Saints Odds and Betting Trends

Bet on New Orleans Saints

The history of the New Orleans Saints may be told in three acts. Act I is the longest of the three, spanning from the inaugural season of 1967 to 2005 during which the squad was commonly known as the Ain’ts, the very picture of an NFL doormat – though quite profitable for bettors, certainly. Act II is all about the success brought over the subsequent decade and a half by head coach Sean Payton and Drew Brees. Act III, the post-Brees Era, has just begun

The New Orleans Saints

For so many areas in the American South, the 1960s was a glorious era of expansion that brought top-level professional football to areas long known for their love of the game: Dallas, Miami, Atlanta and New Orleans. The New Orleans Saints began play in 1967 with a dyed-in-the-wool fanbase full of optimism and a fight song built right in.

Unfortunately, the key missing ingredient – winning – soon became painfully apparent. The original coining of the sobriquet “The Ain’ts” to describe New Orleans’s football team is lost to history, but the term likely stretches back to the late 70s, when already obvious the Saints just weren’t about winning football games. It took a full 12 seasons before New Orleans would enjoy the majesty of a .500 season in 1979. The Saints wouldn’t notch their first record of better than .500 and the playoffs until ’87 and wouldn’t get a playoff win until 2000. In fact, with the wildcard game win, the Saints became the 30th of the then 30 NFL teams to win a postseason game.

Following the 2000 season, the Saints spent the next four seasons finishing between 7-9 and 9-7 every year. And then real disaster.

Hurricane Katrina hit during the preseason to 2005 NFL season and the Saints were forced to evacuate the New Orleans area in August. Due to the use of the Superdome during the storm’s aftermath as an emergency shelter, the facility was rendered essentially unplayable for ’05. That season, the Saints played just seven “home” games (as opposed to the customary eight), with three held in San Antonio and four in Baton Rouge, the first occasions for both cities to host regular-season NFL games.

But in 2006, the Saints played out a redemption story to inspire their home city. Free agent QB Drew Brees came over from the San Diego Chargers, Sean Payton was hired as head coach, and RB Reggie Bush was taken at no. 2 overall in the draft. The team first flipped the 3-13 SU/5-11 ATS of ‘05 into 11-5 SU/10-6 ATS in ’06, and four years later finally won the Super Bowl, topping the favored Indianapolis Colts of Peyton Manning.

Following the Super Bowl win (“Bountygate” scandal aside), Saints fans were able to enjoy seeing their players on the right side of a highlight clip once in a while. In Brees’s remaining years with the Saints of 2010 through ’20, the Saints made the playoffs six times, going 6-7 SU/ATS in all playoff games during the span. However, it wasn’t the bow-out losses that gut-checked New Orleans fans (and many NFL bettors, to be sure) – it was the way they were eliminated.

    • After the 2017 season, the Saints advanced to the divisional round against the Minnesota Vikings; on the game’s last play, Case Keenum threw a 27-yard pass to Stefon Diggs but Marcus Williams missed an open-field tackle of Diggs and allowed the Viking to score and end the Saints’ year.

    • In the following playoffs, a late (and obvious) defensive pass interference against Los Angeles Rams CB Nickell Robey-Colemen went uncalled, thereby allowing the Rams to get another field goal to tie up the game, and another to win in OT.

    • Finally, in the 2019-20 divisional round, both the Vikings and a phantom PI killed the Saints. This time, an overtime TD by TE Kyle Rudolph probably only happened by dint of offensive pass interference that the referees let slp.

What will come of the Saints now? It’s clear the Ain’ts ain’t no more, but NFLbets would hardly recommend betting these guys against anything but NFL South division mates until we know for certain…

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Summary

Throughout the franchise’s history, the New Orleans Saints have been pretty good to the bettors. For about 40 years, one could easily turn a profit by betting against the “Ain’ts” in every game. This was followed by the golden days of head coach Sean Payton and QB Drew Brees during which the Saints made for a great bet week to week – until another soul-crushing defeat in the playoffs. How to bet the Saints in the new era? Stay tuned to NFLbets for the newst in New Orleans Saints news…