The New Orleans Saints effectively lost control over the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft with a 26-14 win over the New York Giants.
They are now one of seven 1-4 teams in the league. Due to tiebreakers, including strength of schedule, the Saints sit at No. 5 in the draft order.
Some might ask whether a win in Week 5 was worth losing out on a potential franchise-altering selection with the top pick in the draft. Particularly in a draft class without a standout quarterback, New Orleans might’ve benefited more with a victory on Sunday.
All of that may change if the Saints can’t get another win on the year and sit perhaps one or two slots out of the top draft pick. But what if they start to pick up some steam? There were many who looked at the team’s schedule and couldn’t point out a definitive win, but the Giants were probably a good bet.
Anyone that thinks it would be better to tank, I would ask if they ever played competitive sports. Some people plainly hate losing more than they enjoy winning. And there becomes a psychological breaking point where a team can’t find the good in anything, and that makes a season be effectively lost.
In the first year under a new head coach, it’s nice to see some spark, fight, and a decisive end score at that. It makes it a lot easier to evaluate what works. There’s plenty of evidence of what isn’t working, what needs to change, and what can’t be changed in the course of a season. But New Orleans has a chance to start putting things together.
Now, their next opponent is the New England Patriots, who most if no one had beating the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night. It goes to show that any game can swing a team’s way, and that there’s something to play for in the Saints’ season.
With two divisional matchups in the next five weeks of play, things could suddenly become interesting for a New Orleans team that wasn’t much of that at all the first few weeks of play.
It’s also hard to ignore the psychological factors at play for a young second-year quarterback drafted in the fifth round chasing his first win after 10 losses, and how believable or out of reach that starts to feel. Now that band aid is ripped off, and we might start to see something build under Spencer Rattler.
Traveling around the city after Sunday’s win, the sea of jerseys and celebrations made it clear how much more winning means to this city, and to a team, than the end-of-a-year payoff that an 0-17 season would bring in the form of the top draft pick that wouldn’t be selected until April.