Drew Brees shattered records, but a losing record hid an offensive juggernaut. Discover the 2016 Saints' overlooked, explosive firepower.
The New Orleans Saints are rolling right now after winning four of their last five games in the 2025 season. It feels like the team is recovering from the fall off from its post-Sean Payton Era.
The team went all in to make the most of star quarterback and recent Hall of Fame nomination Drew Brees' career, but the cap situation that followed put the team in a tough place to recover after losing Brees. Now with new star quarterback Tyler Shough and other young players, the team appears to be returning closer to the consistent winning ways of the team's golden era.
One Saints team that had the firepower did not have the record to show for it. The 2016 New Orleans Saints may be the most forgotten great offenses of the last two decades simply because the team did not win enough games to command the respect. That doesn't negate how explosive they were.
For starters, it was an example of why Drew Brees was every bit the Hall of Fame quarterback we think he was over his career. Brees went for an eye-opening 5,208 yards that season. It puts him in that elite tier of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning of 5,000-yard passers. Had he not played in the same era as Manning and Brady, it's easy to anticipate Brees would have commanded more respect around the league. At that time, however, being the third best passer in that era was comparable to being the third best in NFL history.
That Saints team was balanced, though. Brees had plenty of playmakers to rely on with that squad. Running back Mark Ingram ran for over 1,000 rushing yards, while wide receivers Brandin Cooks and Michael Thomas went for over 1,100 receiving yards. Fellow wide receiver Willie Snead added 895 receiving yards of his own. It was the type of offenses defensive coordinators simply did not want to face in a given week.
We'll remember the close misses like the infamous NFC Championship game from the 2018 season. Certainly, we will remember the 2009 Super Bowl that lifted the Saints past the Indianapolis Colts. Yet it's not hard to see how the 2016 could have been different with better play on the defensive side of the football.
The Saints are on their way back to healing past wounds from after the 2009 Super Bowl run, but it's worth remembering just how good the Saints offense was in 2016.