Saints played some of their best football last season against their division opponents, including a sweep of eventual NFC South champion Carolina.

If they could start out at home this season against one of their division rivals and maybe save the tougher opponents they’ll play in the Superdome, that would go a long way to help build confidence – especially on offense, where they will have at least five new starters.

Either way, there’s no question this team’s easiest half their 2026 slate is the home half.

We’ll take it: Road games vs. North early

Playing Chicago, Cincinnati and Baltimore on the road is tough enough, but doing it in December or January would be brutal. If those games could anywhere from late September to Thanksgiving, it would be beneficial.

As it is, the Saints have not had much success against the Ravens, losing four of the past five and six of eight overall. Same goes for the Bengals, as they have dropped five of the past seven in the series.

The good news, though, is New Orleans has won eight of the past nine vs. Chicago, including the last victory ever for Drew Brees – a playoff game in the Dome on Jan. 10, 2021.

Worst case: Loaded up front AGAIN

We told you how things fell apart early last year with games in the first half vs. the Seahawks, 49ers, Bills, Patriots, Bears, Rams, etc.

Although the Saints should be better in 2026, they still are a rebuilding team and cannot afford to go through a gauntlet of at Baltimore, at Chicago, vs. Green Bay, at Cincinnati, at Detroit, vs. Pittsburgh all together before Halloween.

And that’s not even including the trip to Paris at the end of October that will throw a huge wrench into the team’s routine and scheduling.

We’ll find out Thursday, but trying to predict a record for the New Orleans Saints isn’t as easy as 1-2-3.

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