Executive Vice President/General Manager Mickey Loomis and Coach Kellen Moore are satisfied with how the New Orleans Saints 2026 schedule shaped up from a logistical standpoint.
Loomis said the trip to Paris and 20-year anniversary of the Caesars Superdome re-opening aligned nicely, while Moore also noted that the preseason schedule allows for the joint practice work he desired.
"I always looked at it like, we're going to have our requisite home games and our requisite away games and how they fall," Loomis said Monday morning, prior to teeing off in the Saints Hall of Fame golf tournament at Chateau Country Club. "There's not much you can do about it, so you just kind of take it in and you look at what are the logistics that may change, if you have short weeks or in this case, we have a game in Paris. We work out the logistics.
"It was a little bit of a surprise that we had an away game with the Giants prior to Paris, but that's going to work out nicely because it shortens the trip if we go immediately after the game."
The team will spend the week in Paris leading up to the Oct. 25 game against Pittsburgh at Stade de France.
"That's been our history (with international games), so we're going to continue to do it," Loomis said. "We think that's the best thing for our team and our players."
Moore has participated in two international games, as a player and as an assistant coach. As a Lions player he spent a week in London and as an Eagles coach he spent a couple of days in Brazil.
"Probably lean toward just being there for the full experience, just from the time zone perspective and getting our guys acclimated and all that sort of stuff," Moore said. "But there's a lot of different ways to do it. You look at all the stuff, there's plenty of success no matter how you do it."
With the Superdome re-opening anniversary game, the fact that it doesn't align perfectly with the date was of little consequence. The Monday night re-opening game in 2006 against Atlanta was on Sept. 25 and this season, the Monday night anniversary game against the Falcons will be Oct. 5.
"They talked to us about that prior to the schedule coming out," Loomis said. "It's a great idea, to celebrate that homecoming. It'll be fun."
Quarterback Tyler Shough said the anniversary game will be an unbelievable opportunity.
"For me, it's really special because one of the first people I met was Steve Gleason when I got here, and his whole family and going to his camp," Shough said. "That was a really cool thing for me early on, to see what he meant to this city and also the kind of person that he is. What a cool opportunity to be able to play them, at home, Week 4.
"It'll great for our city, great for our community, fan base playing Monday night football. Division game. It'll be a lot of fun."
New Orleans' preseason schedule will open with a home game against Jacksonville in the Superdome on Aug. 15, then conclude with road games against the Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood, Calif., at SoFi Stadium on Aug. 22, and against the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The date and time against the Cowboys have not been determined.
Moore said he is looking forward to holding several joint practices; New Orleans had a single joint practice against the Rams last year in California.
"We'll be able to do some joint practices out there, finalizing some of those opportunities there," Moore said. "Our goal is to try and get a few more joint practices this year, which I think will benefit our team."
