Saints' Schedule Could Hurt Team's Playoff Hopes

The 2021 NFL Schedule was officially released on Wednesday night, making it the perfect time to examine the finer details of every team's 2021 slates. For the New Orleans Saints, it's all about an early bye week and how that could seriously hurt this team's playoff hopes.

New Orleans finished as the No. 2 seed in the entire NFC last season after a 12-4 campaign. Drew Brees did retire, leaving quarterback duties up to Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill, and the Saints' schedule isn't going to make things any easier.

With the NFL adding a 17th opponent and 18th week to its regular season, the bye weeks look a little different in 2021. The bye weeks were pushed back one full week with the earliest 2021 byes coming in Week 6. New Orleans falls in that early Week 6 bye, which could be concerning for the last stretch of their season.

As it stands, FanDuel Sportsbook isn't betting on the Saints to make the 2021 NFL Playoffs. In fact, based on the most recent NFL odds, New Orleans is favored (-134) to miss the playoffs. That's already pretty shocking for the NFC's No. 2 seed from last year.

With this bye, that leaves the Saints with 12 straight games following Week 6. That includes a Thanksgiving Day matchup with the Buffalo Bills (short rest) and four other games against 2020 playoff teams. That's a rough stretch with a lot of risk for injuries and no bye week to recover

New Orleans will look to overcome this brutal stretch of their schedule and look to make their fifth consecutive playoff appearance since 2017.

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Adam Taylor McKillop is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Adam Taylor also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username atmckillop. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.