June 6, 2026, 3:22 p.m. CT
Which teams are the New Orleans Saints‘ greatest rivals? Which matchups get fans to circle dates on their calendars and make travel plans to pack the visitors’ stands? Some picks are more obvious than others, but we’ve carefully considered the criteria to highlight which teams Saints fans hate the most:
Frequency. It isn’t a rivalry if you only play each other every five years. The Saints are celebrating their 60th anniversary in 2026, so we’re trimming the list down to teams which played against New Orleans at least 30 times.Competition. Again, it isn’t a rivalry if just one team is running the show. You want to see both teams giving as good as they get. Parity matters. The closer to .500, the better.Significance. What about playoff games? Who has had more opportunities end each other’s season? When all else is equal, this can be a deciding factor.
We’re admittedly stretching the definition of a rivalry when looking at almost a third of the NFL’s teams, but it’s worth pointing out when the Saints have more shared history with some franchises than others.
The Saints and Cardinals have met up 32 times in the regular season, with Arizona outscoring the black and gold 742-721 and winning 17 times. But all it took was one playoff game in a historic season to tip the scales. The Saints won in dominant fashion on their way to Super Bowl XLIV, powered by three Drew Brees touchdown passes to three different players (Jeremy Shockey, Devery Henderson, and Marques Colston) and two huge scores from Reggie Bush. The former second overall pick ripped off a 46-yard touchdown run before returning a punt 83 yards to help close out the game.
10. New York Giants
You may not think of the Giants right away when listing the Saints’ rivals, but it’s been as close a series as they’ve had against any other team. The lack of playoff action keeps them beneath other contenders, too, but one of those “what if” scenarios we’ll always have to wonder about is whether the Saints could have kept New York from winning a Super Bowl back in 2011. The Giants blew out the Atlanta Falcons 24-2 in the Wild Card Round, then stunned the No. 1-seed Green Bay Packers on their home turf before outlasting the San Francisco 49ers in the conference title game. If the Saints had scored last a week earlier in San Francisco, they would have gotten to host the Giants themselves. And with a dominant 49-24 win on Monday Night Football over that same Giants team earlier that season, you’d have to like their chances.
9. Philadelphia Eagles
Here’s another competitive series. The Eagles won six in a row from 1992 to 2003, but each side has traded blows in the decades since, and just one team has played the Saints more often in the postseason than Philadelphia (who we’ll get to shortly). Whether it was Deuce McAllister pushing the pile without his helmet, Reggie Bush taking a huge hit (and staying in the game to win it) on a screen pass, or Nick Foles throwing a last-minute interception to Marshon Lattimore, this one has had plenty of big playoff moments. We didn’t even mention the Saints winning their first road playoff game in Philly.
8. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Yeah, the least-competitive series the Saints have had with their NFC South neighbors doesn’t make the top-five. To their credit, the Bucs have fought hard to make this feel like a rivalry by winning six of the last eight matchups and sending Drew Brees into retirement with a playoff loss. Dirty play from guys like Mike Evans and Ryan Jensen has given these games a real edge (and so has Baker Mayfield’s bad attitude). But the Buccaneers still have a lot of work to do to make it feel like these teams are competing on equal footing.
7. San Francisco 49ers
It’s the opposite problem for San Francisco — while the Buccaneers have been outscored by a wider margin than any other Saints opponent, the 49ers have run up the score more badly than anyone else. New Orleans was just stuck on the wrong end of too many Jerry Rice touchdown passes from Steve Young and Joe Montana over the years. That pivotal 2011 Divisional Round loss (sparked by a dirty hit against Pierre Thomas on the opening drive) arguably cost the Saints a Super Bowl. There’s generations of bad blood here. Depending on how each team performs in 2026, the Saints could visit San Francisco in 2027, meaning back-to-back West Coast trips with an away game already scheduled for 2028.
6. Chicago Bears
Is it a hot take to put the Bears over the 49ers? We made that call based on the more-competitive win percentage and more extensive playoff history between the two teams. Those irresponsible Bears fans who chose to bring signs saying they would “finish the job after Katrina” into the 2006 NFC Championship Game permanently shifted the energy in this series. Saints fans are eager for wins now that Chicago has brought in the Saints’ much-maligned former head coach Dennis Allen.
5. Dallas Cowboys
Here’s a fun one. Proximity has made this series a fun rivalry with some families split between Saints fans and Cowboys fans; markets are split, too, with Shreveport in northwest Louisiana often getting the Dallas broadcast when there’s a game on in New Orleans at the same time. Shared coaching connections add some juice to it, too, with Sean Payton and Kellen Moore both coming up on the Cowboys staff before taking over the black and gold. That it’s been such a competitive series on top of that just makes these games more exciting.
4. Minnesota Vikings
Now we’re getting to the bigger names. No team has squared off with the Saints more often in the playoffs than Minnesota, and the Vikings have beaten the Saints more often than anyone else, too. Ten years and six losses passed between the Saints’ first and second wins against the Vikings, and New Orleans only beat them twice in both the 1980s and 1990s. Drew Brees has been the Saints’ quarterback in half of their all-time wins against Minnesota. Despite that lopsidedness, you can’t ignore how big a moment it was for Brett Favre to throw the 2009 NFC title game away, and it’s fitting that the Saints finally got past the Vikings to win their first Super Bowl.
3. Carolina Panthers
The Saints have had the kind of rivalry game with Carolina that Tampa Bay wishes they had. It’s been competitive almost year in, year out with a contentious decade centered around Cam Newton’s Panthers team. New Orleans has won five of the last six matchups but the one loss got Dennis Allen fired. It’s so fitting that Panthers star Luke Kuechly is going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame alongside Drew Brees, and that these two teams share the legacy of legendary linebacker Sam Mills.
2. Los Angeles Rams
A more-competitive history with the Rams lifts the Saints’ old NFC West rival above the 49ers, and the role L.A. played in benefiting from the 2018 NFC No-Call boosts them past other teams on this list. Los Angeles has won five of the last six matchups between these two teams but it was as back-and-forth as it gets from the 2000 season onwards (in which the Saints’ ended the Rams’ season with their very first playoff win). And like the 49ers, the Rams are another potential 2027 opponent on the road if they and the Saints end up with the same divisional standings in 2026. Either way, they’ll meet again for a home game in New Orleans during the 2028 season.
1. Atlanta Falcons
Come on — you knew who would be here. The Saints and the dirty birds may not have the NFL’s oldest rivalry (like the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers), or its most publicized (like the Pittsburgh Steelers versus Baltimore Ravens), but it’s the most heartfelt and underrated. It’s the closest thing the NFL has to a college football-style grudge match. New Orleans and Atlanta flat-out dislike each other, and the product on the field reflects that. Hopefully the Saints can pull off a season sweep to tie it up again in the all-time standings.
