The mood is, to put it mildly, a somber one around the Saints' 2022 season, which has four games left and a sliver of hope remaining for a playoff berth. But just a sliver, heading into Week 15.
And that feeling was echoed by a Saints legend who won't be coming to the rescue, but still gets hit hard by the results, all the same. That's Drew Brees.
"They’re not a 4-9 team, but they’re 4-9," Brees said on SportsTalk with Mike Detillier, Bobby Hebert and Kristian Garic this week. "And I think that’s probably the disappointing part, and I still feel it along with the guys in the locker room, your heart hurts. Obviously you have tight relationships with so many of those guys and guys on the staff too. It’s such a grind. You work so hard for it and so, to not feel like you’re getting the results you want is disappointing."
It's a sentiment that would be echoed around the locker room and front office, considering it was a team that pushed its chips to the middle of the table with draft day trades in hopes of winning this year. In the defense of the decision, the logic was sound. This Saints group was laden with veterans, a holdover coaching staff expected to maintain the continuity and culture even with head coach Sean Payton departing, and a division that felt as wide open as ever.
That last bit turned out to be even more true than could've been forecast at the time. Through 14 weeks all four teams in the NFC South have a sub-.500 record. Even at 4-9, the Saints aren't yet eliminated from winning the division, though they'd need a minor miracles' worth of results to pull ahead of the 6-7 Bucs who now own the tiebreaker.
"I think we’ll look back on this season and say we could have very easily have been an 11-win or a 12-win team. It’s just one thing here, one thing there and it’s not all the same thing, but it’s one or two things in each game that have cost you," Brees continued. "And in a business where the business between winning and losing is such a fine line, I think the solutions are still in the locker room. It’s not like you’re sitting here saying we got to start over or we need a bunch of new pieces. I don’t think that’s the case."
Listen to the full interview with Drew Brees on SportsTalk in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
Related
