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The NFL Schedule is setting up a tight race to end the season
Last night’s schedule release set up a potentially tense and fast paced race for the NFC South crown this season. The Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and New Orleans Saints comprise one of the most chaotic and, often, silliest divisions in professional football. This year’s schedule gives them plenty of room to make their annual clown college of a competition into a true four-team race right down to the final weeks.
Every team in the South is inherently flawed and yet full of hope. The Panthers are certainly up-and-coming, the Falcons are track to win the off season, the Bucs are going to age out of their recent “dynasty” any day now, and the Saints are, well, a perennially competitive dumpster fire. Every one of these teams has proven over the course of multiple head coaches and multiple more years than they can confound expectations in any direction.
The NFC South is home to four of the top ten easiest schedules in the NFL, largely by virtue of each team having to play each of the other teams twice. With the exception of the Saints, who will enter the 2025 season with their worst quarterback situation since before the Drew Brees era, every team in the division is circling every other divisional game as “winnable” on their calendars. Predicting a winner of this division is more reading tea leaves and entrails than it is actual forecasting.
The schedule is favoring the NFC South’s preferred brand of chaos by back loading almost the entire divisional schedule. Of the twelve divisional games that will be played across the season, only the Week 1 Bucs at Falcons and Week 3 Falcons at Panthers games will be played before Week 8. The Saints play their first divisional game, vs Tampa Bay, that week.
Nine of the 12 divisional games take place between Week 8 and Week 18. Five of the Panthers’ six divisional games take place between Week 10 and Week 18. The Falcons play four of theirs and the Saints play five of theirs after Week 10. Four of Tampa Bay’s NFC South games come in a five week period stretching from Weeks 14 to 18.
Long story short, the tie breakers are likely to be nuts this year.
The Saints are the likeliest team to bomb out of the race early based on overall record. Yes, they may have an easy schedule, but they have the biggest question mark on offense of any of the NFC South teams. The Bucs meanwhile, are the likeliest team to hold an early lead in this race. They aren’t projected to take any major steps backward and have won the division for the last four seasons straight.
The Falcons and Panthers, however, are both feeling optimistic about this season....
