NFC South Offseason Changes

After the NFL Draft, the community of NFL experts turns to the summer and a true appraisal of where teams stand with their reworked rosters. Few divisions are more interesting or have undergone more upheaval than the NFC South, where three teams are radically different as they try to figure out the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The champions don’t need to change much of anything. Everything worked for them in last season’s playoffs under Tom Brady, who won a seventh Super Bowl in his first season with his new club. Brady’s leadership skills are worth a king’s ransom in the playoffs. The Bucs didn’t make big mistakes. Their defense got progressively better as the playoffs went along, and they played a near-perfect game in a Super Bowl LV blowout of the Kansas City Chiefs. The Buccaneers drafted defense with Joe Tryon of the University of Washington in the first round. They went with a developmental project in the second round, taking young quarterback Kyle Trask out of Florida. Trask is not going to battle Brady. He will be a backup the Bucs will try to bring along, hoping he can be ready in 2024 or 2025. The team stood pat, knowing that the rest of the division and the NFC have to make the adjustments this season.

New Orleans Saints

The Saints’ offseason changes were seismic, far greater than nearly every other team in the league. Drew Brees retired at the end of a Hall of Fame career, creating a big question for the Saints at quarterback. Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill are expected to battle for the job and share snaps this season, though how coach Sean Payton wants to juggle the workload is uncertain. The Saints caused a stir when they took Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book in the fourth round of the NFL draft. How Book fits with Winston and Hill is a massive question mark hovering over the franchise.

Elsewhere, the Saints lost receiver Emmanuel Sanders to the Bills and cornerback Janoris Jenkins to the Titans. Edge rusher Trey Hendrickson went to the Bengals. The Saints lost far more players than they gained in free agency. One notable acquisition was edge rusher Tanoh Kpassagnon from the Chiefs.

Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons ran out of time and patience with coach Dan Quinn. They fired him and replaced him with former Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. It will be fascinating to see if Smith can get the most out of the Falcons’ offense, which remains talented but has not been nearly consistent enough to win big. The Falcons made the playoffs in 2017, one year after their Super Bowl season… and they haven’t been back to the postseason in each of the past three seasons. Smith is trying to engineer a turnaround.

The Falcons drafted Florida’s Kyle Pitts with the No. 4 overall pick. Pitts is technically a tight end but he has wide receiver speed. He could be a matchup nightmare and a great weapon for quarterback Matt Ryan. The Falcons made other changes, but their coaching staff and their top-five pick are the headliners.

Carolina Panthers

The Panthers changed quarterbacks: Teddy Bridgewater out, Sam Darnold in. The Panthers think their staff, especially offensive coordinator Joe Brady, can get the most out of the former New York Jet, who never had a good situation with his old team.

The Panthers drafted cornerback Jaycee Horn with the No. 8 pick this year, but they endured a lot of changes in free agency.

They lost receiver Curtis Samuel to the Washington Football Team, which deprives Darnold of a quality weapon. They did, however, gain linebacker Denzel Perryman from the Chargers, cornerback A.J. Bouye from the Broncos, and cornerback Rashaan Melvin from the Jaguars. There is a lot of turnover on this roster, with second-year coach Matt Rhule thinking he can transform the culture of this organization.