The 1999 New Orleans Saints season was the Saints' thirty-third season in the National Football League (NFL). This was Mike Ditka's third and final season as the Saints' head coach, as he was fired, along with his entire coaching staff and general manager Bill Kuharich, three days after the conclusion of the season.
This was the final season that the Saints used their primary Fleur-de-lis logo. Beginning the next season, the logo was slightly upgraded into a more 3D-esque design, which the team still uses today.
After finishing the last two seasons at 6–10, the bottom completely fell out in 1999. After they won their opener, the Saints proceeded to lose their next seven games, one of which was to the reactivated Cleveland Browns on a hail mary as time expired. This resulted in the Browns first win since their reactivation. After this the Saints never recovered and ended the season 3–13, tying their worst record since the infamous 1980 1–15 season and the worst record of Coach Ditka's career.
With their loss to the Browns, the Saints became the only team since the NFL/AFL merger in 1970 to lose to the last winless team in successive seasons.
Offseason
NFL draft
With the only pick in the draft the New Orleans Saints selected running back Ricky Williams out of the University of Texas with the fifth overall pick. The Saints traded all of their draft picks in the 1999 draft in order to move up so they could draft Williams, as well as a first round pick in the 2000 NFL draft that eventually was used by the Washington Redskins to draft LaVar Arrington. The move was heavily criticized by fans and the media, especially after a magazine cover in New Orleans posted a front cover picture of Ditka and Williams, with the latter shown in a wedding dress.
Personnel Staff
Roster
Regular season
Schedule Week Date Opponent Result Record Venue Attendance 1 September 12 Carolina Panthers W 19–10 1–0 Louisiana Superdome 58,166 2 September 19 at San Francisco 49ers L 21–28 1–1 3Com Park 67,685 3Bye 4 October 3 at Chicago Bears L 10–14 1–2 Soldier Field 66,944 5 October 10 Atlanta Falcons L 17–20 1–3 Louisiana Superdome 57,289 6 October 17 Tennessee Titans L 21–24 1–4 Louisiana Superdome 51,875 7 October 24 at New York Giants L 3–31 1–5 Giants Stadium 77,982 8 October 31 Cleveland Browns L 16–21 1–6 Louisiana Superdome 48,817 9 November 7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers L 16–31 1–7 Louisiana Superdome 47,129 10 November 14 San Francisco 49ers W 24–6 2–7 Louisiana Superdome 52,198 11 November 21 at Jacksonville Jaguars L 23–41 2–8 Alltel Stadium 69,772 12 November 28 at St. Louis Rams L 12–43 2–9 Trans World Dome 65,864 13 December 5 at Atlanta Falcons L 12–35 2–10 Georgia Dome 62,568 14 December 12 St. Louis Rams L 14–30 2–11 Louisiana Superdome 46,838 15 December 19 at Baltimore Ravens L 8–31 2–12 PSINet Stadium 67,597 16 Dallas Cowboys W 31–24 3–12 Louisiana Superdome 47,835 17 January 2, 2000 at Carolina Panthers L 13–45 3–13 Ericcson Stadium 56,929 Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.
Game summaries Week 1: vs. Carolina Panthers
With the win, the Saints started 1–0 for the second season in a row. However, this would be New Orleans' last win for two months.
Week 2: at San Francisco 49ers
Week 4: at Chicago Bears
The Saints had a 10–0 lead with just under 2 minutes left to play, but saw the lead quickly fade away. The Bears scored their first points of the game with 1:48 left in the 4th on a 22-yard pass from Shane Matthews to wide receiver Curtis Conway. Chicago would recover the onside kick and go down the field in 61 seconds to win 14–10 after scoring the game-winning touchdown with just 6 seconds left to play.
Week 5: vs. Atlanta Falcons
Week 6: vs. Tennessee Titans
Week 7: at New York Giants
With their 5th straight loss, the Saints fell to 1–5. This would be the last time the Saints started with a 1–5 record until 2025.
Week 8: vs. Cleveland Browns
For week 8, the 1–5 Saints hosted the 0–7 Browns, who were playing in their first season since 1995 following a relocation controversy that saw the franchise officially being deactivated for three seasons.
The Saints would take a 16–14 lead with 0:21 left in the game. On the final play of the game, Cleveland quarterback Tim Couch heaved a Hail Mary pass into the end zone that was tipped by several New Orleans defenders before being caught by Browns wide receiver Kevin Johnson as the clock struck 0:00, giving Cleveland its first win since December 17, 1995.
The Saints' offense finished the game with 351 yards of total offense and controlled the ball for 40:50, while the Browns' offense only had 243 total yards and a possession time of 19:10. However, New Orleans committed five turnovers, two of which gave Cleveland a short field that resulted in touchdowns for the Browns.
With the loss, the Saints fell to 1–7 and their losing streak was extended to six games. Additionally, the Saints became the first team to lose to the expansion Browns and lost to the last winless team in the NFL, having lost to the 0–7 Carolina Panthers during week 9 of the previous season. This also marked the second time an expansion franchise got its first win over New Orleans, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who started 0–26, got its first win as a franchise by defeating the Saints 33–14 during the 1977 season.
Week 9: vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Week 10: vs. San Francisco 49ers
With the win, the Saints improved to 2–7 and snapped a seven game losing streak that had lasted for just over two months.
Week 11: at Jacksonville Jaguars
Week 12: at St. Louis Rams
Week 13: at Atlanta Falcons
With the loss, the Saints were swept by the Falcons and mathematically eliminated from playoff contention at 2–10.
Week 14: vs. St. Louis Rams
Week 15: at Baltimore Ravens
Week 16: vs. Dallas Cowboys
Week 17: at Carolina Panthers
Standings
Statistics
Passing Player G QB Rat. Comp. Att. Pct. Yards Yards/Att. TD INT Billy Joe Hobert 9 68.9 85 159 53.5 970 6.1 6 6 Billy Joe Tolliver 10 58.9 139 268 51.9 1916 7.1 7 16 Jake Delhomme 2 62.4 42 76 55.3 521 6.9 3 5 Danny Wuerffel 4 30.8 22 48 45.8 191 4.0 0 3
Rushing Player G Att. Yards Yards/Att. TDRicky Williams 12 253 884 3.5 2 Lamar Smith 13 60 205 3.4 0 Wilmont Perry 7 48 180 3.8 0 Troy Davis 16 20 32 1.6 0 Aaron Craver 13 17 40 2.4 0
Receiving Player G Rec Yards Yards/Rec TD Eddie Kennison 16 61 835 13.7 4 Keith Poole 15 42 796 19.0 6 Andre Hastings 15 40 564 14.1 1 Ricky Williams 12 28 172 6.1 0 Cameron Cleeland 11 26 325 12.5 1 Lamar Smith 13 20 151 7.6 1 Aaron Craver 13 19 154 8.1 0 Lawrence Dawsey 10 16 196 12.3 1 Scott Slutzker 11 11 164 14.9 1 Troy Davis 16 7 53 7.6 0 Josh Wilcox 8 6 61 10.2 0 Brett Bech 8 4 65 16.3 1 Wilmont Perry 7 4 26 6.5 0 Dino Philyaw 13 2 23 11.5 0 P. J. Franklin 3 2 13 6.5 0
Kick Returns Player G Returns Yards Yards/Return TDDino Philyaw 13 53 1165 22.0 0 Troy Davis 16 20 424 21.2 0 Wilmont Perry 7 2 6 3.0 0 Lawrence Dawsey 10 1 20 20.0 0 Brett Bech 8 1 12 12.0 0 Kendall Gammon 16 1 9 9.0 0 Aaron Craver 13 1 3 3.0 0
Punt Returns Player G Returns Yards Yards/Return TDEddie Kennison 16 35 258 7.4 0
Punting Player G Punts Yards Yards/Punt Punts BlockedTommy Barnhardt 16 82 3262 39.8 0
Kicking Player G Extra points Att. Extra points Made Extra Point Pct. Field goals Att. Field goals made Field Goal Pct. Total points scoredDoug Brien 16 20 21 95 24 29 82.8 92
Interceptions Player G Int Yards TDAshley Ambrose 16 6 27 0 Willie Clay 16 3 32 0 Keith Mitchell 16 3 22 0 Fred Weary 16 2 49 0 Mark Fields 14 2 0 0 Rob Kelly 16 1 6 0 Alex Molden 13 1 2 0 Sammy Knight 16 1 0 0
Sacks Player G SacksLa'Roi Glover 16 8.5 Willie Whitehead 16 7.0 Brady Smith 16 6.0 Troy Wilson 16 5.5 Wayne Martin 16 4.5 Mark Fields 14 4.0 Keith Mitchell 16 3.5 Jared Tomich 8 3.0 Austin Robbins 14 2.0 Chris Hewitt 12 1.0
References
Saints on Pro Football Reference Saints on jt-sw.com