Who Dat Stats

History

Six eras of Saints football

From an expansion team in 1967 to the present, in order. Each era carries the league environment that produced its numbers, because statistics from different decades are not the same statistic: seasons were fourteen games long until 1978, and sacks were not official until 1982.

1967–1970

Franchise Origins

An expansion team, a brass band, and the longest field goal anyone had ever kicked.

The Saints were awarded to New Orleans on All Saints Day 1966 and played their first game in 1967. John Gilliam returned the opening kickoff of the first regular-season game 94 yards for a touchdown, and the franchise spent the rest of the decade learning how hard the rest of the schedule would be.

Franchise moments

  1. 1967First NFL season; John Gilliam returns the first-ever kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown
  2. 1969Danny Abramowicz leads the NFL in receptions
  3. 1970Tom Dempsey's 63-yard field goal beats Detroit and sets an NFL record that stands 43 years

League environment

  • Seasons were 14 games long; a 16-game schedule did not arrive until 1978.
  • The Saints played outdoors at Tulane Stadium; the Superdome did not open until 1975.
  • Sacks were not an official NFL statistic, so pass-rush production from this era cannot be stated as a career total.
  • The AFL-NFL merger was still in progress; New Orleans entered as an NFL expansion club.

1971–1980

The Archie Manning Era

A quarterback good enough to be beloved on teams never good enough to win.

Archie Manning arrived as the second overall pick in 1971 and became the face of the franchise for a decade, playing behind offensive lines that could not protect him and carrying rosters that could not keep up. He is the clearest case in franchise history of a great player and a losing record belonging to the same seasons.

Franchise moments

  1. 1971Archie Manning drafted second overall; wins his debut with a last-play touchdown run
  2. 1975The Superdome opens
  3. 1978Manning named NFC Player of the Year

League environment

  • Seasons ran 14 games through 1977 and 16 games from 1978 onward.
  • The 1978 rule changes — the five-yard contact rule and liberalised pass blocking — began the modern passing era. Raw passing totals before and after 1978 are not comparable.
  • The Saints moved into the Louisiana Superdome in 1975.
  • The franchise did not post a winning season during this period.

Players from this era

1981–1996

Dome Patrol & The First Winners

The franchise finally wins — and builds the best linebacking corps the NFL had seen.

Jim Mora arrived in 1986 and delivered the first winning season and first playoff berth in franchise history in 1987. The defense he built around Rickey Jackson, Sam Mills, Pat Swilling and Vaughan Johnson — the Dome Patrol — is the most decorated unit the Saints have ever fielded, and remains the only linebacking corps in NFL history to send all four starters to the same Pro Bowl.

Franchise moments

  1. 1987First winning season and first playoff berth in franchise history (12-3)
  2. 1991Pat Swilling named NFL Defensive Player of the Year; first NFC West title
  3. 1992All four Dome Patrol linebackers named to the same Pro Bowl

League environment

  • Sacks became an official NFL statistic in 1982, so career sack totals begin there.
  • The 1982 season was shortened to nine games by a players strike; 1987 was shortened to fifteen, three of them played by replacement players.
  • The salary cap arrived in 1994 and changed how long a roster could stay together.
  • The Saints reached the playoffs four times in this era and did not win a postseason game.

1997–2005

Ditka to Haslett

The first playoff win, a franchise-altering trade, and then the storm.

Mike Ditka traded an entire draft for Ricky Williams and was gone within two years. Jim Haslett won Coach of the Year in 2000 and delivered the first playoff victory in franchise history. The era ended with Hurricane Katrina displacing the 2005 team for a season played entirely on the road.

Franchise moments

  1. 1999The Ricky Williams trade: the entire 1999 draft plus 2000 picks for one selection
  2. 2000First playoff win in franchise history, over the defending champion Rams
  3. 2005Hurricane Katrina; the season is played away from New Orleans

League environment

  • Sixteen-game seasons throughout; the 2004 emphasis on illegal contact re-opened the passing game league-wide.
  • The 2005 Saints played no home games in New Orleans, splitting a nomadic season between San Antonio and Baton Rouge.
  • Free agency and the cap were fully mature, shortening the typical tenure of a star player with one team.

2006–2020

The Brees & Payton Era

A quarterback nobody else wanted, a coach nobody had hired, and a Super Bowl.

Sean Payton and Drew Brees arrived together in 2006, months after the city had been asked whether it would have a team at all, and won a division title in their first season. Three years later they won Super Bowl XLIV. The fifteen years that followed produced nearly every offensive record the franchise has.

Franchise moments

  1. 2006The Superdome reopens; Steve Gleason blocks a punt on the first drive
  2. 2009Super Bowl XLIV: the first championship in franchise history
  3. 2011Brees breaks the NFL single-season passing yardage record

League environment

  • The most pass-friendly rules environment in NFL history to that point; raw passing totals from these years dwarf every earlier era.
  • Sixteen-game seasons throughout, with a 12-team playoff field from 2020.
  • The franchise won seven division titles in this span, including four consecutive from 2017 to 2020.

2021–now

The Modern Saints

Life after the quarterback who rewrote the record book.

Drew Brees retired after the 2020 season and Sean Payton left a year later. What followed is a franchise working out its next identity around the last holdovers from the championship era and the players drafted to replace them.

Franchise moments

  1. 2021Drew Brees retires; Cameron Jordan is the last starter left from the Super Bowl era
  2. 2022Cameron Jordan passes Rickey Jackson as the franchise career sack leader

League environment

  • Seasons expanded to 17 games in 2021, so single-season totals from 2021 onward are not directly comparable to earlier ones.
  • The playoff field has been 14 teams since 2020.
  • Careers in progress: statistics for active players are stated through a named season and will move.

Players from this era

Where the numbers are

The franchise record book holds the all-time marks from all six eras, cited, alongside measured leaderboards for 1999–2025, the seasons play-by-play releases cover. The Hall of Fame holds 27 careers in full: statistics, honours, season-by-season timelines and sources.

Era summaries and milestones are hand-written and cited on the profiles they draw from. The measured leaderboards cover 27 seasons.