NFL power rankings roundup: Where do Saints stand entering Week 1?

The New Orleans Saints get their first shot of making a statement this week against the Carolina Panthers. In terms of rankings across the board, the Saints are widely viewed as a bottom-10 team throughout the league. However, a dominating performance in Week 1 could alter the perspective of experts as well as onlookers across the country who seem to be down on the Black and Gold at the moment.

With the start of the regular season for the Saints just around the corner, here’s where most experts have the ranked heading into the 2024 season:

• Pro Football Focus: 16th
• Bleacher Report: 23rd
• Yahoo Sports: 23rd
• ProFootballTalk: 24th
• The Athletic: 25th
• CBS Sports: 27th
• The Ringer: 27th
• NFL.com: 28th
• Fox Sports: 28th

From the outside looking in, many would see the team’s 9-8 record from a year ago and question why they would be this low. Taking on these experts’ point of view, many of them see an aging roster, a poor offensive line, inconsistent quarterback play and a head coach who has had little success in this league. They also recognized the team’s inability to spend boatloads of money to bring in top-tier talent to this roster. When you factor in these things, it’s easy to see why the team is widely viewed in this manner.

Now the hope for this team, is that new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak can inject some life into this offense with some creativity to maybe compensate for the lacking areas. Most know that the Saints defense is going to be a stout unit to keep them in games but the question is, how can they get quarterback Derek Carr to perform with efficiency throughout the course of the year, behind a questionable offensive line. The answer hopefully lies behind their change at OC.