# 1996 New Orleans Saints season

The 1996 New Orleans Saints season was the team's 30th as a member of the National Football League. They were unable to match their previous season's output of 7–9 and finished with the second-worst sixteen-game record in franchise history at 3–13. The team failed to qualify for the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
Jim Mora, who had been the team's head coach since 1986, resigned from his position after eight games with a 2–6 record to that point and was replaced by linebackers coach Rick Venturi, who went 1–7 to close the season. Mora's resignation came one day after the Saints lost to the Carolina Panthers, where he ripped into his team's performance during the game, calling it “horseshit” and “embarrassing” and saying the Saints could not do “diddley poo” offensively.
The week 14 game vs. the St. Louis Rams drew a minuscule 26,310, the lowest-attended home game in Saints history, and 3,335 fewer than a 1987 game vs. the Rams played with replacement players due to that season's strike by the National Football League Players Association.

## Offseason
### NFL draft

1996 New Orleans Saints draft :
| Round | Pick | Player | Position | College |
| 1 | 11 | Alex Molden | Cornerback | Oregon |
| 2 | 40 | Je'Rod Cherry | Defensive back | California |
| 3 | 70 | Brady Smith | Defensive end | Colorado State |
| 4 | 103 | Ricky Whittle | Running back | Oregon |
| 5 | 136 | Mercury Hayes | Wide receiver | Michigan |
| 5 | 145 | Tom Ackerman | Guard | Eastern Washington |
| 5 | 165 | Terry Guess | Wide receiver | Gardner–Webb |
| 6 | 179 | Keno Hills | Guard | Louisiana–Lafayette |
| 6 | 204 | Toderick Malone | Wide receiver | Alabama |
| 7 | 246 | Henry Lusk | Tight end | Utah |
| Made roster ||||||

## Regular season
### Schedule

| Week | Date | Opponent | Result | Record | Venue | Attendance |
| 1 | September 1 | at San Francisco 49ers | L 11–27 | 0–1 | 3Com Park | 63,970 |
| 2 | September 8 | Carolina Panthers | L 20–22 | 0–2 | Louisiana Superdome | 43,288 |
| 3 | September 15 | at Cincinnati Bengals | L 15–30 | 0–3 | Cinergy Field | 45,412 |
| 4 | September 22 | Arizona Cardinals | L 14–28 | 0–4 | Louisiana Superdome | 34,316 |
| 5 | September 29 | at Baltimore Ravens | L 10–17 | 0–5 | Memorial Stadium | 61,063 |
| 6 | October 6 | Jacksonville Jaguars | W 17–13 | 1–5 | Louisiana Superdome | 34,231 |
| 7 | October 13 | Chicago Bears | W 27–24 | 2–5 | Louisiana Superdome | 43,512 |
| 8 | October 20 | at Carolina Panthers | L 7–19 | 2–6 | Ericsson Stadium | 70,888 |
| 9 | Bye | Bye | Bye | Bye | Bye | Bye |
| 10 | November 3 | San Francisco 49ers | L 17–24 | 2–7 | Louisiana Superdome | 53,297 |
| 11 | November 10 | Houston Oilers | L 14–31 | 2–8 | Louisiana Superdome | 34,121 |
| 12 | November 17 | at Atlanta Falcons | L 15–17 | 2–9 | Georgia Dome | 43,119 |
| 13 | November 24 | at Tampa Bay Buccaneers | L 7–13 | 2–10 | Houlihan's Stadium | 40,203 |
| 14 | December 1 | St. Louis Rams | L 10–26 | 2–11 | Louisiana Superdome | 26,310 |
| 15 | December 8 | Atlanta Falcons | L 15–31 | 2–12 | Louisiana Superdome | 32,923 |
| 16 | December 15 | at New York Giants | W 17–3 | 3–12 | Giants Stadium | 52,530 |
| 17 | December 21 | at St. Louis Rams | L 13–14 | 3–13 | Trans World Dome | 57,681 |
| Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text. |||||||

### Standings

NFC West :
| viewtalkedit | W | L | T | PCT | PF | PA | STK |
| $^{(2)}$ Carolina Panthers | 12 | 4 | 0 | .750 | 367 | 218 | W7 |
| $^{(4)}$ San Francisco 49ers | 12 | 4 | 0 | .750 | 398 | 257 | W2 |
| St. Louis Rams | 6 | 10 | 0 | .375 | 303 | 409 | W2 |
| Atlanta Falcons | 3 | 13 | 0 | .188 | 309 | 461 | L2 |
| New Orleans Saints | 3 | 13 | 0 | .188 | 229 | 339 | L1 |