Steven and Jeff are back from San Diego and are ready to take on the NFC South. The guys start with some NFL News and discuss the return of QB Brett Favre and his missing WR Sidney Rice. The guys talk about Chan Gailey getting on some fans that were heckling the Bills players, the Jets center Nick Mangold becoming the highest-paid center in the NFL, and Chad Ochocinco gets fined $25,000. Listen to Steven’s idea for Chad to save a little money.
The guys then focus on the Falcons, Panthers, Saints and Buccaneers. Both Steven and Jeff like the Saints to repeat as division winner, as long as QB Drew Brees can stay healthy and avoid the Madden Curse. Jeff thinks the Falcons can make it three years in a row with a winning record. Steven finds it difficult to see the Bucs win more than three games, while Jeff thinks they can turn from the Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything to the Pirates Who Do Some Stuff Every Once in a While. Steven likes Panther QB Matt Moore, but thinks he will have a difficult time if there is nobody else to step up at wide receiver next to Steve Smith.
The guys share some stories from the Chargers Press Box, while Steven makes Jeff talk about Rick Springfield.
How can you not see the falcons pulling off a win against a roethlisberger-less steelers team?
H-a-t-e-r-s
I feel the need to post my comments here since I almost completely disagree with Jeff on his assessment that the NFC South is the most improved division in football.
First, the pirates that don’t do anything: I’m having a VERY difficult time convincing myself that the Bucs can get more than 3 or 4 wins this season. Yes, they drafted McCoy and Price, but they’re rookies and will probably contribute very little this season, unless they’re break-out superstars (which I don’t think they are).
They’ve done almost nothing to improve their offense. Josh Freeman is still a young, developing Quarterback, and with the 30th ranked offense in the league they let their top WR, Antonio Bryant, go to CIN. The offense is pretty much on its head right now – their top receiver last season was their TE Kellen Winslow and I’m having a VERY difficult time figuring out who is going to produce anything but turnovers.
Aside from signing Trae Williams from PIT, they’ve done nothing to bolster their 27th ranked defense.
Improvement on TB? Zero for this season (but they’re re-building, so I’m not looking for them to be juggernauts this season).
Did the Atlanta Falcons improve from their 9-7 record last year? Hardly. They made some decent defensive picks, but made no big signings in the off season. Looking at their schedule I’m hard pressed to find a reason to give them more than 8 or 9 wins. 10 wins? Now you’re talking about potentially competing with New Orleans for the division, and I just don’t see that.
The Panthers made some decent moves in the off-season and improved their defense, but with rookie QB Jimmy Clausen starting behind the line expect to see a dip in performance from the 21st ranked offense, while the 9th ranked defense looks to improve. That MIGHT be good for some teams, but they had a point differential of just 7 last season with Delhomme leading the way. If that output drops, their differential will dip into the negative and you simply can’t win games like that.
I look for CAR to be 9-7 or 8-8. If the offensive output dips like I expect it to with a rookie QB, you could see 7-9, or 6-10.
Finally, you have the Saints. Let’s be honest here – they’re going to run away with a division that’s in a lot of turmoil right now. The only real competition they’re going to face is coming from Atlanta, and I don’t see them as a threat to the crown.
Still, every team in the league is gunning for them, so I could see them only pulling out 11 or 12 wins this season, with a significant dip in their offensive output.
This conference just doesn’t seem as exciting to me as Jeff feels it is. Also, I’m totally using your comments section as a warm up for my own show.
@LordKaT With regard to Atlanta, sometimes just keeping the same core players is an improvement from one year to the next as they settle into team and scheme. As Steven and/or Jeff pointed out in the show, they did not really need to get or change a lot of players. I have them as getting 9/10 wins but apart from that I think I agree with you on the other teams.
Agree with mayernat … Why fix something that’s not broken and obviously this Atlanta team is working very well so there’s no need to draft in a bunch of players if the current team is working ok and has a chance at improving again this year
The Falcons improve because they have matured. Matt Ryan has had another year to study, has suurvived the second year blues when teams have a years worth of film to study and will also have a healthy Peria Jerry, Roddy White and Michael Turner. They also added a servicable corner back with Dunta Robinson and a big motor guy in Weatherspoon, whom Curtis Lofton says makes him play better. I think that all indicates an improvement.
The Saints couldn’t improve, they could only regress.
The Panthers have improved because they know now what they have in their quarterback and would start on the backfoot with their quarterback losing them games. Matt Moore might not win many individually, but he will keep them in games and with Williams and Stewart they can grind out some wins.
The Bucs, I agree have not made any great improvements, but they will be stronger on defence, but I don’t think they will have the third pick this year. I think they will be able to get up to the fourth or fifth picks, but they are a few drafts away from getting into the top half of the league.