What Saints home game are you most excited for in 2023?

While we’re still awaiting the complete 2023 NFL Schedule, we already know who the New Orleans Saints opponents will be for this upcoming season. Today, we’re going to take a look at the most anticipated home games on the Saints 2023 schedule.

As reported by Katherine Terrell, the Saints will play host the Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans and New York Giants. There’s a lot of intrigue around these young teams, so let’s dig into what to look forward to in the Saints home opponents.

The Quarterbacks

At first glance, what sticks out to me about these teams is their young quarterbacks. Saints fans will get a close look at guys such as Justin Fields, Trevor Lawrence, Desmond Ridder and Baker Mayfield/Kyle Trask. Depending on when the Panthers and Titans games fall on the schedule, they could even see rookie QBs Bryce Young and Will Levis in the Dome this season. The most experienced QB they will face at home is either Ryan Tannehill or Jared Goff.

With Derek Carr at the helm, I feel the Saints have a case for having the best QB in every home game this season. If Trevor Lawrence comes out and plays as well as we saw him play at the end of 2022, he could give Carr a run for his money, but Carr’s got more experience and won’t have to deal with the deafening crowd noise when he’s on the field.

The Young Players

There are a lot of young and exciting players coming to the Superdome in 2023. Outside of the QBs we already talked about, guys like Drake London, Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs, Jalin Hyatt, Sam LaPorta and Jameson Williams (potentially) will make an appearance in the Dome - and that’s just on offense.

As a Saints fan, I don’t love seeing all these young playmakers on the opposing sidelines, but as a football fan, it’ll be exciting to see the new generation of talent coming to New Orleans in 2023.

Familiar Faces

The Saints lost a lot of guys to free agency this offseason, and many of them stayed in the division. After losing co-defensive coordinator Ryan Nielson to the Falcons, a lot of players jumped ship. David Onyemata, Kaden Ellis and Ethan Greenidge all left New Orleans to reunite with Nielson in Atlanta while Andy Dalton and Shy Tuttle left for Carolina, giving the Saints five players from the 2022 squad who are returning to the Dome in 2023.

Saints fans also get to welcome former Saints coach Dan Campbell back to the Superdome for the first time since he took the head coaching job in Detroit.

The Defenses

The Saints get the pleasure of welcoming some of the NFL’s worst defenses to the Dome this season. They face some of worst passing defenses in the league in 2022. The Lions (32), Bears (29), Falcons (27), Giants (25), Jaguars (24) and Titans (23) all ranked bottom 10 in the league in passing yards allowed last season.

While all of these teams have added talent to improve their defense, there are still gaping holes on many of these defenses. With the addition of Derek Carr and the receiving core of Michael Thomas, Chris Olave, Rasheed Shahid and A.T. Perry, the Saints are set to carve up any defense that sets foot on the field in the Superdome.

So which home game is the most exciting?

I think the Saints drew some great home opponents in 2023. They get some young and upcoming teams who are still a year or two away from being super competitive in this league along with a couple playoff contenders.

Obviously, all of the NFC South games are exciting because they’re the Saints rivals, but I’m going to steer away from one of those as the most exciting game. Personally, I’m looking forward to the Lions and Jaguars games.

Jared Goff showed he can still be a very productive quarterback and Trevor Lawrence started breaking out in the second half of 2022. Both teams have added a lot of talent around their franchise QBs this offseason. Their offenses are high powered, featuring guys like Christian Kirk, Travis Etienne, Calvin Ridley, Amon-Ra St. Brown and David Montgomery.

Both games could come down to the wire, but I think the Saints experience and defense along with some of the loudest fans in the league give the Saints the edge on both teams.

Every home game this year will be exciting, so let us know in the comments which Saints home game you’re looking forward to the most this season!

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