Tuesday, September 8, 2009

big american nfl preview '09: NFC South

Let's keep this train rolling, shall we?

4. Tampa Bay - The Bucs trying really hard to do "fresh start" without doing "rebuild," but they're doing "rebuild." Freeman will start the season behind center, but Leftwich will finish it there; once again the quarterback of a sub par team instead of what he could have been.

3. Carolina - This is where I have no clue. The Panthers have a good but not great defense and a good but not great offense. The Panthers, when I think about their chances this year, could go 14-2 just as easily as they could go 6-10. Ultimately, I'm putting them here because the only people left who still believe in the Legend of Jake Delhomme are Jake himself and the Panthers front office. And if that's what they're building the team around, it isn't going to happen for them.

2. New Orleans - New Orleans has a good offense. Moving along, I really like Darren Sharper, Jabir Green, and Malcolm Jenkins coming onto the defense to take down Drew Breeze's pass count and slow down other teams in a shoot-out. They don't make the Saints an intimidating defense, but they make enough improvement for some flirtation with the playoffs before ultimately falling short.

1. Atlanta - I can't help but think that last year wasn't a fluke. Matt Ryan is far more likely than Flacco to give a repeat performance of his rookie season since he has a better running back and better receivers than ol' Joe will have. The defense here is iffy, but I'm trusting that they'll be good enough in a division where all of the other teams lack "good enough" at every position.

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