The New Orleans Saints know exactly where they are, and no one is happy about it.
Five consecutive losses, an injury report that could field its own entire starting lineup, a backup QB and clear frustration. But the Saints also look ahead at their schedule and see things they can take advantage of, they just have to do it, as Saints GM Mickey Loomis explained this week on WWL Radio.
“I think, first of all, you don’t want to look at that," Loomis said. "You don’t want to think about the enormity of whatever task you have in front of you. You want to focus on, hey, let’s find a way to get a win this week, and then we’ll look at next week.
"But on the other hand when you look at the schedule and you look at the teams in our league. I know this -- I feel like our entire team feels like -- there’s not anybody on our schedule that we can’t beat if we’re playing good football," Loomis continued, "and we know we can play good football."
Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Saints GM Mickey Loomis in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
The GM's point is an optimistic one, but certainly one that exists in reality. That's particularly true over the next six games, where the Saints' opponents have a combined winning percentage of .325 (13-27). That slate includes just two wins with a non-losing record (Chargers 3-3; Falcons (4-3). The Saints would need to go 5-1 over that stretch to get back over .500. It's a feat that feels unlikely for a team that's lost five consecutive games, but certainly possible for the team that started 2-0 and was among the most exciting teams in football.
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For that reality to come true, the Saints would likely need to get some injured players back. That group almost certainly won't include Derek Carr, meaning another start for rookie Spencer Rattler, but the group of potential returners is significant. TE Taysom Hill (rib), WR Chris Olave (concussion), RG Cesar Ruiz (knee), LG Lucas Patrick (chest) and LB Pete Werner (hamstring) are all on the mend but could be back after missing one or more games. The Saints will be without Paulson Adebo (broken femur) and Rashid Shaheed (meniscus) surgery the rest of the way. Center Erik McCoy (groin surgery) is eligible to return from injured reserve as of Week 8, but he's still expected to be a few weeks away in his recovery.
All teams deal with injuries, but surviving them and minimizing impact is often the difference between success and failure. To this point the Saints have been on the wrong side of that conversation.
"All injuries are not equal in the sense that, you know, if you have one of your starting players, one of your best players get hurt, that’s different than having a rookie undrafted free agent," Loomis said. "Now, it’s not different for the player and I’m not suggesting that it is, but it’s just different in terms of the impact on your team and look, part of the unfortunate circumstances for us is that we’ve got a lot of starters, contributing players, really good players have missed time, and the good news is, look, a lot of those guys will be back during the course of this season and so we’ve got to find ways to be competitive and win games while we’re waiting for those reinforcements to get back.”
The Saints (2-5) next chance to do that will come in L.A. against the Chargers (3-3) after a 10-day layoff. The Chargers will be playing on a short week coming off of Monday Night Football. Catch all the action on WWL and Audacy.