The New Orleans Saints will be kicking off their 2021 regular season with a date in Jacksonville. No, the Saints aren’t playing the Jaguars, they are playing the Green Bay Packers. The game is being playing in Jacksonville due to the recent hurricane that has been going through the Louisiana area. Sean Payton and the rest of the organization decided to play their game in Jacksonville, considering it was supposed to be a home game for them. This is definitely going to be an interesting matchup, let’s dive right into it.
The Packers had a very questionable offseason which included pleading to both Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams to run it back for one more season. They also chose to resign Aaron Jones to a massive deal despite having A.J. Dillon, who many believe was going to break out as a star this year. Though, they did try to right their wrongs by trading for Randall Cobb. Rodgers and Adams may not be very happy to be there, but they have seemingly come to the conclusion that they want to play at least one more season in Green Bay. Rodgers ripped New Orleans to shreds last year, picking up chunk play after chunk play. This game seems to look like it will head in that same direction, but the only question would be if the Saints can keep up without Drew Brees now?
Jameis Winston will be getting his first career start in New Orleans, and it is incredibly exciting. Michael Thomas may not be there so we won’t be getting the full experience but there are still a ton of weapons. Alvin Kamara is always a threat to break a big gain and Marquez Callaway has proved himself to be a number one wideout (in the preseason of course). We can’t forget about this fantastic offensive line either, which is going to be critical in Winston’s performance here. What better way to test out the strength of your team than getting to face off against a future Hall of Fame quarterback and a roster that made the NFC Championship two straight seasons. I believe this game will be incredibly difficult, but I have the Saints dropping this one to start the year off. It won’t be a blowout though; Rodgers will just be able to control the ball better and get settled in better than Winston.
Also, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game just finished up. It was honestly an excellent way to kick off this new season. Tom Brady threw a couple of interceptions, though the first one went right through the hands of Leonard Fournette. Ronald Jones lost a fumble early on as well. Though Antonio Brown looked like he was back in Pittsburgh and Rob Gronkowski decided that he wanted to be huge for fantasy owners. Tampa did take a big loss after Sean Murphy-Bunting gruesomely broke his arm diving to break up a pass. Dallas was able to pick apart his side of the field after that, it didn’t seem to matter who was playing that corner spot at the time either. Dak Prescott was abusing that side and the Buccaneers didn’t have an answer. This team looked rusty no doubt, but we can’t forget that they are reigning champions and did still pull away with a win no matter how ugly.