The New Orleans Saints announced their 2020 schedule which on Sunday, Sept. 13 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and features four prime time games and the team playing on Christmas day for the first time in franchise history.
The Saints will open their season at home for the third consecutive season, when they host the Buccaneers (3:25 p.m. CT). It will be the fourth time that the Saints have opened their season against Tampa Bay (2002, 2008 and 2018) and the second time in the past three seasons.
After opening at home, the Saints will play in two consecutive prime time games. New Orleans will travel to Las Vegas for the first time to play at the Raiders on "Monday Night Football" (7:15 p.m.) and then host the Green Bay Packers on "Sunday Night Football" on Sept. 27 (7:20 p.m.). New Orleans will then go back on the road to play at the Detroit Lions on Oct. 4 for their first 12 p.m. kickoff of the season. The Detroit tilt will be followed when they host the Los Angeles Chargers on "Monday Night Football" (Oct. 4), followed by a Week 6 bye.
After the bye, the Saints will host the Carolina Panthers (Oct. 25; noon) and then will travel to Soldier Field for a matchup at the Chicago Bears (Nov. 1), which will have a 3:25 p.m. CT kickoff. New Orleans will then travel to Tampa for a Nov. 8 "Sunday Night Football" matchup at Raymond James Stadium (7:20 p.m.). The Saints will play the Buccaneers in a prime time contest for the first time in 18 years, the only other being a Dec. 1, 2002 Sunday night 23-20 New Orleans home victory. The Saints will then return to New Orleans for back to back home contests on Nov. 15 vs. the San Francisco 49ers (3:25 p.m.) and on Nov. 22 vs. the Atlanta Falcons (12 p.m.)
Following the Falcons tilt, New Orleans will play a three-game stretch of road contests for the second time in three seasons, winning two of three in 2018. The Saints will travel to the Denver Broncos on Nov. 29 (3:05 p.m.), play at Atlanta on Dec. 6 (12 p.m.) and finish up the road trip at Philadelphia on Dec. 13 (3:25 p.m.) The Saints will then face two consecutive playoff participants at home, starting when they host the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs on Dec. 20 (3:25 p.m.), followed by the nationally televised Christmas afternoon tilt against the Minnesota Vikings (3:30 p.m.). New Orleans will close out the 2020 regular season on Jan. 3, 2021 at Carolina (12:00 p.m.), ending their regular season against the Panthers for the third consecutive campaign.
Six of the Saints' 16 games will be against teams that finished with a winning percentage of .500 or better in 2018, with contests against five 2019 playoff clubs – Green Bay, Kansas City, Minnesota, Philadelphia and San Francisco. New Orleans will play each of their NFC South rivals twice, one game each against each of the NFC North and AFC West teams and will play the 2019 first place teams in the NFC East (at Philadelphia) and NFC West (vs. San Francisco).
New Orleans' eight road games in 2020 will have the team travel 15,882 miles (roundtrip) away from home after they traveled a total of 19,960 miles (roundtrip) in 2019. The longest trip will be the Week 2 trek to Las Vegas (3,426 miles roundtrip).
Thanks to an away schedule that includes road contests at NFC South foes Carolina, Tampa Bay and Atlanta and at the Raiders, Lions, Bears, Broncos and Eagles, the Saints will leave the Central Time Zone seven times over the course of the season to play five contests in the Eastern Time Zone, one in the Mountain Time Zone (Denver) and one in the Western Time Zone (Las Vegas).