The New Orleans Saints' 2025 schedule has landed, and it arrived with a peculiar detail: Zero primetime games.
It's not unheard of, but it is highly unusual. For the Saints it's the first time since the 2000 season they didn't appear on one of Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football or Thursday Night Football, and like it or not, that's a statement about how the league sees a franchise -- at least from a ratings draw perspective.
“You’ve got to understand, from their point of view, it’s about people watching and watching throughout the game," Mike Detillier said on WWL Radio's schedule breakdown show.
Hear the full WWL Radio schedule breakdown with Mike Detillier, Mike Hoss and Steve Geller in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
The Saints landed three primetime games a year ago, and the results were mostly unwatchable. The first was Monday Night Football against the Chiefs, a game the Saints lost but one that was reasonably competitive but one that QB Derek Carr left with an oblique injury that cost him four games. That set up a Thursday Night Football showdown with the Broncos and Sean Payton's return to the Caesars Superdome. That game was started by Spencer Rattler and the Saints were thoroughly dominated and lost 33-10.
Fast forward to Week 16 and the Saints faced off with the Green Bay Packers on a Christmas Eve edition of Monday Night Football. This time it was a 34-0 shutout. Those type of results get remembered by networks, and not with fondness.
"Are we going to give you that again? No. That ain’t happening that way," Detillier continued. "The NFL don’t play that game.”
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What the Saints schedule does have is six afternoon kickoffs, which does fall in a high viewership window for CBS and FOX. The Saints only had two of those game in 2024, and in both instances due to matchups with west coast teams.
But the time of the game doesn't matter, simply whether you win your games, and the Saints will start off the season with back-to-back home noon starts at the Caesars Superdome, starting with the Cardinals.
“That’s going to be a really tough opener for the Saints," Detillier said, "going up against a guy like [QB Kyler] Murray who is mobile, a tight end who is a feature point on their offense, a big receiver like Marvin Harrison Jr. and a defense in [head coach Jonathan] Gannon, OK, they’re not the most talented, but they get after your ass. … They play tough.”
It's the start of a difficult opening stretch that also includes a home matchup with the 49ers, then road trips to face the Seahawks and Bills. The Saints have six of their final nine games on the road, setting up a brutally difficult stretch to end the season.
“A lot of unknown on this football team, starting off the first few games … but you’ve got to get out the blocks quickly,” Detillier said.