NFC South

The NFC South indeed. First of all, I'm not a superstitious person. I know that no NFC South team has qualified for back to back playoffs since 2002. I know that the team that finished bottom of the division one year usually comes back to win the next year. But none of that shall be allowed to factor in. It's all about the teams. We're going to start with Tampa Bay. Sorry Tampa. They took stride this off season to go in the right direction. The draft picks of Gerald McCoy and Brian Price were a good combination. Up and down their team they made good future picks. But that#s not enough this year. Now don't get me wrong, I think you'll begin to see the fruits of this off season in 2011, but right now their offense just doesn't stack up. Arrelious Benn was a steal in my opinion, but will take a season to get into sync with his young QB. Overall, Tampa may have had the best draft in 2010, but it's a long term plan not a quick patch up job. The Buc's will reap the rewards of this patience in the coming years. I'm going to look at the Panthers next for the simple reason that you never know what you're going to get with Carolina. Without a hint of jest, Carolina are a playoff team. Ok so they went a bit crazy with the whole drafting QBs thing, but it seems Armanti Edwards is going to shift to the receiver position anyway. But the Panthers are still are a playoff team. This is why I hate them so much. They should have been back in the playoffs last year. The year before they should have hammered the upstart Cardinals into the ground instead of rolling over and letting them march to the Superbowl. Now that they've ditched the prime reason for their woes, QB-come-pick-machine Jake Delhomme, the Panthers should be setting their sights firmly on the division crown. Matt Moore can handle the task of game manager while DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart tear teams to pieces on the ground. But they wont will they Carolina? Hmm? Of course not! This is the core reason why I hate the Panthers; because they're a run first team, a ground and pound team, old school football, and yet they persist in lifting up their skirt and trying to whore themselves off to the 'spread offense' crowd. When they run the ball, they run over people. It's that simple. The Panthers are built like a steam roller; designed to slowly flatten the opposition until they become a nice, level surface that you can drive along without even so much as a bump. But last year they insisted on trying to shove Jake Delhomme down peoples throats, with inevitable results. This is becoming a rant now, so lets leave it there. New Orleans now. In the draft, I liked the Charles Brown pick. And that's about it really. Other that, all I've seen is New Orleans bleeding free agents into the market. I think they've definitely got worse in the off season and given their previous state, that's not good. Yeah, here we go again, the "Saint hate". But it's true. The Saints have a crazy good offense. On defense however, outside of maybe Porter, Greer and Vilma, the Saints defense has consistently proven vulnerable, especially against the run. Miami were tearing great chunks out of New Orleans last year, until they inexplicably decided to start throwing the rock all over the place and ended up turning the ball back over to the Saints. Given that two of the Saints opponents this year are great running teams in Atlanta and Carolina, theoretically the Saints should drop 4 games right there. Tack on the fact that they'll have to play the division winners from the various NFC divisions as well (Arizona, Minnesota & Dallas) and I expect New Orleans to struggle in the coming year. Which of course leaves just one team. Atlanta. The Falcons made improvements to their defense this off season, especially the acquisition of Sean Weatherspoon at MLB and Dunta Robinson at CB. They get Michael Turner back in action this year and if Matt Ryan can stay healthy for the whole season then the Falcons are a force to be reckoned with. Divisional winners? Hmm. It's a tough one. For me it's between Carolina and Atlanta. It all depends on how Carolina approaches this season. HC John Fox is in a lame duck year and so it's anyones guess how he goes about making things happen. Will he air it out and hope for a bumper season of yardage out of Moore or will he keep it on the ground and hope to win enough games in a solid manner to get himself a new contract? I'm going to have to back the Falcons. Which, as sure as day is day and night is night, means the Panthers will win it just to spite me. I hate the Panthers again. Here's how I think the division will pan out: 1. Falcons (winners) 2. Panthers (hate 'em) 3. Saints 4. Buccaneers ----- Which mean there's only one division left in our whistle stop tour of the NFC; the NFC Worst. I mean West. Have a great day everyone. P.S. don't forget to spread the word, if only so the Saints fans can descend on me in a large Fleur-De-Lis shaped mass of anger and abuse. And to find out if anyone hates the Panthers as much as me.