The Saints may have already been eliminated from the playoffs heading into a Week 18 matchup with the Carolina Panthers, but don't expect that to mean a lot of starters in street clothes.
That is, assuming they're healthy enough to play, Dennis Allen said on Monday, a day after his team notched a 20-10 victory to improve to 7-9 on the season. Unfortunately for the Saints, that result wasn't paired with any helpful result elsewhere. The Bucs have clinched the NFC South, and one of the Seattle Seahawks, Detroit Lions or Green Bay Packers will notch the 7th and final playoff spot.
“You play this game to win. That’s what our job is," Allen said. "That’s the chosen profession of all of us that are in the national football league, is we signed up to go and win, and so I don’t ever see that really changing around here. We’re going to go into this game and do … what we feel like gives us the best chance to win.”
Despite that sentiment, it's still likely that any player dealing with a nagging injury wouldn't be expected to play through it. That could affect a handful of positions, including offensive line with a handful of ailing players including Ryan Ramczyk. Star cornerback Marshon Lattimore returned and played every snap in Week 17, but admitted after the game he could still feel the kidney and rib injuries that kept him out more than half the season. Those decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis, Dennis Allen said.
But one position where Allen indicated the decision had already been made is quarterback. Andy Dalton will start for the 14th consecutive game, Allen said, squashing any idea that Jameis Winston might return to the field for the first time since Week 3 against the Carolina Panthers. He's presumably fully -- or at least something close to it -- recovered from the knee and back injuries that first kept him out of action, but it doesn't appear he'll get a chance to showcase anything heading into a murky offseason for the 28-year-old. He remains under contract for one more season in New Orleans. Dalton's contract expires at the end of the season, and it's unclear if he'll be brought back for 2023 and beyond.
To his credit, Dalton has largely played well in his age-35 season, completing 237 of his 353 passes for 2,699 yards, 17 TDs and 9 interceptions. The Saints have a record of 6-7 since he took over in Week 4, though that includes losses in five of his first 7 starts. The team got out to a 1-2 start with Winston at the helm. The season began with a franchise record comeback win against the Falcons, but they lost the next two games with Winston gutting through those aforementioned injuries. If he, in fact, doesn't see the field, his age 28 season will end with a line of 73-115 for 858 yards and 4 TDs against 5 interceptions.
“Nothing’s meaningless. All these things matter. Yea, look, you look back and say man, I wish we had taken advantage of a couple opportunities that we had that we didn’t take advantage of. But there’s nothing that can be done about that now," Allen said. "So, how do we learn that lesson so as we progress and go in the future, that we don’t put ourselves in that position again. A lot of times you can learn a lot from your failures as much as you can your successes.”
Those blown opportunities loom late in a second consecutive season, most notably blown fourth quarter leads in losses to the Minnesota Vikings, Cincinnati Bengals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, all three of whom will be in the bracket when the postseason begins in two weeks.
A win against the Panthers won't change that. It will, though, worsen the first-round pick the Saints are slated to give to the Eagles, and a four-game winning streak to close out the season would signal a turn in the right direction for a team that spent so much of the 2022 campaign floundering.
“I think that’s important … you want to go into the offseason with a good feeling about yourself, about your team," Allen said. "I don’t know if that’s going to have any bearing on how the next season goes, but we want to do is finish this thing out the right way.”
