1/4 of the way through the season how many more wins?

[TwistedHusky]

The defensive roster isn't fantastic. But it isn't abjectly the worst in the history of the league.
The results so far do not track with the roster.
It feels like the results are more a symptom of the wrong tactics & strategies than just a roster without effective players on it.
For example, when Taysom Hill came in - I didn't see the kind of spy we would put on if someone like Mahomes was at QB and we were hell bent to prevent the QB rush.
Which is weird, because almost all Hill could do was run the ball.
We don't do a good job of adjusting to whatever the other side is doing. That was a glaring example.

 

[Hollandhawk]

The Saints had their top 3 WRs out, and their starting QB. And they still got boat raced by Taysom Hill.

Goff and a bunch of backups put up 45, only to score 0 the following week.

They will be playing better QBs and offenses, the rest of the way. Pete's defense is ruining another would be awesome season because he can't get it together on his side of the ball.

Sticking with 5 wins. Geno is much better than anticipated, and should be extended, but Pete's defense has never been worse.

They will also be playing worse defenses since the Saints are one of the better defenses in the league.

 

[AROS]

6 sounds about right to me at the moment and that's an indictment on the defense. If our defense could be even average, with this offense I would say 10-ish.

 

[hoxrox]

6-11 is the current trajectory.

 

[Mad Dog]

Said at the beginning of the year, it looked like a 5 win team. Of course I thought it would be Geno and the rookies holding us back.

Still looks like a 5 win team but the rookies and Geno are balling and it's the guys that should be stepping up and carrying the load that are flailing.

So 3 more wins, I hope they are at home when I'm there.

At least the team is reasonably fun to watch. Just need to close my eyes or take a pee break when the D is out there.

 

[pittpnthrs]

3 maybe 4 more wins

 

[BASF]

Goff and a bunch of backups put up 45, only to score 0 the following week.

I do not disagree with you about Pete's defense, but the difference between playing at home and away is big for an offense. Especially when the then road team is going against the best defensive mind in NFL history.

 

[DarkVictory23]

Team is better than it looks, most of the 'this team will only with 4 games!' takes were people who were so wrong about why (Geno sucks!) that it's hard to take their prediction seriously. (Also, they thought the defense was the problem last year, so...)

Here's the thing: Our offense is actually very good. Surprisingly very good, like, one of the top 2 or 3 offensive units (to this point) in the league. (Kansas City and Buffalo are better and I don't know who I else I would say that about).

Our defense is... not. It's very, very bad.

Which leaves special teams. On a regular, play-for-play basis, we have okay special teams. An unreliable, probably middle-of-the-league quality kicker but a punter who might be the best in the league. In our two most recent games, though, our special teams made some boneheaded mistakes that are not typical of their play-to-play production.

I don't know to what degree our defense will or won't improve as the year goes. But if our special teams removes those mistakes, we go from a team with 1 good, 1 bad, and 1 good-but-giving-you-bad results unit to 2 good, 1 bad.

I think tightening the ship on special teams--which is very, very doable--is all that is needed to make this team an 8 or better win team from here. Any add on in defensive improvement is a value-add at that point. I legitimately don't believe playoffs are out of the picture if our offense continues to play at anything near this level.

 

[flv2]

The Seahawks are competitive but they're about to hit the rough part of the season. I thought they'd start 2-3 and then the schedule would get tough. The Seahawks are playing better than I thought they would, but so are some of the potentially weaker teams on the schedule.

6 wins total. 2nd guess would be 5 wins.

 

[Maui12thman]

If the D continues its slide into oblivion I see 2 more wins. Panthers and Jets.

New players, new coaches, new scheme, I believe this defense will most likely get better instead of get worse. Therefore I see 4-6 more wins this year. And I will be completely satisfied with the progress of this rebuild.

 

[WmHBonney]

I'm not so sure the Panthers are an automatic win. I don't care who their QB is. They just have to get the ball to McCaffrey and he will gash this defense.

 

[CouchLogic]

I'm not sure the DEF can stop anyone...

I don't see them fixing anything on that side of the ball, they need players and they are not coming until the draft. Maybe they find some quality DL/LBs before the trade deadline, but that still won't be enough (for this season).

I'll enjoy watching this offense do fun stuff the rest of the way. The defense can just...exist...over there...out of sight.

 

[LeaveLynchAlone]

At the start of the year, I predicted Pete would make this a .500 team.
The offense is much better than I expected, but the defense is much worse.
And the NFC West is much worse.
At the time, .500 didn't make sense but Pete was going to get this team to .500 or close to it. Roster be damned.
Now things look to be shaking out that way. Penny getting hurt is going to be painful. He was a big part of our offensive engine. But Pete will get this team to .500 like it or not.

What are the winning mega millions numbers next January?

 

[Rainger]

I will stick with my original prediction of 8. But might be hard. I had a win against Atlanta and the sure wins against the 2 NY teams are now in doubt.
The O is better than I dreamed of but the D really needs to step up to get to 8.