If one were to simply go by last year’s final records, the New Orleans Saints will have the second-easiest slate of games in the NFL for the 2026 season . In fact, only the Cleveland Browns, who will play the Saints in Paris in late October, have a schedule that will feature teams that had a worse winning percentage last year. Opponents of the Saints finished .434 last year, and that’s far behind the third-easiest schedule – Bengals at .450 – and fourth-easiest in the Colts at .465. However, there’s more to it than simply going by last year’s records. The past three seasons in a row, the Saints have been in a similar situation with bottom-5 toughest schedules. It hasn’t helped their record very much, and in the end it was misleading. For example, not only did New Orleans play both Super Bowl participants last season, but six of their opponents finished with 11 or more victories, and two had 14 wins.…