Category: NFC South News

Adam Thielen: Panthers ‘probably have the worst facilities in the NFL right now’

Veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen was brutally honest about the current state of the Carolina Panthers’ facilities

While the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been enjoying a three-year run of NFC South dominance and the longest active playoff streak of any team in the NFC, things have been less fun for the Carolina Panthers.

After struggling through an awful 2023 season, and not even getting to enjoy the spoils of it because they traded away their first-round pick that would eventually become No. 1 overall, the Panthers are hoping for better from Bryce Young and the rest of their crew in 2024.

One improvement appears to be an investment from ownership into improving their facilities, which is welcome news to veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen.

“We probably have the worst facilities in the NFL right now, and I don’t think there is anybody who would argue that,” Thielen told the media Tuesday (via Pro Football Talk).

That’s certainly not a problem at One Buc Place, where the facilities are among the league’s best.

If the Panthers do happen to improve this season, it’ll be even more impressive of a feat considering they don’t have state-of-the-art facilities to work with at the moment.

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Bucs appear happy to let division rivals overpay for veteran pass rushers

While their NFC South rivals have added some big names on paper, the Bucs are interested in better long-term investments

While many fans have been clamoring for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to add a marquee pass rusher in free agency, they’ve instead watched as two of the biggest names on the market have signed with other teams in the NFC South.

First, it was Chase Young signing a one-year deal with the New Orleans Saints.

Now, it’s Jadeveon Clowney signing a two-year deal with the Carolina Panthers.

It’s unclear whether or not the Bucs were ever interested in either player, or perhaps simply unwilling to pay them what they eventually got from their division rivals. But instead of bring frustrated that household names like Young and Clowney will be facing the Bucs twice a year instead of wearing pewter, Tampa Bay fans should be glad they have a prudent front office that isn’t throwing money at name recognition that comes with age and durability questions.

Young is technically still in his prime, but he brings injury concerns that scared many teams off in free agency. Clowney had a stellar 2023 campaign for the Baltimore Ravens, but he just turned 31 years old, the same age as recently released Bucs pass rusher Shaq Barrett.

No, it looks like Bucs general manager Jason Licht and his crew are happy to go the younger and/or cheaper route, especially considering they have five picks in the first four rounds of the 2024 NFL draft.

Those moves might look good on paper for the Saints and Panthers, but it won’t be surprising if Tampa Bay playing the long game pays off in a more sustained way once the games actually start this fall and beyond.

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Are the Bucs still the favorites to win the NFC South?

Despite riding a three-year streak of division titles, oddsmakers don’t see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers doing it again in 2024

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have won the NFC South in each of the past three seasons, and most of last year’s division-champion team is back for the 2024 campaign.

But that hasn’t stopped oddsmakers from dropping them out of pole position for this year’s NFC South crown.

Projected win totals are now hitting the books for the 2024 season, and the Atlanta Falcons have made a massive jump, with their current total win number coming in at 10.5.

The Dirty Birds haven’t won the division since 2016, but the addition of quarterback Kirk Cousins and the hiring of new head coach Raheem Morris clearly has them trending in the right direction (via Fox Sports’ Greg Auman):

Even with those additions, though, it’s hard to imagine the Falcons make such a dramatic leap in the division standings, especially while the Bucs are currently riding a three-year streak of NFC South title, with the core of their playoff roster back on both sides of the ball.

But hey, that’s why they play the games.

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Why the Bucs probably weren’t interested in signing Chase Young

For Bucs fans who were frustrated that Chase Young signed with the Saints, here’s why Tampa Bay probably passed on him

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers need more talented edge rushers, so it might have been understandable for some fans to be frustrated when they saw free agent Chase Young sign a one-year deal with the division-rival New Orleans Saints this week.

Young, a former No. 2 overall pick, might have seemed like an ideal replacement for Shaq Barrett, who was released to save salary cap space earlier in the offseason.

Young’s one-year deal with the Saints was originally reported as a full-guaranteed pact worth $13 million for 2024, but as it turns out, that’s not the whole story.

There’s also a very good reason why, as MMQB’s Albert Breer breaks down here:

It’s not clear whether or not any other teams had interest in signing Young outside of the Saints, but if the Bucs weren’t among them, this information makes it clear why not.

There are still some veteran options available if the Bucs want an experienced replacement for Barrett, but they’re also expected to target a top edge rusher early in the 2024 NFL draft.

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Former Bucs WR David Moore agrees to terms with Panthers

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver David Moore is following Dave Canales to the division-rival Carolina Panthers

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver David Moore is following his old offensive coordinator to a division rival.

Moore is signing a one-year deal with the Carolina Panthers, reuniting with former Bucs play-caller Dave Canales, who was hired as the head coach of Tampa Bay’s NFC South rivals earlier in the offseason.

Moore made two of the biggest plays of the season for the Bucs last year, showing off his impressive speed and after-the-catch ability in some clutch moments.

Now, he rejoins Canales for the rival Panthers, as they look to rebuild with second-year quarterback Bryce Young.

The Bucs still have some promising youth behind Mike Evans and Chris Godwin (Trey Palmer, Rakim Jarrett), but it wouldn’t be surprising if they looked to add more depth and experience to their wide receiver room this offseason.

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Saints DE Cameron Jordan takes shot at Ryan Jensen on ‘Up & Adams’

For someone who claims the Bucs and Saints don’t have a rivalry, Cameron Jordan certainly thinks about the Bucs quite a bit.

For someone who claims the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New Orleans Saints aren’t rivals, Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan seems to talk about Tampa Bay an awful lot.

Jordan was on Kay Adams’ show “Up & Adams,” and the two played a game where a Plinko-type board determined what type of question Jordan had to answer. When tasked with “Guy on another team you’d most like to fight,” Jordan answered by alluding to former Bucs center Ryan Jensen but claiming he couldn’t remember his name.

“The trash can,” Jordan said. “Tampa Bay, center, got hurt two years in a row, I always forget his name, the redhead … big holder, after-the-snap guy.”

Jensen announced his retirement a week ago after a knee injury limited him to one game in the past two seasons. Jordan seems to have a great memory when it comes to Tampa Bay despite claiming that the Bucs and the Saints are not rivals. The last time Jordan played against Jensen was in 2021, when the Saints won 9-0. Tampa Bay scored zero points that game, which is coincidentally the same number of Super Bowl rings held by Cameron Jordan.

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Atlanta Falcons hire former Bucs HC Raheem Morris as new head coach

Morris was the defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams since 2021 and was the head coach of the Bucs from 2009-11.

Both the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons have their guys — it’s been a big day for coaches in the NFC South.

Hours after Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales was hired to become the Carolina Panthers’ new head coach Thursday, the Atlanta Falcons are finalizing a deal with Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris to become the next coach of the Atlanta Falcons, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Morris was Atlanta’s interim head coach in 2020.

Like Canales, Morris has Bucs ties — in fact, his only other head coaching gig before this one was in Tampa Bay. Morris served as the head coach for the Bucs from 2009-11, where he put together a 10-6 record in 2010. The rest of his tenure didn’t go well, though, and awful first and third years resulted in a 17-31 record in Tampa Bay before he was fired.

Morris has had success as a coordinator, winning a Super Bowl in 2021 with the Rams. Morris was also the defensive coordinator for the Falcons in 2020, so the program already has some experience with him. While interim head coach in 2020 after coach Dan Quinn was fired, Morris went 4-7 with the Falcons as interim head coach.

With this hire, the NFC South coaching carousel is complete. Unless any major changes occur, Todd Bowles will coach the Buccaneers, Canales will coach the Panthers, Morris will coach the Falcons and Dennis Allen will coach the New Orleans Saints.

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Final NFC South standings for 2023

It was an up-and-down road to get there, but now that all is said and done, the Buccaneers remain kings of the South.

The NFC South has its victor for 2023, and it’s a familiar face.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers came into this year as the division’s defending champions for the second year in a row, and they added a third on Sunday. With a 9-0 win over the Carolina Panthers, the Bucs took home the division for the third consecutive year and punched their ticket to the playoffs. The team was the only team from the division to make the playoffs, as the New Orleans Saints were eliminated from a wildcard spot when both the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers won their respective games.

Here is how the NFC South turned out for the 2023 season:

Team W L T Win% PF PA Home Away Strk
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 9 8 0 .529 348 325 4-4 5-4 W1
New Orleans Saints 9 8 0 .529 402 327 5-3 4-5 W2
Atlanta Falcons 7 10 0 .412 321 373 5-3 2-7 L2
Carolina Panthers 2 15 0 .118 236 416 2-6 0-9 L3

And here is how the division’s two final games went:

Atlanta Falcons fire HC Arthur Smith

The Bucs will be facing a new head coach when they play the Atlanta Falcons twice a year.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won’t be facing Arthur Smith any longer.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported Monday that the Atlanta Falcons fired head coach Arthur Smith, ending his three-season stint with the Atlanta Falcons. The firing occurred after Smith lost the last game of the season to the New Orleans Saints 48-17 to finish the year 7-10.

Smith has finished 7-10 in every season he coached with the Atlanta Falcons, ending his tenure in Atlanta with a .412 winning percentage. The change is a big one for the NFC South, as the Bucs will now face an entirely different head coach when they play the Atlanta Falcons twice a year in 2024. Smith was 2-4 against the Bucs in his head coaching tenure with the Falcons, going 1-1 against them in the regular season in 2023.

The Falcons will now be among the teams officially looking for a head coach this upcoming offseason, joining the Las Vegas Raiders, Carolina Panthers, and Los Angeles Chargers (for now).

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Every playoff scenario for the NFC South in Week 18

The Bucs, Saints and Falcons all have a shot at winning the NFC South and making the playoffs in Week 17, and we’ve compiled every possible scenario for the division crown.

The NFC South has been a division of ups and downs all year. Now, in Week 18 of the 2023-24 NFL season, everything will come to a head.

Believe it or not, the top three members of the NFC South all still have a chance of winning the division. For some, like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, that chance is very high — it involves beating the 2-14 Carolina Panthers with no other strings attached. For others, like the Atlanta Falcons, the NFC South crown would require a number of different things to happen in order to see them on top. All in all, there are seven different scenarios that can occur in Week 18, with each crowning an NFC South champion and sending one of those three teams to the playoffs.

If all goes right for the Bucs, they shouldn’t have to worry about any of this — win and you’re in. But things start to get a little wonky if they lose or tie the Carolina Panthers on the road in Charlotte: