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The New Orleans Saints were established as an expansion team in 1967 for the NFL. New Orleans won their first championship in 2009 when they won Super Bowl XLIV over the Indianapolis Colts.
The Saints won their lone NFC conference championship the same year and have nine division titles to their names. The Saints have entered the playoffs 13 times, including eight of the last 15 seasons.
With over five decades of existence, some of the best American football players in history donned the New Orleans uniform for most of their careers. They are not only some of the franchise’s best but also some of the most iconic athletes in the NFL. Here are the five best fantasy seasons to come from a New Orleans Saint.
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#5 Drew Brees (2011)
Stats: 5,476 yards, 46 touchdowns, 14 interceptions, 86 rushing yards, and 1 rushing touchdown
Drew Brees broke the NFL's single-season passing record by throwing for 5,476 yards, a record that would be controversially broken by Peyton Manning two years later. Brees averaged 342 yards per game and added 46 touchdowns, the seventh-most in NFL single-season history. Aaron Rodgers' incredible 2011 MVP campaign reduces the significance of Brees's season.
Though Rodgers outscored him by 5.8 points in one less game, Brees totaled a career-high 391.6 fantasy points. The former Purdue Boilermaker finished as a QB1 in all but two games during the season. Brees's finish to the 2011 fantasy season was significantly strong. The future Hall-of-Famer averaged 29.9 points per game over the final six games of the season.
#4 Jimmy Graham (2011)
Stats: 99 catches, 1,310 yards, and 13 touchdowns
Jimmy Graham and Rob Gronkowski took over the tight end position from the previous generation of Dallas Clark, Tony Gonzalez, and Antonio Gates in just their second year in the league. Gronkowski broke two single-season tight end records, but let's not forget about Jimmy Graham's great season.
Graham's 1,310 yards ranked second all-time to Gronk's 1,327 from the same year. Graham scored in the double-digits in all but two games and was a consistent contributor in 2011. The former college basketball player was a top-five tight end in ten weeks throughout the season. Gronkowski led tight ends in scoring in six different weeks, but Graham was second with three number-one weeks.
#3 Alvin Kamara (2020)
Stats: 187 carries, 932 yards, and 16 touchdowns, plus 83 catches for 756 yards and 5 receiving touchdowns
Alvin Kamara produced his career's best fantasy season and finished as the highest-scoring running back in 2020. Kamara averaged 22.4 points per game and was the top scorer despite sitting out in Week 17. The former Tennessee Volunteer led the NFL with 21 touchdowns and averaged 112.6 scrimmage yards per game.
Kamara's versatility from the backfield makes him a swiss-army-knife of a fantasy asset. 43.7% of Kamara's 336.3 fantasy points came from his receiving production. The former third-rounder produced four 30-point games throughout the season, including a 54.7-point, six-touchdown eruption on Christmas Day—the perfect gift for fantasy owners.
#2 Jimmy Graham (2013)
Stats: 86 catches, 1,215 yards, and 16 touchdowns
Jimmy Graham doesn't get enough credit when debating the best tight end of the 2010s. With Rob Gronkowski and Travis Kelce overshadowing his success, few talk about Graham's 16-touchdown 2013 season. The former Miami Hurricane posted 260.5 half-PPR fantasy points, 73.5 more than the next-best tight end that year.
His 16 touchdowns are second all-time to Gronk's 17-touchdown 2011 season. Jimmy Graham topped 15 points in 10 games throughout the season and produced just three weekly finishes outside the top-12 of his position. With five multi-touchdown games and six 100-yard games, Jimmy Graham provided plenty of huge weeks and separated himself from the rest of the tight end position.
#1 Michael Thomas (2019)
Stats: 149 catches, 1,725 receiving yards, and 9 touchdowns
This isn't recency bias speaking, Michael Thomas's 2019 fantasy campaign was legitimate. The former Ohio State Buckeye broke the NFL single-season record by reeling in 149 receptions. There were only three games throughout the season where Thomas failed to haul in eight or more catches.
Consistency was the backbone of Thomas's historical season. He had just two weeks under 12.9 points, compared to eight games over 21 points. The former second-round pick rattled off nine weekly finishes as a top-eight wide receiver within an eleven-game window. Thomas totaled 300 fantasy points, 67 more than Chris Godwin, the second-highest-scoring wide receiver for the season.
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