A devastating upset triggered Tampa Bay’s historic playoff collapse. Now, the Saints return with a revamped offense and rising star Tyler Shough to finish what they started.
One could argue that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 2025 season collapse last year all started with their late matchup against the New Orleans Saints.
The Bucs came into their Week 14 matchup with New Orleans struggling, with three losses in their last four games.
But at 7-5, the Bucs still controlled their destiny in the NFC South.
A win over lowly New Orleans (2-10) at home would have put Tampa three games over .500 and in the driver’s seat to win the division for a fifth straight year.
A loss to New Orleans just didn’t feel possible. But sometimes, the impossible happens. The Saints beat the Bucs, 24-20, and ended up winning their next three games to finish 6-11, which was way better than it could have been.
Tampa, on the other hand, plummeted.
7-6 turned into 7-7. 7-7 turned into 7-8. Then 7-9. Tampa winning its season finale proved meaningless thanks to a tiebreaker, and for the first time this decade, the Bucs were out of the playoffs. So, too, were the Saints. But New Orleans ended its season on a high note.
The biggest bright spot of New Orleans' late surge was the play of their rookie quarterback.
In the team's four game winning streak, Tyler Shough threw four touchdown passes, no interceptions, completed 71% of his passes (Drake Maye of the New England Patriots led the league at 72%) and twice eclipsed 300 yards.
Shough is again set to be the Saints' starter this year, and it will be hard for the New Orleans offense to be much worse than it was last season.
No team in the NFC scored fewer points than the Saints, who ended the year with 306 (18 PPG). To address this, the Saints upgraded their offensive line by signing David Edwards to a four-year, $61 million deal and improved the running and receiving gains by signing Travis Etienne Jr. (1,399 all-purpose yards last season) to a four-year deal that could be worth up to $52 million. But the Saints may have made their biggest splash in this year's draft.
With the eighth pick, New Orleans selected receiver Jordan Tyson from Arizona State.
Next to Ohio State's Carnell Tate, who went third overall to the Tennessee Titans, Tyson was the top receiver in the draft. New Orleans already has one of the league's top young receivers in Chris Olave, who turned 26 in June and already has three 1,000-yard seasons under his belt.
If the Saints end up having one of the league's top reciving duos, its hard to see New Orleans having one of the league's worst offenses again.
Bucs-Saints is scheduled to begin at 1 on FOX from Raymond James Stadium
