The Story Of The 2015 New Orleans Saints

(photo credit: nola.com)

Heading into the 2015 NFL season, the New Orleans Saints felt they had the potential to challenge anyone in the NFC South even though they traded their star tight end, Jimmy Graham, to the Seattle Seahawks. That's because the Saints still have quarterback Drew Brees, a future Hall of Famer, as well as head coach Sean Payton.

But the Saints did have to manage their salary cap heading into the 2015 season, which meant there was a number of off-season cuts, plus they were heading into the season with a young defense. Which is ultimately why they finished in third place in the NFC South with a 7-9 record.

The Saints got off to a disastrous 0-3 start to begin the NFL season before they were able to record their first win in week four against the Dallas Cowboys. That victory, however, helped sparked the Saints to go 3-1 in their next four games and got them back to .500 with a 4-4 record.

A mid-season run of five losses in six games killed any hope at making the post season unfortunately. They were able to win three out of their final four games to get to a respectable 7-9 record, but their wins all came against teams that were struggling themselves.

The Saints biggest problem was their defense, which will statistically go down as one of the worst in NFL history. One of the games that showed the disparity between the offense and defense was the action packed back-and-forth 52-49 victory over the New York Giants.

Against the Washington Redskins the following week, their defense was once again thrashed in a 47-14 blowout loss. Finally forcing head coach Sean Payton to remove Rob Ryan as defensive coordinator and replacing him with former Raiders head coach, Dennis Allen.

Unfortunately for the Saints, the switch to Allen did nothing to help improve the defense which continued to struggle. Which is why this off-season the Saints need to upgrade their defense through free agency and the draft.

Despite the horrendous play on defense, Drew Brees displayed once again that he is one of the NFL's elite passers, throwing for 4,870 yards and 32 touchdowns. Those numbers helped make the Saints the number one passing offense in the NFL, while finishing second in total yards despite a running game that was only ranked 24th.