Week 17 Saints fan rooting interests: Who to pull for in every game

The NFL’s Week 17 schedule features many games that can shake up the playoff picture, with the New Orleans Saints in flux in the standings.

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The NFC playoff picture is far from set, and the New Orleans Saints are at the heart of that instability — not to mention all of the potential changes that hinge on other games in Week 17. We’ve put together a game-by-game list of Saints fan rooting interests, giving you the inside angle on each matchup. All odds are sourced from BetMGM.

Around the NFC South

New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers. Saints by 12.5. Obviously root for the Saints here.

Atlanta Falcons at Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Buccaneers by 1.5. There’s two ways to look at this: a Falcons win guarantees their second consecutive 7-9 season, while a Buccaneers win makes it that much more difficult for them to part ways with Jameis Winston in the offseason. Both scenarios benefit Saints fans, so take your pick. Personally, we’re rooting for a Buccaneers loss (to hurt Atlanta’s draft positioning).

Painting the NFC Playoff Picture

San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks. 49ers by 3.5. Root for the Seahawks to beat the 49ers, and to win the NFC West. That would go a long way to help the Saints in the playoff standings. A 49ers win isn’t the end of the world, but it shuts the door on the Saints getting the first seed.

Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions. Packers by 12.5. Long as the odds may be, Saints fans have to pull for the Lions. And there’s reason to think Detroit can do the dang thing — they’ve won four of the last five in this NFC North rivalry series. Here’s hoping.

Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings. Bears by 3.5. The Vikings are probably going to rest their starters here, which would do a lot to guarantee a Bears win. That’s great news for the Saints, who would get another game against awful Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky next year because of it.

Washington Redskins at Dallas Cowboys. Cowboys by 10.5. The Saints are going to visit the NFC East winner next year, and it might be the Cowboys, if they win this game. If that appeals to you, root for them to win.

Philadelphia Eagles at New York Giants. Eagles by 4.5. Would you rather visit Philadelphia next year? If so pull for them to steamroll the Giants. The choice is yours, because the Saints have handled both the Eagles and Cowboys well in recent matchups.

Leftovers and Lagniappe

Arizona Cardinals at Los Angeles Rams. The Cardinals may not have Kyler Murray in this one, so it would be extremely funny if the Rams found a way to lose to them. Root for that.

Cleveland Browns at Cincinnati Bengals. Browns by 2.5. Pull for ex-LSU Tigers Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry, and Greedy Williams to have something to feel good about in a long, cold offseason.

Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots. Patriots by 15.5. The Patriots won’t lose this game, but Saints fans should root for breakout pass rusher Vince Biegel (who was sent to Miami in the Kiko Alonso trade) to get another sack against Tom Brady.

New York Jets at Buffalo Bills. Bills at 1.5. Offseason Jets drama is always entertaining, so pull for New York to end its year with a loss.

Los Angeles Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs. Chiefs by 8.5. The Chiefs are a sneaky-bad playoff team, having made a paper-tiger defense out of a schedule featuring some of the worst offenses in the NFL. Root for them to beat the mismanaged Chargers and then get embarrassed in the postseason

Tennessee Titans at Houston Texans. Titans by 4.5. Deshaun Watson and the Texans are more fun to watch than the Titans, so pull for them to win and advance deep into the playoffs.

Indianapolis Colts at Jacksonville Jaguars. Colts by 3.5. Neither of these teams are very good or very watchable,

Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens. Steelers by 2.5. The Ravens are resting a bunch of starters, so the Steelers just might win and get into the playoffs despite being down to their fourth-string quarterback (Ben Roethlisberger and Mason Rudolph were injured, and Josh Dobbs was traded away). That’s an impressive accomplishment for Mike Tomlin, which he deserves after putting up with all those injuries and the departures of Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Brown in the past year. He should get a playoffs appearance tacked onto his resume before taking a long Bahamas vacation early in January.

Oakland Raiders at Denver Broncos. Broncos by 3.5. The Saints have to visit both of these teams next year. Take your pick of which one you’d rather see build momentum going into the offseason; we’ll be pulling for the Raiders, because their fans deserve a better hand than they’ve been dealt, which is all too familiar a feeling for Saints faithful.

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