The Panthers, Not the Saints, Projected to Win the NFC South for 2023
My favorite part of that article was when the writer said that Young with the Panthers will no longer be surrounded by NFL talent like he was at Alabama….
I think we all get what he was saying. Substitute "NFL" for "superior", and it's an accurate statement.
I have to say, I think Carolina is at least even money with us to win the division. While I truly believe we improved our roster on paper, especially at the game's most important position, we lost our best talent from a coaching staff that already wasn't very good at all, and we replaced them with "buddies" and question marks. We had a better roster than Carolina last year too, yet were outplayed and outcoached by the likes of Matt Rhule and an interim on our home field to close out the season when the Panthers had like ten passing yards. It's hard to overstate just how bad our coaching staff and play-calling was last year, especially on offense. Nearly every data point you can dig up was an indictment against our staff. Also, our roster being better depends upon guys like Cam Jordan, Demario Davis, and Tyrann Mathieu not falling off a cliff at a fairly late stage in their careers, not to mention staying healthy. Frankly, I'll believe we can stay healthy when I see it after witnessing the last several years. It's been an absolute debacle, and every time I think the law of averages will work in our favor, we experience even more injury and illness.
I think Carolina has assembled a pretty good coaching staff, and they'll have the "element of surprise" for several weeks until the league gets enough film of how the new regime schemes and calls games together. I think BY has a good chance to end up being Tua Tagovailoa 2.0, but even that is light years better than the likes of Mayfield and Darnold. Heck, they might have won the division in '22 if they started Walker all year. Meanwhile, they assembled a fairly solid roster themselves, especially at the skill positions.
I'm not saying that I'm assuming the worst of all scenarios will happen, and I think our roster's ceiling is higher than theirs, but make no mistake: the Saints have TONS to prove. The good news is, there are zero excuses this season for Allen and this staff, and I think we took some important steps during FA and the draft to address our aging roster and provide some flexibility to field a quality team for the next few years. If we flop, Allen will surely be gone, and we'll have a fairly attractive job to offer a new coach, which I don't think could have been said at the conclusion of this past season. Loomis did some good work and showed a lot of poise and restraint - perhaps his best work as a GM when all is said and done. I'm excited to see how it all plays out and I'm hoping for the best. Ultimately, I can see a scenario where (Tampa aside) the division ends up being a little better than everyone expects and we have a couple of teams with a winning record.