The Saints have had a winning record in two of the last three seasons, but all three campaigns have ended in Week 18 of the regular season.
The current playoff drought comes after four straight division titles and safety Tyrann Mathieu said that the team is taking a new approach to ending it this season. During an appearance on NFL Network, Mathieu called himself “highly motivated” to make it back to the playoffs and said the entire roster is going to play in a similar way.
“Oh, we’re gonna have way more attitude,” Mathieu said. “We’re gonna have way more attitude this season. I think it’s personal, not just for us, I think for our coaches, as well. We want to put a good product out there. We gonna get back to that old nasty, just playing with an attitude.”
If the attitude adjustment doesn’t do the trick, next offseason could bring more expansive changes to the Saints so it will be interesting to see if Mathieu’s approach proves to be a winning one.