Happy Thanksgiving, New Orleans sports fans.
And yes, I know what you’re thinking.
What in the world is there to be thankful for when the calendar is approaching December and the Saints and Pelicans have combined for five wins?
Sometimes, you have to look beyond the results.
Other times, you have to look somewhere other than Airline Drive, which is what we will do here as we start this list of five things New Orleans sports fans should be thankful for.
1. Tulane football
Yeah, let’s bypass the Saints and Pelicans’ facility in Metairie and start Uptown, where Jon Sumrall’s Green Wave team is about to punch its ticket to the American Conference championship game. It’ll be the fourth consecutive year the Green Wave has played for the conference title, meaning there are some students on campus who probably think winning football is the norm around Tulane.
Trust me, that hasn’t always been the case, but it is now.
So props to Tulane, which needs to beat 1-10 Charlotte on Saturday night to host the conference championship game. Beating Charlotte shouldn’t be a problem. While you can count the Saints’ and Pelicans’ wins on one hand, you can count Charlotte’s wins on one finger.
A trip to the College Football Playoff is also within reach for the Green Wave, so there’s also that to be thankful for. The real question is this: Can Tulane pull off the Thanksgiving trifecta and be able to hold on to Sumrall, one of the most coveted coaches not named Lane Kiffin on the market?
2. Pelicans rookies
Derik Queen, Jeremiah Fears and Micah Peavy are off to strong starts in their NBA careers, and it looks like the Pelicans nailed their three draft picks.
Queen hasn’t even played 20 games yet, but he’s already getting the loudest cheers during pre-game introductions. The trade to get him will be criticized for years to come, but it’s pretty clear what Joe Dumars and Troy Weaver saw in him. There’s a reason Queen, taken with the 13th pick, has vaulted all the way to third in odds to win Rookie of the Year.
Fears is just three spots behind him, and Peavy is making a name for himself on the defensive end by guarding the opponents’ best player, but he’s coming around offensively, too.
“All three of our rookies have been doing their thing,” Zion Williamson said Tuesday.
3. A high draft pick
This isn’t for the Pelicans. They traded what looks like a lottery pick in the deal to get Queen. This is for the Saints, who look like they could be on their way to being one of the first teams on the clock in April.
You probably didn’t think that a few weeks ago when they beat the Carolina Panthers before the bye and looked like they may have turned a corner. Then they had a reality check of a performance against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. The last six games on the schedule include tilts against the lowly New York Jets (2-9) and the even worse Tennessee Titans (1-10). So the Saints may not be bad enough to get the No. 1 overall pick, but a top-five pick could be in the cards.
4. Tyler Shough
There may be some who still aren’t sold on Shough, but I’m not one of them. The rookie quarterback has completed 64.3% of his passes for 829 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions in his three starts.
While those aren’t jaw-dropping numbers, Shough has shown he can move the offense. It’s too bad the Saints’ red-zone issues have continued, but that is more on the play-calling of Kellen Moore than Shough’s play. Saints legend Drew Brees said on Sunday’s broadcast that Shough had some “Josh Allen qualities.” I’m not ready to go that far, but I see enough promise that the Saints could avoid taking a quarterback with that high draft pick they most certainly will have.
Also be thankful that the Saints, like the Pelicans, picked some promising players in the 2025 draft class.
5. The 36-year-olds
This includes the two the Saints have and the one the Saints don’t have.
You won’t find two current athletes who do more for the city of New Orleans than Cam Jordan and Demario Davis. From Jordan giving out Thanksgiving meals on Tuesday to Davis’ Devoted Dreamers Foundation, you can always count on them to do their part. The two of them won’t play forever, but New Orleans should be thankful for No. 94 and No. 56 while they have them.
And also be thankful the Saints did NOT sign another 36-year-old: Justin Tucker. It was a possibility after the Saints released struggling kicker Blake Grupe on Tuesday. Tucker received his first NFL workout with the Saints on Tuesday after serving a 10-game suspension for violating the league’s personal-conduct policy. Sixteen women accused the former Baltimore Ravens kicker of inappropriate misconduct during massage-therapy sessions. Tucker has denied the accusations. If the Saints had signed Tucker, it would have been a PR nightmare for a team in the midst of an already nightmarish season. Instead, the Saints signed former LSU kicker Cade York.
Thank goodness.