While the official schedule and dates is yet to be announced and won't be for quite some time, here's what the Saints' 2010 opponents look like:
Home: Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, St. Louis Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Minnesota Vikings, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers
Away: Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals
My initial take is: NOT TOO BAD! Hopefully the @Cincinnati and @Baltimore games can be earlier in the season to avoid bad weather, but otherwise travelling to San Fran, Tempe and Dallas will give the Saints optimal conditions with which to operate their high powered offense. It's nice that we'll host Seattle, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. The only negative I see is that the Saints have to make two trips to the west coast, but that schedule is a pretty good mix. There's no way of telling who will be very tough and beatable come a year from now, so you really have to pay attention to the away games and where you need to go at this point. The Saints were fortunate to not get exposed to terribly cold games other than @ Washington and @ Carolina this year. Trust me, it can be a lot worse. Similarly next year, @ Cincinnati is the only one that's of real danger of being unbearably cold. I feel pretty good about this.
