New Orleans Saints, Drew Brees. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
These five NFL teams will not make it to the playoffs again in 2020.
The NFL is a parity-driven league, perhaps best illustrated by its annual playoff turnover.
Since 2002’s realignment to include the Houston Texans, the NFL routinely has five different teams in the postseason when compared to the year prior. The difference between winning and losing in the league has always been razor-thin. Whether it has to do with scheduling, injuries, free agency, draft picks, coaching changes or whatever, change is the only constant in the NFL.
Though having five different playoff teams in the postseason pool will look drastically different with the addition of a seventh playoff team in both conferences, we cannot reasonably expect all 12 teams that played in January a year ago to do the same. A handful of teams will assert themselves and take the place of others who won’t have what it takes to stay above the line.
Here are five teams who made the playoffs last season who won’t be playing in them this year.
If five NFL teams don’t make the playoffs again, it’s surely this quintet.
5
New Orleans Saints
NFC South
Admittedly, it was difficult to find a fifth team here because we’re essentially saying five of the top 12 teams from last year won’t be top-14 this season. Picking a second NFC team to falter was no easy task. Then, Drew Brees opened his mouth and removed all doubt. Nobody will be pulling for the New Orleans Saints this year. They have become public enemy No. 1 in the NFL.
Despite losing in the postseason in heart-breaking fashion three years in a row that was still at its core entirely their fault, some many people picked the Saints to get to the Super Bowl. But now that golden boy proved to be completely tone-deaf, every team will want to crush the Saints’ soul this season.
And it’s not just Brees being a total dumbass that has the Saints fading this year. He’s also in his early 40s with depleting arm strength. His backups are a guy who didn’t know he needed LASIK vision and a glorified option quarterback from BYU. The NFC South will be insanely competitive this year and the Saints let their best quarterback from last year go to a division rival.
Having to face Tom Brady, Teddy Bridgewater and Matt Ryan twice in three fierce rivalries will not bode well for them. Even teams who don’t hate the Saints like the Atlanta Falcons, the Carolina Panthers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers do will want to destroy them every time they face them on the football field. There’s no way they will overcome what Brees did. You deserve to lose.