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.
During 1999, the Saints became the first team to lose to
the expansion Cleveland Browns and in the process became the only team since the NFL/AFL merger in
1970 to lose to the last winless team in successive seasons.[1]
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 pick in the first round. 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.