Atlanta Falcons
2023 Record: 7-10 (3rd in NFC South)
Head Coach: Raheem Morris (1st season)
Notable Additions: QB Kirk Cousins, EDGE Matthew Judon, S Justin Simmons
Notable Departures: DE/DT Calias Campbell, QB Desmond Ridder, EDGE Bud Dupree
Biggest Reason for Excitement: A Quarterback Has Arrived!
The quarterback play during the first two post-Matt Ryan seasons in Atlanta has been brutal to say the least. Marcus Mariota, Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinecke teamed up to provide some of the most inexcusably bad play you'll ever see at the position at this level. 2023 was particularly nauseating as Ridder and Heinecke combined for 17 INT's (tied for 7th most in the league), struggled to convert TD's in the redzone (29th in the league) and made countless miscues that aren't explicitly found on the stat sheet that cost the team games in what ended up being a 7-10 season for the Dirty Birds.
Aided by the luxury of having so little capital invested in the position, the Falcons took swift action to shake up the QB room following another underwhelming season. They shipped Ridder off to the Cardinals, relegated Heinecke to a backup role that doesn't guarantee him a roster spot in 2024 and most importantly, axed HC Arthur Smith to ensure the next QB wasn't running one of the least imaginative offenses in the league. Given the current build of their roster and cap situation, they naturally went to the free agent market to get their new QB and end up landing the top prize available: Kirk Cousins.
While Cousins being a 36-year-old coming off a torn Achillies certainly makes this addition less exciting than it would've been a year ago, he's still set to be an immediate major upgrade. Cousins is the epitome of efficiency, boasting a career completion of 66.9%, thrived in Minnesota under a similar, if not identical system that Zac Robinson will be running here and above all, provides this team with a level of poise and command under center they've lacked in each of the past 2 seasons. Cousins also benefits from coming to Atlanta as they have a good offensive line that won't get him killed, solid weapons for him to throw/handoff to and a defense that has the potential to take a huge step forward this season with the additions of talented vets Justin Simmons and Matthew Judon. As long as Cousins isn't completely hobbled by his Achillies, the Falcons should have their best explosive offense in years.
Biggest Reason for Concern: Hiring Raheem Morris
Atlanta had arguably the most appealing head coaching vacancy in the league this offseason. The roster is in pretty good shape overall, they had a top 10 pick in this year's draft, the NFC South remains a wide-open division and Arthur Blank has a reputation of being of one of the most level-headed owners in the league. After very publicly passing up on the opportunity to hire Bill Belichick-a move that I fully agree with given how the final chapter of his tenure with the Patriots played out, they made kind of a head-scratching hire in Raheem Morris. Blank himself said that his familiarity with Morris from his previous stint with the team in a variety of roles including assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and wide receivers coach from 2015-20 under Dan Quinn was pivotal in him landing the job. That's telling because there's nothing about Morris' resume that screams strong head coaching candidate.
Over the past 3 seasons, Morris served as the DC for the Rams. While he was around for their Super Bowl victory in 2021, his defenses weren't a big part of any winning they did while he was there. They never ranked higher than 15th in scoring defense during his tenure and their pass defense was consistently below average (20th-22nd every year) despite having some legit secondary talent including Jalen Ramsey, Darious Williams and Jordan Fuller over that span. Even his biggest area of strength in rush defense regressed to the low teens (13th and 12 respectively) after finishing 6th in 2021.
The other argument against Morris is his previous head coaching gigs. His greenness can be attributed to his struggles with the Bucs from 2009-11 as he was just 33 when he was hired for that gig, but he also struggled when he took over for Quinn on an interim basis for the final 11 games of 2020. His overall record between those stints? 21-38 and 10 of those wins came in his sole winning season back in Tampa in 2010.
Plenty of people will be willing to give Morris the benefit of the doubt and that's fair. What happened in Tampa wasn't entirely his fault as Josh Freeman was a bust and the defense/rushing game didn't have the horses and his interim stint with the Falcons wasn't as bad it looked on paper as they were largely competitive in those games and were often let down by their vast lack of talent in the secondary. But still, the man has yet to elevate the talent he's been given and that paired with his questionable handling of rookie QB Michael Penix Jr during the preseason along with the inexperience of his coordinators (Robinson, Jimmy Lake) are plenty of reason to question whether or not Blank made the right choice to get his talented team over the hump.
Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: Getting Drake London, Kyle Pitts and Bijan Robinson More Involved
As bad as the QB's were during his final 2 years on the job, a huge part of Smith's failure as a coach was the gross mishandling of his weapons. Last year was particularly amusing as he rarely drew up plays for Drake London, often deployed Kyle Pitts as a decoy in favor of using Jonnu Smith as a receiver and regularly subbed out Bijan Robinson in order to give Tyler Allgeier touches. It was a baffling and infuriating experience to watch each week and the #1 reason why Smith punched his ticket out of Atlanta after the first few weeks of the season.
What Zac Robinson and Cousins need to do to turn this group around is simple: Get their 3 recent 1st round picks the ball. Throw London 50-50 balls downfield and in the redzone. Put Pitts out wide and in the slot and let him remind the world that he put up 1,000+ YDS as a rookie back in 2021. Give Bijan Robinson the opportunity to lead a backfield and show off the versatile skill set that made him the most hyped up running back to enter the league since Saquon Barkley. Giving these guys the opportunity to make plays after basically refusing to do so over the past 2 seasons (just 1 in the case of Bijan Robinson) could elevate this group an absurd amount in no time at all and retroactively make Smith's tenure look even worse.
Bottom Line:
As valid as the skepticism surrounding Raheem Morris is, Arthur Smith had this team playing near-500 football with awful QB's. Kirk Cousins' arrival along with a McVay acolyte running an offense that prioritizes getting their talented skill position players the ball alone should be enough to put this team in the division title race.
Carolina Panthers
2023 Record: 2-15 (4th in NFC South)
Head Coach: Dave Canales (1st season)
Notable Additions: WR Diontae Johnson, EDGE Jadeveon Clowney, G Robert Hunt
Notable Departures: EDGE Brian Burns, ILB Frankie Luvu, CB Donte Jackson
Biggest Reason for Excitement: The Roster Has Unquestionably Improved from 2023
Outside of some of young pieces on defense (Derrick Brown, Jaycee Horn, Brian Burns), the Panthers roster was in pretty dire shape in 2023. Pair that lack of talent in most areas with a uniquely dysfunctional situation that led to a head coach getting shitcanned in-season for the 2nd straight year and you have yourself the formula for a 2-15 football team! Given that they were bringing in another new head coach and had zero 1st round pick to work with after giving it to Chicago in the deal to move up and select Bryce Young last year, free agency and cheap trades for diminished veteran assets had to be their primary method of player acquisition. While you could argue that they had to overpay to get these guys to come play for them (a Panthers tax if you will), they were ultimately able to upgrade this roster.
Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis immediately adds some much-needed meanness to their shaky interior offensive line. Diontae Johnson-who they nabbed from the Steelers for a 6th round pick and longtime starting cornerback Donte Jackson-gives the receiving corps a true vertical threat with a history of getting peppered with targets that should step into the role that Mike Evans flourished in under Dave Canales in Tampa last season. Jordan Fuller should provide the level of stability and pop at the strong safety position they'd hoped Vonn Bell would give them last year. Troy Hill and Dane Jackson-who is currently dinged up and may miss the start of the year-slot in nicely alongside a hyperphysical top corner in Jaycee Horn and should help this corner group remain one of the sneaky best units in the league. While not without their concerns over effort and durability respectively, Jadeveon Clowney and Josey Jewell were good value veteran additions to replace ascending talents Burns and Frankie Luvu in the starting lineup.
How their draft picks will factor into things this season is a much murkier situation. Xavier Legette is expected to start at outside receiver alongside Johnson, but he's a really raw prospect who missed about 2 weeks of practice time earlier in camp with a foot injury and has yet to play a snap in the preseason. Running back Jonathan Brooks is expected to miss at least the first month of the season as he recovers from the ACL tear that ended his final year at Texas last fall. Ja'Tavion Sanders has made some fans on the Panthers beat with his incredible athleticism, but currently sits behind Ian Thomas and Tommy Tremble on the TE depth chart. The final members of their 2024 draft class (Chau Smith-Wade, Jaden Crumedy, Michael Barrett) might not even be on the Week 1 roster. At the very least, Legette and Brooks should get plenty of chances to contribute once they're healthy and that's 2 more rookie skill position players with high ceilings than they had last year.
Are these additions enough for Panthers fans to get "excited" about the team? Probably not. But it is enough of a reason to have slightly less contempt for the organization as the season approaches and those are the kinds of tiny moral victories people rooting for bad teams with bad owners need to hold onto in order to delay the onset of their annual nervous breakdown over the product that's on the field by at least a few weeks.
Biggest Reason for Concern: David Tepper's Continued Meddling in the Operation
What was previously an open secret in league circles has become common knowledge over the past year: David Tepper involves himself heavily in the Panthers day-to-day football operations. His last head coach Frank Reich stated that he had weekly 1-on-1 meetings with Tepper to discuss the team's progress, game plans, etc. The Athletic reported in December of last year that the Panthers had a ton of cutthroat in-fighting among their front office, with much of the divide being over who was loyal to Tepper and who was not. There are even rumblings that Tepper has made playcalling suggestions to the staff and demanded the team draft Young over C.J. Stroud with the 1st overall pick in 2023.
Based on the events of this offseason, Tepper will not be beating the meddler accusations anytime soon. Back in January, he fired GM Scott Fitterer and promoted assistant GM Dan Morgan to fill the role. Given the rumblings surrounding the culture of their front office, it's reasonable to assume Morgan got the job due to his loyalty to Tepper.
On the head coaching front, the hiring of Canales is also suspicious. While Canales did a pretty decent job as the Bucs OC last season and worked under Pete Carroll in Seattle in various roles on offense over the prior 12 seasons, his resume doesn't have the same pop as say Ben Johnson's and Dan Quinn's do, which makes him more suspectable to be beholden to the whims of Tepper than a more respected seasoned coach.
Lastly, there's the absolutely fucking hilarious confrontation that Tepper had with some Charlotte restaurant employees around the time of the draft in late April. The story goes as follows: The Dillworth Neighborhood Grille put the message "Please let the Coach & GM Pick this Year" on the marquee undeneath their sign. Assuming it was directed at him (it was), Tepper went into the restaurant and asked to talk the owner. The owner-who is a Panthers season ticket holder-had left for the day and upon being told this, Tepper shook the bartender's hand and left. Security camera footage of the incident was released online, and it featured one particularly memorable image of Tepper taking someone hat's off of their head. There's really no way to spin this story where it looks for good for Tepper. This is the kind of behavior that reenforces his image as a short-tempered narcissist who is a nightmare to deal with. If I were a Panthers fan, I would start lobbying for him to sell the fucking team immediately because this shit doesn't look like it's going to get any less ugly anytime soon.
Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: Dave Canales "Fixing" Bryce Young
Bryce Young's rookie campaign wasn't merely disappointing, it was downright nightmarish. To put it simply, he just looked overwhelmed by the task of playing quarterback in the NFL. He was skittish under center, showed questionable touch on his throws as evidenced by his 59.8 CMP% and took quite a few unnecessary sacks as a result of his indecisiveness. Was this failure all his fault? Far from it. His porous offensive line was the primary reason he got sacked 62 times in 16 games, all of the reshuffling with the coaching staff/playcallers throughout the season made getting into a real rhythm damn near impossible and having a geriatric Adam Thielen as his top weapon ensured that the passing game had zero dynamism whatsoever (Carolina agreeing to include D.J. Moore in the deal that landed them Young is the most head-scratching part of that already infamous, potentially historically significant trade). Regardless of how ugly shit was in Carolina last year, Young was bad enough where the alarm bells about his NFL future are already sounding.
Ironically, whatever appeal the Carolina job had around the league had to be largely tied to Young. Small stature aside, the kid had a lot of tools (accuracy, quick release with a clean throwing motion, pocket awareness, decision-making, ability to avoid contact in the rushing game) he showed off at Alabama that can translate to the pro game. Canales clearly believes he can get Young back on track and his recent resume is a strong argument that he will be able to do that. Baker Mayfield put together a strong comeback campaign that was arguably his best season as a pro under Canales in Tampa last season and the year before that, Canales was integral in helping Geno Smith thrive in his promotion to Seahawks starting quarterback after 3 years backing up Russell Wilson. Whether he can run a whole operation or even call plays at a high level is up for debate, but Canales can coach up QB's and that's the #1 thing the Panthers need him to do this season.
The biggest thing working against Canales and Young is this rebuilding team doesn't have the horses for him to right the ship. Hunt and Lewis' addition won't mean much if Ikem Ekonwu continues to struggle at LT, Johnson's asking price was so low for a reason (brutal drops, generally erratic play) and as a 1st round pick, Legette is getting handed an awful lot of responsibility right away for a guy who had 423 YDS over 41 games at South Carolina from 2019-22 in prior to his 71 REC/1,255 YDS/7 TD breakout campaign in 2023. Nobody is expecting Young to light the world on fire in 2024, but if he can begin to acclimate himself to this still less than favorable situation, there will be some reasons for sincere optimism surrounding what him and Canales can do together moving forward.
Bottom Line:
Their frisky defense and improved roster should allow them to win more than 2 games this year. That's about the nicest thing I can say about this team right now.
New Orleans Saints
2023 Record: 9-8 (2nd in NFC South)
Head Coach: Dennis Allen (3rd season)
Notable Additions: EDGE Chase Young, LB Willie Gay, G/C Lucas Patrick
Notable Departures: WR Michael Thomas, QB Jameis Winston, S Marcus Maye
Biggest Reason for Excitement: Depth Additions on Defense
Solid defense has been a hallmark of the Saints since 2017 and that didn't change in 2023 despite the addition of a new DC in Joe Woods. Strong drafting and free agent pickups from Mickey Loomis on this side of the ball and Dennis Allen's unflashy proficiency as a defensive playcaller has granted them the rare gift of sustained success on a side of the ball that is often shortchanged in this offensive-minded era of NFL football. Since their corps remains good at all three levels, Loomis focused the majority of his efforts this offseason on adding depth pieces.
This offseason arguably marked one of Loomis' productive shopping sprees for complementary players. Chase Young is a bit of a diminished asset after a couple straight erratic, injury-riddled seasons following his DROY campaign in 2020, but he looked pretty good in his first career 16-game season in 2023 and appears set to take on a situational pass-rushing role in New Orleans, which could very well maximize his effectiveness. Willie Gay adds some additional athleticism to their linebacking corps and his ability to blitz off the edge and make splashy plays that lead to turnovers gives them a different style of player than they have with their all-around ace duo DeMario Davis and Pete Werner at the other 2 starting spots. Rookie Kool-Aid McKinstry had the distinction of being the only defensive player the Saints took in the first four rounds of the draft and while he may struggle to earn playing time out of the gate with Marshon Lattimore, Alontae Taylor and Paulson Adebo locked into starting spots, his tenacity and toughness should make him an asset in subpackages right away.
Incorporating this talented trio into a group that ranked 8th in scoring defense and suffered zero major losses from last year's unit should do wonders for their quest to secure another top 10 finish this season.
Biggest Reason for Concern: Whatever the Hell is Going on at WR behind Chris Olave
When was the last time the Saints had more than 1 legit productive WR on their roster? Maybe 2016 when they had Brandin Cooks and Michael Thomas? Since Cooks got traded to the Patriots in the spring of 2017, they just always seem to be content with having the one alpha (Chris Olave currently fills that role) they can feed and kind of just throwing shit at the ball and hoping something sticks at the other spots (Tre'Quan Smith, Marquez Callaway, 33-year-old Emmanuel Sanders in 2020, roughly a half dozen others). And they can't even float out the hypothetical lifeline of Thomas providing a huge spark upon his return to action as they finally cut bait with the 2x All-Pro in March following 4 straight injury-riddled, unproductive seasons!
This year's crop of possible WR2 and WR3 options does little to inspire confidence that their run of having 1 reliable WR is going to come to a close in 2024.
After just 2 seasons in the league, Rasheed Shaheed is already a known commodity. He's the guy who makes long catches and highlight-reels plays in the return game from time to time. When he's not doing that, you probably won't notice he's out there at all. His game-breaking speed is valuable and will earn him a considerable number of reps once again, but he doesn't have the skill set to be a consistent WR2.
Currently slotted into the third starting receiver spot is A.T. Perry. The 2022 6th round pick is somebody who the Saints seem to have a lot of faith in after he posted 12 receptions, 246 YDS and 4 TD's over the final 8 games of his rookie season. As impressive as those YPC and TD totals are, Perry has only played sparingly and almost exclusively been deployed as a deep-ball target. His imposing size (6'5, 205 lbs) and leaping ability could make him a huge mismatch for opponents, but he hasn't earned enough reps to have any sort of real idea what he's capable of bringing to the table in a featured role.
Rounding out the expected depth chart is a pair of cheap veteran journeyman in Cedrick Wilson Jr. and Equanimeous St. Brown. Wilson Jr. didn't play much in Miami on account of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle being so good, but he did have a decent year in Dallas back in 2021 (45 receptions/602 YDS/6 TD's) that flashed his potential as a possession receiver while St. Brown shares Shaheed and Perry's affliction of being exclusively a deep target just with less splash play potential.
So, what does this group have other than a lot of redundances behind the all-around WR1 Olave? Beats me, but I will say that only Perry is enough of an unknown to sell as a true possible WR2 option. Good luck to Klint Kubiak, Derek Carr and the receivers themselves in their pursuit to make this work, but it just doesn't feel at all like it's going to.
Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: Revamped Offensive Line Actually Coming Together
Outside of center Erik McCoy having a terrific rebound season after a horrid 2022, the Saints offensive line had a brutal showing in 2023. None of their running backs averaged more than 3.9 YPC, 2022 1st round pick Trevor Penning couldn't get on the field until Ryan Ramcyzk blew out his knee in December, Ceaser Ruiz was once again one of the worst guards in football and James Hurst closed out his NFL career by playing at a reliably below average level in just his second ever season starting at guard. Carr's pressure (15.3%) and sack (5.4%) rates were pretty low, but that's more of a product of his tendency to get rid of the ball quick than them being stout in pass protection.
With Andrus Peat exiting in free agency, Hurst's aforementioned retirement and Ramcyzk reportedly facing the possibility of a forced early retirement as he struggles to recover from offseason knee surgery, the Saints will be trotting out a largely overhauled group at o-line this season. Sole remaining 2023 Week 1 starters McCoy and Ruiz are currently projected to be joined by Tailese Fuaga (left tackle), Lucas Patrick (left guard) and Penning (right tackle).
On paper, the confidence level in their new starters is all over the map. Fuaga was as steady as they come over his 2 years starting at Oregon State. The original expectation is that he was going to play at right tackle to begin his career, but he showed well enough as a pass-blocker and is polished enough in his technique to be confident in his ability to hold up on the left side as a rookie. Patrick was a trainwreck whenever the Bears were forced to play him at either center or guard over the past 2 seasons, but maybe he'll mirror Sam Mustipher and suddenly excel upon leaving the Windy City. Penning however is the scariest of all since the team thought so little of him around this time last year that they kicked Peat-who stunk at guard for most of his career-over to left tackle where he hadn't played since he was at Stanford 9 years earlier. There's no way Penning would be playing if Ramcyzk was healthy and his status as a high draft pick just 2 short years ago has got to be why he's getting the nod over the likes of his not entirely green backups Landon Young and Olisaemeka Udoh-who've logged 7 and 18 career starts respectively.
Like their receiver group, the odds of them putting it together upfront after their struggles last year aren't good. In fact, PFF predicted them to be the worst line in football this season back in June. But if it somehow does work, this offense could be radically transformed. They were already good at moving the ball and scoring points with a poor offensive line. Just imagine how dangerous they be with the ability to run the ball effectively and Carr having more time to throw.
Bottom Line:
The Saints are too talented to be bad but too flawed to be good, leaving them stuck smack dab in the middle of the league once again.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2023 Record: 9-8 (1st in NFC South)
Head Coach: Todd Bowles (3rd season)
Notable Additions: S Jordan Whitehead, CB Bryce Hall, G Ben Bredeson
Notable Departures: EDGE Shaq Barrett (retired), CB Carlton Davis, ILB Devin White
Biggest Reason for Excitement: All of their Most Important Free Agents Re-Signed
The Buccaneers exceeded expectations in their first post-Tom Brady season by winning the NFC South and making it to the Divisional Round of the Playoffs. The way that they played with energy and purpose on both sides of the ball despite the perception that they were heading back to the dregs of the league following Brady's retirement spoke highly of not only the character of their roster, but what Todd Bowles is capable of as a coach and leader. Proving their worth as a club made retaining their current corps their top priority this offseason and they pulled it off without any noticeable issues whatsoever. Every key contributor from last year's team (Antonie Winfield Jr., Mike Evans, Baker Mayfield, Lavonte David) that hit free agency this offseason had signed a new deal by March 13th. Jason Licht deserves credit for meeting each player's asking price in short order and ensuring that they could quickly turn their focus to how they can build on their 2023 success in 2024.
Biggest Reason for Concern: Liam Coen taking over at OC
Dave Canales landing the Panthers HC gig after 1 season as Bucs OC came as a sort of a shock. The 41-year-old did good work to get Mayfield back on track after a rough couple of years following his 2020 breakout campaign and boost the scoring offense 5 spots from where Byron Leftwich had them in 2022 (25th to 20th), but was it enough to elevate him to head coaching status? Probably not. Regardless of his head coaching qualifications, losing Canales left them with a big, unexpected void to fill on their staff and they ended up landing one of the more coveted names on the market in Liam Coen.
Like a third of the offensive coaches in the league right now, Coen being such an in-demand name stems from to his time working under Sean McVay with the Rams. Coen served as an assistant WR coach, assistant QB coach and OC across his 4 seasons in LA. The problem with Coen is that we've already gotten a glimpse of what he can be once he steps out of the virtuoso coach's shadow, and the results haven't been pretty so far.
Coen spent 2 seasons as the OC at the University of Kentucky in between his 2 stints with the Rams in 2021 and 2023. His most notable accomplishment there was guiding Will Levis to the best year of his college career in 2021 as Kentucky went 10-3 and won the Citrus Bowl versus Iowa. Aside from that, Coen's resume at Kentucky isn't all that impressive. His offenses ranked 36th and 58th respectively in scoring in D1 and averaged just 23.1 PPG against ranked opponents during his entire tenure (their overall scoring average was 30.7). Defenders of Coen will state that he coached in the SEC at a school that didn't have the talent of Georgia, Alabama, LSU or Tennessee and while that's not an unreasonable point, the level of competition is much higher in the NFL and putting up above average numbers in college doesn't positively signal that he'll be able to handle the rigors of scheming and calling plays in the pros, which is something he hasn't done before.
History remains on Coen's side as he's far from the first McVay assistant to struggle elsewhere before hitting their stride. Matt LaFluer was an awful OC with the Titans before he got the Packers HC gig. Zac Taylor faceplanted as the interim OC for the Dolphins and the OC at the University of Cincinnati before he joined McVay's staff in 2017. Kevin O'Connell oversaw the league's worst scoring offense in Washington back in 2019. It also needs to be noted that the same Kentucky offense with Levis slipped down to 112 in 2022 when Coen returned to the Rams. For the sake of the Bucs, they better hope what happened at Kentucky was just a case of growing pains and not an early sign that he wasn't cut out to be an NFL offensive playcaller.
Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: Baker Mayfield At Least Maintaining the Level of Play He Displayed Last Year
All signs pointed to Mayfield returning to Tampa before he officially re-upped for 3 years in March. He got his career back on track there, showed a tremendous rapport with their pass-catchers (particularly Mike Evans) and they not only made it to the playoffs, but showed well upon getting there. His commitment to Tampa was further backed up by the choice of Coen to take over for Canales at OC. Coen was the OC when Mayfield played for the Rams at the end of 2022 and he's specifically credited him as the coach that helped him pick up the offense so quickly during his chaotic late season arrival where he was under center roughly 48 hours after signing with the team. Nothing shows respect for a QB like hiring one of his guys to run the offense and after having a front row seat to Brady bickering with Bruce Arians for 2 years over the offensive playcalling, Bowles likely didn't even consider another option with the near guarantee that Mayfield was returning to Tampa.
Armed with a new deal and an OC that he's familiar with; all Mayfield has to do now is show that 2023 wasn't a magical outlier. He was in this position once before in 2021 with the Browns and it didn't work out at all. The worst of his gunslinger tendencies were on display, his attitude was questionable and he ended the season on IR with a torn labrum. A few months later, the Browns traded for Deshaun Watson and his time as their franchise quarterback was officially over.
This situation with the Bucs is a bit different. Mayfield appears to have sincerely grown up after having his career damn near go up in smoke in 2022 after his terrible stint with the Panthers and he's playing with a group of excellent pass-catchers that he already has a great chemistry with. Plus, at the bare minimum, Coen knows what he likes to run and will put him in situations he's comfortable with, which wasn't always the case with his coaches in Cleveland.
What would go a long way in boosting the odds of Mayfield continuing to play at a high level would be their offensive line taking a seriously step forward. Beyond Tristian Wrifs' (expected) clean transition from right to left tackle, this group was a god damn mess last season. Mayfield was pressured on a pretty alarming 21.6% of his dropbacks and got sacked 40 times while the rushing game finished dead last in the league despite starting back Rachaad White's admirable effort to find lanes that just weren't there. Whether the arrival of rookie Swiss army knife Graham Barton-who can play all 5 spots on the line and is currently expected to start for them at center-and veteran Ben Bredeson-who is coming off an abysmal season with the Giants-to take over for Matt Feiler/Aaron Stennie at left guard is enough to turn the tide will reveal itself in time, but even the mere idea of real room for White and co. to operate and less defenders getting into his face has to be euphoric for Mayfield.
What happens in 2024 won't explicitly define Mayfield's career, but it will say a lot about his capacity to grow and maintain success with the same team over a sustained period of time.
Bottom Line:
Don't make the same mistake of sleeping on the Bucs that many people did last season. This is a pretty good team that has the chance to be great if they can solve their issues on the offensive line and at corner and Mayfield can put together another quality year at QB.
Predicted Standings:
1.Atlanta Falcons (10-7)
2.Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-8)
3.New Orleans Saints (7-10)
4.Carolina Panthers (4-13)
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