Atlanta Falcons
2024 Record: 8-9 (2nd in NFC South)
Head Coach: Raheem Morris (2nd season)
Notable Additions: OLB Leonard Floyd, S Jordan Fuller, DE Morgan Fox
Notable Departures: C Drew Dalman, DT Grady Jarrett, S Justin Simmons
Biggest Reason for Excitement: Their Odds of Making the Playoffs/Winning the Division Haven't Been This High Since Dan Quinn's Tenure
Over the last 4 seasons, the Falcons have been the most steadily slightly below average team in the league (it would be 7 straight, but that pesky 4-12 dumpster fire 2020 campaign threw a wrench into their impressive reign of being a consistent borderline middler franchise). They ripped off 3 straight 7-10 seasons under Arthur Smith and only improved by 1 win in Raheem Morris' 1st season on the job. Entering 2025, they have their best chance of finishing on the right side of .500 or maybe even winning the division they've since the final good year they had under Dan Quinn back in 2017.
Let me be clear, this take isn't due to having firm belief in Morris or the Falcons roster. In fact, I remain very unsure of everything on this team except the talent of Bijan Robinson, Drake London, Jessie Bates, A.J. Terrell and their offensive line with the exception of center in the wake of Drew Dalman leaving for the Bears in free agency. What is driving this take is the status of the teams in their division and the schedule they have on tap for this season. In terms of the NFC South, it could be theirs for their taking. The Bucs are the most vulnerable they've been in years with the question marks surrounding their secondary and once again being saddled with the burden of having to overhaul their offense after Liam Coen left for a head coaching gig in Jacksonville, the Panthers remain a youth-driven team that doesn't appear to be ready to make the leap into playoff contention quite yet and the Saints are taking another big step towards the full blown rebuild they've been trying to avoid over the past few seasons. On the schedule front, they have a pretty favorable draw with the AFC East and NFC West-which are a pair of divisions that could be in line to be the weakest they've been in quite some time given the status of the bulk of the teams that are sitting behind their respective reigning champs (Bills, Rams). A 1–3-win improvement from last season feels completely attainable for this group and a failure to deliver on that would most likely put Morris on the hot seat at season's end.
Biggest Reason for Concern: Jeff Ulbrich Being Hired as Their New DC
Finding a fall guy to throw under the bus after ending the season on a 2-5 skid that caused them to lose the division to the Bucs despite sweeping their season series felt like a strong possibility here and the Falcons did indeed find one in DC Jimmy Lake. While Lake didn't do a great job by any means (23rd in scoring defense, 15th in rushing defense, 22nd in passing defense, 31st in redzone defense, 28th in redzone defense, 16th in takeaways, 31st in sacks) the group's regression from 2023 under Ryan Nielsen wasn't sharp enough to warrant a firing after 1 season on the job. Alas, that's how the cookie crumbles in the modern NFL and I'm sure Lake himself isn't overly sad to be back with the Rams after a year away.
Who Morris elected to replace Lake with raised more than a few eyebrows as he elected to hire his old friend Jeff Ulbrich, who he worked alongside with from 2015-2020 during his first stint with the Falcons as assistant HC/DB coach/DC. Ulbrich's stock as a coach is arguably the lowest it's ever been after what transpired once he took over as the Jets interim HC for the final 12 games of the season following the surprise early season firing of Robert Saleh last October. The most notable failure of Ulbrich's stint as the leader of the Jets coaching staff was the rapid decline of their vaunted defense once Saleh left, which naturally raised the question of just how much Ulbrich was contributing to the gameplanning/playcalling efforts while the group was dominating over the prior 2 seasons.
Ulbrich will his hands full trying to rehab image with this group that has been a thorn in the side of this team for close to a decade at this point. There are a whopping 2 guys on this unit (Bates, Terrell) that have proven themselves to be consistent impact players at this level and worst of all, this group is returning most of its starters from last year's dismal unit (the sole projected new starters are 2nd year DT Ruke Orhororo, DE Leonard Floyd-who is coming an 8.5 sack season with the 49ers, ILB Divine Deablo-who was an average player through his first 4 seasons with the Raiders and FS DeMarcco Hellams-who made 4 starts as a rookie in 2023 and was on IR for all of 2024). There's also of course the wild card of the 4 rookies they took with their top 4 picks in the draft (DE's Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr., S's Xavier Watts and Billy Bowman Jr.) whose roles all remain unclear at this juncture. The Falcons have to be hoping that what happened with the Jets last year was a result of them quitting on Ulbrich rather than a reflection of his coaching prowess because short of at least a couple of those rookies or Orhororo, Diablo and/or Hellams breaking out, this group doesn't even have half the talent he had with the Jets last season and shit could get really ugly really fast if his coaching isn't up to snuff.
Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: Michael Pennix Jr. Finding a Groove in His First Full Season as a Starting QB
It really did appear like Michael Pennix Jr. was going to become the first (healthy) QB selected in the top 10 of the draft since Patrick Mahomes to sit for the entirety of his rookie season. Then, Morris surprisingly pulled their high-priced vet Kirk Cousins from the starting job with only 3 games left in the regular season as they were in the midst of a heated battle with the Bucs for the NFC South title. That's an incredibly high leverage spot to throw a rookie that had yet to play a meaningful down in the NFL at that point into and to his credit, Penix Jr. held up pretty well. While they ended up going 1-2 over his 3 starts, Penix Jr. didn't appear to be intimidated by the inherent pressure that the professional stage generates in the slightest and made some plays that sparked at least a bit of optimism for his future as the Falcons starting quarterback.
No matter where you stand on Penix Jr. right now, everybody can agree that a 3-start sample size is far too small to draw any meaningful conclusions from. It wasn't too long ago that the Falcons themselves experienced a painful rookie mirage when Desmond Ridder came out and looked solid over 4 starts to close out his rookie season then immediately imploded in spectacular fashion during his sophomore season when he was named the full-time starter. Invoking Ridder's name in the same breath as Penix Jr. is admittedly a stretch as he was nowhere near as coveted as a prospect coming out of college, but it does serve as a valuable lesson for the people out that there put too much stock in a young quarterback having a short run of nice starts.
The biggest thing we need to see from Penix Jr. in his first full season as an NFL starter is improved accuracy. What has kind of blew my mind about Penix's terrific PFF grade (87.5, which would've been top 10 in the league if he had played enough snaps) was how shitty his completion percentage was (58.8% during his 3 starts and just 54.8% in the 2 losses he closed out the season on). Drops were of course a bit of a factor in this equation as he endured 7 of them over this stretch, but 5 of them came in the same game (Week 18 versus the Panthers) and were definitely outnumbered by the number of eye-popping whiffs he made (the only game I saw Penix Jr. play in was in Week 17 versus the Commanders on SNF and there were about 5-7 throws he made during that game that were some of the ugliest incompletions I saw any QB make last year).
The other area where Penix Jr. gets into real trouble his with his decision-making. His gunslinging tendencies didn't him get into trouble all that much when became a star at the University of Washington as threw 19 picks on 1,109 attempts over his 2 seasons as their starter. It was a bit of a different story in the pros as he had a pick in every single start he made despite only logging 100 total attempts during that stretch. Expecting Penix to change the way he plays entirely would be untenable and ridiculous, especially when he plays in the same division as a guy in Baker Mayfield who has found great success of late while embracing his status as a fearless gunslinger. That being said, he needs to show a better understanding of when to take risks and when to play it safe and not just blindly chuck the ball downfield with the hopes that London or Darnell Mooney will be able snatch it away from whoever is covering them most of the time every time he's looking to get out of a jam.
Beyond these two potential backbreaking attributes and the obvious questions about his durability after his extensive injury history in college, there's a lot to like about Penix. He's got a big arm, leadership skills that has been praised everywhere he's been and a level of poise that is rare for QB's that are just starting out in the pros. Plus, he has the luxury of being able to lean on a vet in Cousins who is the type of guy that will not allow the inevitable wave of negative emotions that being benched brings on to get in the way of being a true mentor to the young QB who stands to benefit from the wisdom he's gained from a decade or so of being a starter in the league. He absolutely has what it takes to settle into a nice groove in 2025, and they'll be in a great spot to end their 8-year playoff drought if he does
Bottom Line:
This is the closest thing to real optimism that has surrounded the Falcons in quite some time and nobody should be surprised if they ended up winning this division.
Carolina Panthers
2024 Record: 5-12 (3rd in NFC South)
Head Coach: Dave Canales (2nd season)
Notable Additions: S Tr'Veon Moehrig, DT Bobby Brown III, DE Tershawn Wharton
Notable Departures: ILB Shaq Thompson, OLB Jadeveon Clowney, S Jordan Fuller
Biggest Reason for Excitement: There's Some Buzz Around the Team Again!
This time last year, the Panthers were arguably the saddest and most hopeless franchise in the league. David Tepper's meddling antics had skyrocketed him to the top of the list of most hated owners in American pro sports, early returns on Bryce Young-whose journey to the Panthers came at the cost of giving up a shitload of assets to the Bears-were horrendous as he looked completely overwhelmed as a rookie and the comical churn rate of head coaches created such a lack of continuity that it began to create a culture of dysfunction. Against all odds, things now appear like they might actually be trending in the right direction. Dave Canales became the 1st coach they've had since Ron Rivera to establish any sort of real positive locker room culture, Young overcame another brutal start that included him getting temporarily benched for Andy Dalton from Weeks 3-7 to shown signs of real promise and they finished the season on a comparatively good note by going 4-5 (including 2 OT wins over the Cardinals and Falcons over their final 3 games) after an agonizing 1-7 start. After making some moves in the offseason including adding the consensus top receiver in this year's draft class in Tet McMillian, inking top corner Jaycee Horn to an extension and signing a handful of new defensive starters including Tre'Von Moehrig, Bobby Brown III and Tershawn Wharton, there's reason to be hopeful that they will be able to take another step forward in 2025. Any glimmer of hope that trickles into this organization is a godsend based on their recent history and it has to feel great knowing that maybe just maybe this team isn't going to be in a prolonged purgatory under Tepper's ownership.
Biggest Reason for Concern: Defensive Play
There is one dark cloud that hung over the Panthers last season and continues to loom over them as we head into the 2025 season: Their defense fucking stinks. Sorry, that's underselling it considerably. Their defense is coming off a season in which they were historically awful. The 2024 Panthers broke a record that had been in place since 1981 by allowing the most points in NFL history (534!). All of the telling metrics beyond scoring defense support their incredible ineptitude as they ranked dead last in rushing and 3-down defense, tied for 30th in sacks, 29th in redzone defense, and 23rd in pass defense. Takeways were the only area of note where they finished outside of the bottom 10 in the league and that was by the skin of their teeth as they ended up ranking 20th.
Remarkably, Ejiro Evero was able to hold onto his job for another season. I knew he had built up some good will around the league after keeping the Broncos D afloat during the trainwreck that was the Nathaniel Hackett year in 2022, but it was surprising to learn that it was so significant that he could survive overseeing the worst defense in the league and a bottom 5 unit in back-to-back seasons with the Panthers.
While nobody in their right mind would predict them to match or exceed the shitshow that was last season, Evero is going to have to do one hell of a coaching job to elevate this group to even a semi-respectable level in 2025. All 5 vets they signed to start (ILB Christian Rozeboom and EDGE Patrick Jones II will be joining the aforementioned Moehrig, Brown III and Wharton) are all either unproven as starters (Brown III, Jones II) or not nearly good enough to move the needle significantly at their respective positions (Moehrig, Wharton, Rozeboom), their corner group beyond Horn will be easily exploitable if they maintain a level of play that's anywhere even remotely close to last season and while Derrick Brown's return to the lineup after missing the final 16 games of 2024 with a torn meniscus, the remainder of the front 7 is sketchy enough on the whole to be skeptical in their ability to make the kind of improvement needed to get their run D out of the gutter it's been in over the past 2 seasons. If Evero does indeed fail to turn this group around, this team's positive trajectory will be halted, and he'll be looking for another job come January at the latest.
Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: Bryce Young Building Off His Second Half of 2024
Young dusting himself off after the embarrassment of being benched 3 games into his rookie season and gradually improving upon re-entering the lineup says a lot about his resolve. There's been some debate about just how good he was over that time (PFF had him ranked as the #5 QB in the league from Weeks 9-18 behind only Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow while the raw stats paint a less rosy picture as he completed 61.6% of his passes, got sacked 19 times and threw 8 of his 13 TD passes over the stretch during the final 3 games of the year), but alas, it would be impossible to credibly argue that he didn't look way better during his last 9 NFL starts than he did in his first 19.
No matter what side of the fence you reside on in the Young debate, he sits in a similar position as his peer Michael Penix Jr. in that he still hasn't shown enough for anybody to have full confidence in his ability to be the long-term QB for the Panthers. This season will go a long way in determining his long-term fate in this organization.
Conceivably, he's in a good spot to build upon the improvement he showed down the stretch last season. Canales is on the cusp of establishing himself as being a coach that can viewed as a legit QB whisperer after his work over the past 2 seasons with Baker Mayfield and Young, McMillan's strengths as a player (route running, hands, catch radius) should make the reliable top target that he's lacked in each of the past 2 seasons and the rushing attack led by Chuba Hubbard should continue to be productive enough to open things up for him in the passing game. Continued questions surrounding their offensive line (particularly in pass protection), pass-catching depth and his accuracy could continue to gum up the works, but there is a promising foundation for his future in place right now and that's much more than could be said about him a year ago.
Bottom Line:
While I do think that Canales could be building something here and that Young has a good chance to take another step forward, their roster is still too thin on talent (particularly on defense) for their win total to go up by more than a couple of games in 2025.
New Orleans Saints
2024 Record: 5-12 (4th in NFC South)
Head Coach: Kellen Moore (1st season)
Notable Additions: S Justin Reid, WR Brandin Cooks, S Julian Blackmon
Notable Departures: QB Derek Carr (retired), S Tyrann Mathieu (retired), CB Paulson Adebo
Biggest Reason for Excitement: The Prospect of Landing a Very High Pick in the 2026 Draft
The Saints have landed in the place they've spent the past few seasons trying to desperately avoid: In no man's land starting down the barrel of a rebuild. Their efforts to remain competitive enough to finish around .500 for 3 straight years cost them valuable draft position and even last season when they finally regressed enough to go 5-12-their worst record since 2005-they were only able to land the #9 overall pick since so many teams were in the same realm of shit as them. 2025 is opening a new chapter, one in which they're primed to suck hard enough to land themselves a pick in the top 5, if not the top 3 of the 2026 Draft. What an exciting prospect for a team that's been held back by cap problems and an unimpressive string of recent drafts by the somehow still-employed Mickey Loomis. Whether they'll be any game changers available at the top of the board next year or if Loomis has it in him to identify/land an impact player at that spot are topics that can (and will) be explored when the time comes, but for now, Saints fans should treat this as their much-deserved reward for sitting through what by all accounts will be a miserable 2025 season for them.
Biggest Reason for Concern: Quarterback
A large part of why the Saints are pretty much universally expected to be one of the worst teams in the league this year is the pretty surprising predicament they suddenly found themselves in after Derek Carr announced his retirement in early May after determining that his rotator cuff wasn't in good enough shape to continue playing after sustaining multiple shoulder injuries over the course of his 11-year career. Carr's 2 seasons as the Saints starter weren't full of triumphs or even play that rose above average very often, but they did go 14-12 in the games he started in and failed to win any of the 7 games he missed in 2024.
With the draft gone by and all of the veteran free agents of note off the market, the Saints are now forced to hold a QB competition that is getting zero national attention and bringing the locals back to the days of Billy Joe Tolliver, Billy Joe Hoebert and Danny Wuerffel. Currently atop the depth chart is Spencer Rattler. This is to be expected as Rattler logged 6 starts when Carr was out last year. Given how unremarkable his play was last season (1,317 YDS/4 TD's/5 INT's/57 CMP%), Rattler's hold on the QB1 job is by no means firm and it's hard to imagine his leash will be long if he does indeed end up being named the Week 1 starter.
Sitting in the #2 spot is the Saints obligatory draft investment at the position for this season in 65-year-old rookie Tyler Shough. Like Rattler, Shough was one of the most coveted QB's in the country coming out of high school (#7 overall in a recruiting class that also featured Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Matt Corral and Tanner McKee) and ran into a diverse string of issues that kept him in college for longer-than-expected (Shough sat behind Justin Herbert at Oregon for 2 years then started 7 games during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, endured 3 injury-shortened seasons at Texas Tech from 2021-23 and finally, ended up at Louisville where he completed his 1st uninterrupted season of college ball in 2024). The book on Shough is that he's a big-armed gunslinger with a gift for making splash plays who sucks under pressure and has questionable accuracy. Given the Saints offensive line and receiver situation, it would be safe to say that Shough-who in reality turns 26(!) next month-is not entering an environment that has the ideal setup needed for him to thrive.
Holding down the 3rd string spot is 3rd year pro Jake Haener. The Fresno State product got handed a lone start last season against the Commanders and promptly was benched for Rattler at halftime after going 4 of 10 for 41 YDS and an INT in the first half. There's no universe where Kellen Moore is considering him to be their starter and it's far from a lock that he's even on the roster come Week 1.
No matter who comes out on top and logs the most starts, it feels like they'll just be keeping the seat warm for whoever they elect to draft in the 1st round next year. All 3 of these guys have major flaws in their games and the personnel surrounding them on both the roster and the coaching staff doesn't appear to be strong enough to overcome them.
Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: Becoming a Hard-Nosed Team That Wins Ugly
If it isn't obvious when you're reading this, coming up for reasons on why teams that appear set to be terrible could overachieve is a struggle. It basically just consists of me desperately trying to think of something that would need to happen in order for the team being profiled to hit their peak. I'm sure there are instances where it doesn't sound convincing at all. Hell, it might even occasionally come off as straight up disingenuous. But I promise you this, I would never manufacture a reason just for the sake of putting something out there. I do genuinely believe that each thing I pick is that team's best path to success in that year.
I wrote all of that to say this: The Saints were by far the hardest team to come up with something for this season and my confidence level in them being able to pull it off isn't high at all. Becoming a hard-nosed team that wins ugly would require a couple of things that feel very far-fetched for them:
1.Brandon Staley coaching a physical defense. The last time we saw this man in charge of a defense he was responsible for fielding one of the softest, sloppiest groups in football in the 2023 Chargers and nothing about any of the defenses he's coached over the years indicates that he's capable of coaching a stout group that doesn't get pushed around by anybody.
2.The Saints developing the type of rushing attack that controls tempo and time of possession. Alvin Kamara may be coming off his best season in recent memory, but he just turned 30, hasn't averaged more than 4.2 YPC since 2020 and has always been more of a threat as a pass-catcher in space than as a straight-up rusher while backup Kendre Miller hasn't done much with his opportunities through 2 NFL seasons (304 YDS and 2 TD's on 80 attempts), although to be fair he's missed some time with injuries during both years and his former HC Dennis Allen hated him with a fiery passion. On top of the backs themselves, their aforementioned line problems could very well cut into their ability to establish the run.
Despite this tidal wave of obstacles standing in their way, this dream isn't impossible. This defense is just 2 years removed from a being top 10 unit and they have enough talent in their ranks (DeMario Davis, Pete Werner, Carl Granderson, Chase Young, Alontae Taylor, Kool-Aid McKinstry, new starting safety duo Justin Reid and Julian Blackmon) to regain that form while the offensive line could quickly change course if their young tackle duo of rookie Kelvin Banks Jr and Tailese Fuaga play their roles at least relatively well. I mean, the fans would probably be pissed if they won enough games to have them fall out of the top 10 in next year's draft order, but it would probably be good for morale and Moore's HC prospects moving forward.
Bottom Line:
The Saints have no quarterback, little in the way of high-end talent and a 1st year HC who hasn't had much success as a offensive coach without high-end talent at his disposal. This is a recipe for potential disaster that I'm very confident will end up being cooked to perfection.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers:
2024 Record: 10-7 (1st in NFC South)
Head Coach: Todd Bowles (4th season)
Notable Additions: OLB Haason Reddick, P Riley Dixon, ILB Anthony Walker Jr.
Notable Departures: S Jordan Whitehead, OLB Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, C Robert Hainsey
Biggest Reason for Excitement: They Still Have the Best Situation in the NFC South
Ironically, the Bucs situation very closely resembles the one that the Texans are in the AFC South. The Bucs are currently the 4x reigning champs in the NFC South and are in a great position to win it again due to the advantages they have as a top-to-bottom operation. Todd Bowles is the only coach with an established pedigree in the entire division. Baker Mayfield has a significant experience advantage over the other 3 starting QB's and has played the best football of his career since landing with the Bucs in 2023. Their rushing defense has been in the top 5 in the league in 4 of the last 5 seasons. Mike Evans is still one of the steadiest receivers in football and should have at least another couple years of high-level production in him as he enters his age 32 season. Analytics darling Bucky Irving just might end up being the league's next star dual threat back after amassing an impressive 1,514 scrimmage YDS during his rookie season. Really, the only lingering issues surrounding them is Chris Godwin's durability/health as he approaches his 30th birthday, their secondary play and having to endure the pain of yet another offensive coordinator change this season (the latter two of these will be discussed more below). Ultimately, they're more vulnerable than the Texans given that the Falcons are in far better shape than any of the other teams in the AFC South, but I certainly wouldn't bet against them to take the NFC South crown yet again at this stage of the calendar.
Biggest Reason for Concern: Having a New OC for the 3rd Straight Year
There was a brief window where it looked like the Bucs had avoided the threat of Liam Coen leaving for a HC gig after he turned down the Jaguars HC job and agreed in principle to a new deal with the Bucs that gave him an undisclosed pay bump. Coen reversed course and accepted the Jags gig after they decided to fire their embattled GM Trent Baalke-which reportedly caused several other candidates to turn them down. Coen's departure means the Bucs will be onto their 4th OC in 4 years after Byron Leftwich was fired following the 2022 season and Dave Canales left for the Panthers HC gig after the 2023 season. Unlike with the hirings of Canales and Coen, the Bucs elected to promote from within this time around by naming Coen's pass game coordinator Josh Grizzard as OC. Grizzard, 35, has been coaching since 2012 and been in the NFL since 2017-starting with the Dolphins as an offensive quality control coach and WR coach (2020-21) on 3 separate staffs (Adam Gase, Brian Flores, Mike McDaniel) before joining Coen's staff in Tampa last offseason. It remains to be seen just how much different the offense will look under Grizzard or what his playcalling tendencies will be as he's never done it before at either level, but you'll never believe this, the Bucs believe this whippersnapper is a "wizard" that will keep their offense humming after an excellent 2024.
Every time you hire a new coordinator you're effectively playing Russian Roulette, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. This game becomes particularly discouraging when the new guy is replacing somebody who did an excellent job, and he's never held this role before. Prior playcalling experience isn't necessary for success as the Bucs themselves can attest to from recent experience as Canales had never called plays before arriving in Tampa. The difference between Canales and Grizzard is that Canales had considerably more experience as a position coach/passing game coordinator spending 13 seasons in those roles with the Seahawks before he took the Bucs OC gig. Grizzard was a passing game coordinator for a year and WR coach for 2 before landing this gig. Perhaps, most alarmingly he was demoted from WR coach back to quality control after Mike McDaniel replaced Brian Flores in 2022. Can a guy this green really be trusted to help a top 5 offense maintain its elite form? Absolutely not. Are the Bucs banking on him doing so? Absolutely. That's a lot of pressure to put on a guy that's new to this job and how he performs with the microscope he's going to be under should teach us a lot about the kind of coach he is.
Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: The Passing Defense Finally Getting Fixed
Coming up with a game plan to attack the Bucs defense over the past couple of years has been simple: Just throw it! Sometimes Bowles' blitz-happy scheme has done enough to bail them out, but anybody that was able to withstand the heat was rewarded with easy money downfield. These efforts particularly reared their ugly heads in their most recent playoff losses as the Lions and Commanders went onto win almost exclusively due to the Bucs inability to stop the pass.
How do you fix a group that's finished 29th in the league against the pass in 2 straight seasons and made no changes at coordinator (Bowles himself serves as the team's de facto DC) or in the DB coaches' room (Kevin Ross, Nick Rapone, Tim Atkins Rashad Johnson)? That's an excellent question with no easy answer. Having a presumably motivated Haason Reddick-who is on a 1 year prove it deal after his disastrous holdout-shortened 2024 campaign with the Jets that ultimately costs him tens of millions of dollars-join Vita Vea, Yaya Diaby and Calijah Kancey on the frontlines of the pass rush could make a difference, but getting pressure on the quarterback hasn't been a consistent issue for them during this period of secondary woes.
Ultimately, it's going to come down to fielding a group that's strong across the board. Through some combination of injuries and just bad luck, it feels like the Bucs haven't had more than 1 guy on the secondary playing well at the same time of late. In 2023, it was Antoine Winfield Jr.-who earned First Team All-Pro honors after logging a career-high 12 passes defensed and 3 INT's. Last year, it was Zyon McCollum-who held up pretty well in his 1st season as a full-time starter-logging 2 INT's/17 passes defensed, allowing under 60 YDS in 11 out of 17 games and surrendering just 4 TD's on the year (all of which came from Weeks 4-7). What's baffling about these woes is that they certainly have the talent to get out of the basement. Winfield Jr and longtime top corner Jamel Dean have been among the best players at their position at one point or another, McCollum and Tykee Smith have shown some promise and rookies Jacob Parrish and Benjamin Morrison both have starting-caliber upside. There is a good, if not great group of DB's that could be built here, it's just going to be up to coaching staff to piece it together and the injury gods to show some mercy for once. The prospect of squaring off against a Bucs team that could actually guard the pass should invoke fear in the whole fucking league. Suddenly, defenses wouldn't know how exactly to how move the ball against them and if they didn't know exactly how to attack them, just imagine how much tougher it would be to beat them in the playoffs! They might even be able to make it back to the Super Bowl if that were the case!
Bottom Line:
Assuming they can withstand their latest OC change and show up some improvement with their pass D, the Bucs should be back in the playoffs for the 6th straight year.
Predicted Standings:
1.Tampa Bay Buccaneers (10-7)
2.Atlanta Falcons (9-8)
3.Carolina Panthers (6-11)
4.New Orleans Saints (3-14)
