Instead, during the season New Orleans traded a 1st, 2nd and 3rd round draft pick for 1991 in exchange for Dallas Cowboys quarterback Steve Walsh.
[1] The Saints, with a record of eight wins and eight losses, became the second team in NFL history at or below .500 to qualify for postseason play, and the first to do so as a wild card.
[2] Since no non-playoff team in the NFC had a record at or above .500, the Saints were awarded the final Wild Card seed.
Others to finish 8–8 and make the playoffs were the 1985 Cleveland Browns, the 1991 New York Jets, the 1999 Detroit Lions, the 1999 Dallas Cowboys, the 2004 St. Louis Rams, the 2004 Minnesota Vikings, the 2006 New York Giants, the 2008 San Diego Chargers, the 2011 Denver Broncos and the 2020 Chicago Bears .
However, the 2010 Seahawks would break this record, as they finished the 2010 season at 7–9 and clinched their division, becoming the first team in NFL history to win their division despite having a losing record, and this would be repeated by the 2014 Carolina Panthers and then repeated by the 2020 Washington Football Team and the 2022 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.