Payton has Saints primed to continue historic run

The New Orleans Saints are back in the NFL playoffs.

They became the first team to clinch a spot Sunday. It happened when they held off the Falcons in Atlanta and Detroit rallied to beat the Bears in Chicago virtually simultaneously.

This is the fourth straight season that the Saints have qualified for the playoffs, something that has never happened before.

The Saints are doing a lot of new stuff this season, just as they have since Sean Payton arrived in 2006.

The victory in Atlanta improved the Saints to 10-2 and came a week after they clinched their fourth consecutive winning season – another first for an organization in its 54th season.

“That probably tells me it’s coming from a program that hasn’t had much success or history of success, and I’m being just honest,” Payton said of the unprecedented streak of winning seasons. “I’m glad that that’s four in a row. Certainly, our aspirations are much higher than having a winning season.”

They do have much higher aspirations and rightfully so.

They are closing in on a fourth consecutive division title for the first time in franchise history. (Do you see a pattern developing here?)

They can clinch the NFC South as soon as next Sunday – if the Saints win in Philadelphia or second-place Tampa Bay loses at home to Minnesota. The Saints have a three-game lead and hold the tie-breaker over the Buccaneers as a result of winning both head-to-head meetings.

Tampa Bay’s addition of six-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady and several other key free agents to an already-rising team appeared to make it a strong threat to end New Orleans’ run as division champion.

Instead we’re just entering the fourth quarter of the season and the Saints are figuratively in victory formation as far as the division title is concerned.

Another NFC South title is merely a step on the way to the next goal, which is the No. 1 seed in the NFC. The Saints have a one-game lead over Green Bay for the playoff perks that come with that distinction.

If the Saints win out against the Eagles, Chiefs, Vikings and Panthers, there’s nothing Aaron Rodgers and the Packers can do to deny New Orleans the No. 1 seed.

But if the Packers can somehow catch the Saints own the head-to-head tie-breaker after beating the Saints in the Superdome in Week 3. Green Bay’s remaining games are against the Lions, Panthers, Titans and Bears.

Home-field advantage doesn’t figure to be as strong this season in terms of the crowd’s impact because of COVID-related limitations on attendance, but the contrast in weather conditions between the Superdome and Green Bay in January will be as significant as ever.

Additionally, the NFL has added a seventh playoff team in each conference, which reduced the number of byes from two to one, enhancing the value of being the top seed.

If the Saints can hold on to the top spot, they will have a bye into the NFC semifinals and would have to just win two games in the Superdome to reach the Super Bowl.

It’s the best-case scenario, one that helped New Orleans get to its only Super Bowl 11 years ago and within one officiating brain cramp from doing it again two years ago.

The Saints haven’t lost a game since that defeat to the Packers in September. They have won nine consecutive games and this is the fourth consecutive season that they have won at least six games in a row.

The greatest era in Saints history began is often and properly referred to as the Payton-Brees era, having started when Payton’s first major decision as a rookie head coach was to bring in Drew Brees as a free agent to run his offense.

This is the fourth season of the most successful chapter in that era, but this chapter is missing one thing – a Super Bowl.

This season could well be the final one of that era – if Brees decides to retire after this season, which seems quite possible.

But amid all of the quantifiable historic accomplishments – number of victories, winning seasons, playoff berths and division titles – is a more subtle yet lasting accomplishment, which has been Payton positioning the Saints to extend this run beyond Brees’ retirement.

Brees missed five games last season because of thumb surgery and the Saints went 5-0 with Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback.

Brees has missed the last 3½ games because of rib and lung injuries and the Saints have gone undefeated with Taysom Hill mostly at quarterback and Jameis Winson contributing briefly in the immediate aftermath of Brees’ injury during the victory against San Francisco.

Bridgewater (who’s now starting in Carolina), Winston and Hill are not Brees. Never will be.

But the Saints no longer need a Hall of Fame quarterback in his prime throwing for 5,000 yards per season to continue this run.

Payton’s program has evolved past that. The Saints can win with their running game, their defense, their special teams and their passing game even without it producing video-game statistics.

The NFL does not have a more complete team than the New Orleans Saints.

They are appropriately the first one into the postseason.

We’ll see who else joins them – and if any one of them can surpass New Orleans.