While Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans are ecstatic for the 2025 NFL regular season to get underway, it's a much different story for New Orleans Saints fans. The Saints used to be a team that almost always were a playoff contender under Sean Payton and Drew Brees but that team is long gone and they've been replaced by a team that's led by first-year head coach Kellen Moore and a bunch of question marks at quarterback.
No, seriously. The Saints decided their best option at quarterback this year is former fifth-round pick Spencer Rattler even though they spent a second-round pick on Tyler Shough (another LOL moment for Bucs fans) in this year's draft.
That paragraph only encapsulates why Saints fans are as pessimistic as they are and that shone true in The Athletic's recent Hope-O-Meter, measuring NFL fanbases' optimism for the season ahead. While Saints fans didn't come in dead last, they were second-to-last with only Colts fans feeling less optimistic about their chances in 2025.
Saints’ negativity is gift that keeps on giving for Bucs fans
On the other side of the coin, Bucs fans are some of the most optimistic entering the season. Bucs fans are 97% optimistic for the 2025 season putting them behind only Broncos and Eagles fans. Saints fans are a measly 9% optimistic for what the 2025 season has in store for them.
To make things even funnier, the Hope-O-Meter provided comments from each fanbase and all but one of the Saints' provided comments skewed negative. All three pessimistic comments about the Saints revolved in some capacity around their quarterback situation with one even stating that it makes fans long for the days of Billy Joe Hobert or Billy Joe Tolliver. That's how you know it's bad in the Big Easy!
It really has been quite the thrill to see the Bucs not only completely flip the script and become a winning team that makes the playoffs year after year but to also see the Saints crash and burn as badly as they have. Payton knew how bad things were going to get in New Orleans and that's why he wanted out and is now coaching the Broncos.
It's one thing for the Bucs to be as good as they are but the Saints being this bad is the absolute chef's kiss.