NFC  South

The best thing that Red can say about the NFC South is that all of the teams are actually in the South.   And as has been the case for several seasons, the NFC South crown (such as it is) is totally up for grabs yet again.  

Atlanta –  Hope springs eternal in Georgia.  Expect to see our presidential contenders at a Falcons home game.  Red doesn’t really believe in the Falcons – even with the signing of the redoubtable Kirk Cousins to helm the offence – but damn if he is going to pick the Bucs to win this division.  Cousins does have the benefit of one of the best offensive lines in the game and if he has time in the pocket he should do well.  Add to that a very talented set of RBs in Allgeier and Robinson (Red is predicting no sophomore slump here), and the Falcons should have enough offense to keep most of their games entertaining.  The schedule is front loaded with games against the Stealers, Eagles and Chiefs.  After that, they don’t face another playoff team outside of the division until the Cowboys in Week 9 at home, but they are done with the Bucs after week 8. Then comes a very easy closing stretch with 8 games against non-playoff teams from 2023.  Expect a strong finish with the Falcons going 11-6 and winning the South.

Tampa Bay -The Bucs pretty much won the division by default last season. In the regular season, the Bucs lost to every playoff team on the schedule except for an inexplicable win at Green Bay.  They did stomp on a depleted Eagles squad in the Wildcard round before getting smacked around by the Lions to exit the scene.  Baker Mayfield had his career season last year.  Any 4000 yard season is impressive.  Red is betting that doesn’t happen again.  And if BM gets sacked another 40 times in 2024, he will be carried off in a basket.  Yeah, Red knows he uses that cliché way too much.   On defense, the secondary is excellent but too many other gaps are there.  Because this division sucks, the Bucs have an outside shot at the playoffs.  9-8 again.

New Orleans  –  The Derek Carr experiment did not go as planned for most of  2023.  But what do you expect from a guy whose QBR has never exceeded 64.3 (according to pro-football-reference.com) and has pretty much been a human sack machine with 295 sacks in 10 seasons (it runs in the family).  Plus the Saints had very little money to spend in the offseason.  Carr does have a couple of talented receivers in Olave and Shaheed (which sounds like a good name for a line of high-end bath products).  Defensively the Saints are okay.  Red likes the addition of Kool-Aid McKinstry who is a walking trademark violation. It looks like another mediocre season for the Black and Gold and a long year for their incredibly faithful fan base.  If you haven’t been to New Orleans on a game day, treat yourself.  You won’t believe how many gold laḿe miniskirts there are in the world.  Saints go 8-9 if the breaks fall the right way. 

Carolina –  Yeah, they got Dave Canales who seems to be an offensive wunderkind after reviving Baker Mayfield’s career last season.  It would seem Bryce Young could only get better after a horrid rookie campaign.  And there is some talent.  Some aint good enough.  Another long season in store 6-11.