The New Orleans Saints’ lone prime-time game in 2026 came on the direct orders of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
No, the league’s top executive didn’t mandate that the Saints needed to be featured after being shut out of the spotlight in 2025. But Goodell did want the league’s schedule-makers and networks to recognize the 20th anniversary of the Saints’ first game back in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina — so he made sure they were aware to schedule the Saints on “Monday Night Football” against the Atlanta Falcons, a nod to the same matchup that took place all the way back then.
“It was a requirement straight from the boss that it landed on our schedule,” NFL vice president of broadcast planning Mike North said on a call with reporters to discuss this year’s schedule.
Otherwise, the Saints still have work to do before they’re once again regarded as a marquee team in the NFL.
A late-season win streak, the emergence of quarterback Tyler Shough and a buzzy offseason weren’t enough to completely turn around the perception of New Orleans, at least in the eyes of the league’s stakeholders. While the Saints were granted the right to play the NFL’s first game in France — another standalone window, albeit not in prime time — New Orleans’ schedule features 13 of its 17 games at noon. That’s three more noon outings than last year, when the black and gold had 10 noon games and six in the late-afternoon window.
Given the setup, it is fair to wonder whether the Saints would have been shut out of prime time again had there not been a significant anniversary of one of the franchise’s biggest games.
But if the Saints feel they deserve more of the spotlight, they wouldn’t be alone. Five teams didn’t even get one prime-time game — including the Tennessee Titans, who were shut out for the second straight year.
Gone are the days when teams would automatically be rewarded with a night game.
The league changed that rule eight years ago, North said. These days, the league aims to schedule its most compelling matchups in prime time — with the right to swap out for another matchup later in the year if the “crystal ball” isn’t as clear as the league had hoped.
“Anybody else who felt like they didn’t get as much national television exposure as they were hoping to, that’s what flexible scheduling is for,” North said. “That’s why we put it in. That’s why we work with our partners every year to ensure that the teams that have played their way into bigger television windows have an opportunity to get rewarded when we get into November or December."
Last year, Saints general manager Mickey Loomis admitted he was “surprised” at the league’s decision to shut out the team from prime time. “That’s what the league thinks of us,” he told reporters at the team’s annual celebrity golf tournament. But the executive also acknowledged the team couldn’t complain about the snub. The Saints would just have to go out and earn those opportunities, he said.
A year later, the Saints likely would be the first ones to admit they still haven’t fully reached that point. Throughout the offseason, Loomis and other members of the organization have cautioned against reading too much into the team’s four-game win streak down the stretch. The Saints ultimately finished 6-11, a one-win improvement from 2024.
Of course, that record surpassed many of the predictions that expected the Saints to be one of the worst teams in the NFL.
But that alone doesn’t guarantee multiple spots in prime time.
“There’s a lot of talk about everything, but for me, I want to keep getting better,” Shough said last month. “I only played nine games. … I haven’t really shown anything yet.”
If there is an argument that the Saints did deserve more of a showcase, the case would start with Shough. Promising young quarterbacks not only bring hope, they sell games. Look at the New York Giants, who were rewarded with four prime-time games after Jaxson Dart’s promising rookie season. And Shough finished ahead of Dart in voting for Offensive Rookie of the Year.
But there are differences. This offseason, the Giants notably hired John Harbaugh — a big-name coach who figures to provide a baseline of competence that should keep the Giants competitive in that spotlight. And there’s no doubt New York is a bigger market than New Orleans, even if market size doesn’t solely factor into being awarded prime-time contests. (The New York Jets surprisingly were not given a night game.)
And at least Shough was fortunate enough that the Saints will get to play on “Monday Night Football.”
Neither Tennessee’s Cam Ward nor Las Vegas’ Fernando Mendoza — the first overall picks in the past two drafts — saw their teams get chosen for prime time.
“Not to be flip, but we don’t draft our way into prime time,” North said.
For the Saints’ perception to truly change, they simply have to start winning again.
Case in point: the Jacksonville Jaguars. Though they’re another small-market team, Jacksonville’s dramatic turnaround in 2025 left networks clamoring.
The Jaguars were awarded three prime-time spots after having just one last season.
“They earned them,” North said. “You play your way into prime time.”