Gayle Benson continues to hint that changes could be coming for the New Orleans Saints.

But any such changes, if they occur at all, won’t come until after the season.

The Saints owner told reporters at a charity event Tuesday that she and her management team will “look at things and see what we need to change” at the end of the season, adding “for right now, I think they’re going to be OK.”

Benson’s comments came a few weeks after she put the team on blast at a local sports luncheon, saying she “will not make excuses” and “will not accept this level of performance as our standard.”

Unfortunately, finishing last has become the standard for the Saints. They have finished last in the NFC South in each of the past two seasons. That’s again where they find themselves as they exit their bye week.

Yet, thanks to the seemingly perpetual mediocrity of the division, the Saints are only one game out of first place as they head into Sunday’s Week 9 home game against the Cleveland Browns.

"You look at the division, and everyone is right there,” Saints coach Kellen Moore said Monday. “We're one game back in the win column. Everything is still alive and in front of us. It’s about taking the lessons from the first half, making the necessary adjustments and realizing we’ve got a great opportunity down the stretch if we take care of our business."

As races go, the NFC South is more race-walk than 100-meter dash. A champion is crowned, but that team largely is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. NFC South teams have won only two combined playoff games in the past five seasons and have not advanced past the divisional round.

Being “alive” in the NFC South is hardly reason to celebrate. It’s difficult not to be.

I’d argue the mediocrity of the division has done more harm than good to the Saints. It’s distorted reality, masked the team’s true deficiencies and fed the dangerous delusion that being "in the hunt" in November is the same thing as being competitive with the league’s elite. The Saints aren’t there, and it’s painfully obvious to anyone who casts their gaze beyond the levee.

I am often chided for living in the past and pining for the glory days of the Sean Payton-Drew Brees era. And I accept the criticism. Guilty as charged.

But there’s a reason why those Payton-Brees teams should not be forgotten. They set the standard for all of us in New Orleans. They showed us what true, championship-level football looks like.

And what we’ve witnessed on the field the last few seasons clearly isn’t it. Not remotely.

But after five years of missing the playoffs, the Saints will take any kind of positive development. Winning the division would qualify as progress and perhaps pacify the frustrated fanbase.

Saints fans are a loyal and passionate group. They’ve patiently supported the team as it has navigated the post-Payton-Brees era. They fully understood it will take time to rebuild and reload. But after five years of gaslighting and broken promises, their patience understandably has worn thin.

To that end, Moore made the first significant move of his head coaching tenure when he axed run-game coordinator T.J. Paganetti on Monday. Someone had to take the fall for the team’s anemic rushing attack, and Paganetti was a convenient — and inexpensive — target.

The Saints also released veteran kicker Daniel Carlson after seven games of inconsistency.

So, at the very least, the Saints are doing something.

Time will tell whether the moves yield results or if they are simply moving deck chairs around on the Titanic.