Fan Pulse Week 1: Will the Saints win? Is New Orleans headed in the right direction?

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across the NFL powered by SurveyMonkey. Each week, we send 32 polls to 100+ plugged in fans from each team. Saints fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

Will the Saints win or lose in Week 1?

Since the 2011 season, the Saints have a 7-1 record against the Buccaneers at home. They’ve outscored them 227-124 in that stretch, with a lone loss in 2015. As of Thursday night, Bovada had Sean Payton’s squad as a 10-point favorite. It goes without saying, New Orleans hasn’t won a season opener since the 2013 season (Falcons). In fact, their first three games of the year since 2014 has been quite abysmal, as the Saints are a combined 2-10 in the past four seasons.

The Saints did go 7-1 at home last season (8-1 if you count the Wild Card win against the Panthers), and the Mercedes-Benz Superdome should be rocking with excitement to help fuel the black and gold on Sunday.

How confident are you in the direction of the Saints?

Very confident: 88 percent

Somewhat confident: 12 percent

Meh: 0 percent

Not very confident: 0 percent

Not confident at all: 0 percent

After several killer draft classes and riding the high of last season’s successes, things are definitely looking up for Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton. There’s plenty of reasons to be optimistic, as this team is looking to make the most of what looks to be the final window for Drew Brees to win another Lombardi Trophy. Had this been a poll from last season, there would have likely been some negative opinions.

What is the worst NFL rule?

There’s not much else to say here. The helmet rule is pretty crazy. To put it into perspective, the NFL Competition Committee met just after two weeks of the preseason to discuss the rule. That in itself tells you how bad this can be for the league. Retired offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz had a different take on it, which is worth taking a look at.