Canal Street Chronicles
Ranking the NFC South teams by offensive position groups.
The NFC South has been one of the worst divisions in the league over the last few seasons. This may be optimistic, but it feels like all four teams are heading in the right direction. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons should challenge for a playoff spot; the Carolina Panthers should be much improved in Bryce Young’s third season and the New Orleans Saints have finally committed to a rebuild with a new coach and quarterback.
While I don’t expect the NFC South to be a powerhouse in 2025, I think we’ll see the division take a step in the right direction towards getting back to their mid-to-late 2010’s ways when they were one of the best divisions in the NFL.
We’re at the point in the offseason where rankings are popular, so today, we’re going to rank each NFC South team’s starters by position groups.
I think there’s a pretty clear pecking order when it comes to the NFC South quarterbacks. In my opinion, Baker Mayfield is clearly the best signal caller in the division, and personally, I think he’s probably a top-10 QB in the league at the moment. He’s had back-to-back 4,000-yard passing seasons and seems to be offensive coordinator proof, so I don’t think he’ll struggle with Liam Coen gone.
I’m not sure if this is a hot take because I know it’s popular to hate on Bryce Young, but I think he’s the second-best QB in the division (I believe Penix will start for Atlanta over Kirk, who I’d have easily above Young). Despite what the stats say, I think he was much better in 2024 than 2023 and should take another step this year.
I have the Saints and Falcons bringing up the rear because of the uncertainty at the position. Michael Penix has played a bit and looked alright, but he hasn’t played a full season yet. I think he’s definitely better than Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough, though, so I have the Falcons pretty far ahead of the Saints.
The receivers were much harder to rank than the quarterbacks. Tampa is pretty clear of the pack with Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Emeka Egbuka/Jalen McMillan, but the next three were tough.
I like the Saints’ 1-2 punch of Olave/Shaheed more than the other two, and I think Brandin Cooks will be a solid third option, so I gave them the slight nod for the No. 2 spot (might be a bit biased, but oh well).
I actually really like the Panthers’ unit as a whole, but they just don’t have the high-level starters the rest have. Tet McMillan and Adam Thielen will be a good 1-2 punch, but not as good as Drake London and Darnell Mooney. I’m a...
