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:

NFC South standings after Week 17

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons all have a scenario to win the NFC South in Week 18.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers missed their first chance to clinch the NFC South, but they have another opportunity to make it happen on Sunday.

Should the Bucs win against the Carolina Panthers in Week 18, they’ll clinch the division and go to the playoffs as the No. 4 seed. Lose that game, however, and they are eliminated — at that point, the winner of the matchup between the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons would be crowned the champion of the NFC South. There are a bunch of other scenarios that occur with ties, but we’ll keep it simple for right now.

Here’s what the NFC South looks like heading into Week 18:

Team W L T Win% PF PA Home Away Strk
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 8 8 0 .500 339 325 4-4 4-4 L1
New Orleans Saints 8 8 0 .500 354 310 4-3 45 W1
Atlanta Falcons 7 9 0 .438 304 325 5-3 2-6 L1
Carolina Panthers 2 14 0 .125 236 407 2-5 0-9 L2

And here is how the NFC South’s games shaped out in Week 17:

NFC South standings after Week 16

The Bucs not only still stand as kings of the NFC South, but they have a chance to put the division away in Week 17 against the Saints.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are just one win away.

With a victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Bucs are just one win away from clinching in the NFC South. That win can come from either the New Orleans Saints, who lost in Week 16 to the Los Angeles Rams, or the Carolina Panthers, who lost to the Green Bay Packers — Tampa Bay only needs to win one, not both. Should they fail to do that, though, the Atlanta Falcons will be on their tale, as they just secured a victory over the Indianapolis Colts and remain second in the division.

Here is what the NFC South standings currently look like:

Team W L T Win% PF PA Home Away Strk
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 8 7 0 .533 326 302 4-3 4-4 W4
Atlanta Falcons 7 8 0 .467 287 288 5-3 2-5 L1
New Orleans Saints 7 8 0 .467 331 297 4-3 3-5 W1
Carolina Panthers 2 13 0 .133 236 381 2-5 0-8 L1

And here is how every NFC South game on Sunday went:

What the Saints’ Thursday night loss means for the Bucs

The Saints’ loss on Thursday Night Football has big playoff implications for the Bucs’ next three-game stretch for the division.

Nine’s the magic number.

The New Orleans Saints lost their game to the Los Angeles Rams at So-Fi Stadium 30-22 on Thursday Night Football, dropping to 7-8 on the year. They remain second in the NFC South standings, but that loss has huge implications going forward for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ quest for an NFC South division title and its fourth playoff bid in a row.

With that loss, the Bucs can now win any two of their next three games — the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Saints and the Carolina Panthers — and clinch the NFC South. That means that if Tampa Bay knocks off the Jags on Christmas Eve Sunday in Week 16, they can beat either the Saints or the Panthers to win the division, and that combo works in any order with one loss. As such, the Bucs don’t only control their own destiny, but they get to drop a game while doing so.

Should the Bucs lose a majority of their matchups (or all of them), both Atlanta and New Orleans can take advantage and win the NFC South. But as displayed previously in the year, any three-way tie would go to Tampa Bay, who would have the upper hand on common opponents. As such, this next stretch is crucial for every NFC South team, but the Los Angeles Rams have given Tampa Bay the upper hand over the entire rest of the division heading into the postseason.

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NFC South standings after Week 15

The Bucs remain the NFC South’s leaders and are in the driver’s seat for a playoff spot.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers remain Kings of the South after a victory in the Battle of the Bays over the Green Bay Packers, and they control their own destiny in a big way.

The Atlanta Falcons dropped their game against the Carolina Panthers, knocking them off Tampa Bay’s trail. The Bucs now turn their head to the Saints, who are second place in the division and will be Tampa Bay’s main enemy once again going into the final frame of the season.

Here’s what the NFC South looks like after all the action in Week 15:

Team W L T Win% PF PA Home Away Strk
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 7 7 0 .500 296 290 3-3 4-4 W3
New Orleans Saints 7 7 0 .500 309 267 4-3 3-4 W2
Atlanta Falcons 6 8 0 .429 258 278 4-3 2-5 L2
Carolina Panthers 2 12 0 .143 206 348 2-4 0-8 W1

And here’s how each of those games went:

NFC South standings after Week 14

The Bucs are back on top, but to say things are tight may be an understatement.

Every NFC South team played each other on Sunday, and the ensuing result is a division in a deadlock.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints defeated the Carolina Panthers, and as a result, there is a three-way tie for first place at 6-7 between the Bucs, Falcons and Saints. Tampa Bay currently serves as the division leader, as they have the edge on both teams through common opponents.

Here is what the NFC South looks like after Week 14:

Team W L T Win% PF PA Home Away Strk
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 6 7 0 .462 262 270 3-3 3-4 W2
Atlanta Falcons 6 7 0 .462 251 269 4-3 2-4 L1
New Orleans Saints 6 7 0 .462 285 261 3-3 3-4 W1
Carolina Panthers 1 12 0 .077 197 351 1-4 0-8 L6

And here is how all (two) of those games went: