Nfc South , Truly Up For Grabs

[Shredman]

was just listening to the NFC South Preview, Basically its just Bucs , Panthers and Saints.... and no1 sounded very Confident about their teams Chances lol

http://www.stationcaster.com/player_skinned.php?s=87&c=9961&f=4652633

This Div I think is completely up for Grabs, I Hope I am wrong, and we dont see what we did last yr, (was this time last yr when all of you laughed at me for saying NFCS was the weakest div in the NFL)

But yea it looks to Again be the weakest Div in the NFL, Kinda Strange for a Div to have 3 Pro Bowl QBs in it and be this bad...

the top 3 teams

Car

NO

and Atl

all have said 9 wins Tops (their beat Writers and the gen fan feel)

I think 1 of those 3 teams can win 11 games

which one ????

any of the 3 could do it

any of the 3 could also lose 11 ball games lol

we will know a lot more in the next few weeks, but right now as Much as I want to say, Falcons have fixed their upfront Issues and is the sure Fire Fav to win the Div.....I can Not, we just dont know lol, none of us Have a Clue who is the Fav lol

Things should start becoming a bit more Clear over the next 3 weeks.....

[Trouble]

We have made a lot of changes. It's almost impossible to say what we will look like.

[Shredman]

We have made a lot of changes. It's almost impossible to say what we will look like.

most those changes look pretty solid on Paper

the biggie being Head Coach lol

but no, we for sure have upgraded our Front 7 on D

DEs Clayborn and Beasley, LBs Reed, Durant thats 4 new Starters for sure in the front 7

and Depth in Bradford, Schofield, and Jarrett ....

I dont Believe we can do what saints did and jump in the top 5 after being dead last, if we can just get to middle of the pact we should win a few games,

I think its a given the D will be worlds better

so the huge unanswered question is the O Line, they hold up and we could be a playoff team....

[Falconcheff]

Maybe I just hate them too much to see what their fans see, but I just can't buy that shell of the Saints team we saw do so poorly last year being better than they were; and they were bad last year. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the Buccs pass them this year.

I could see Carolina winning maybe two more games than last year, but losing a monster like Hardy will affect every phase of the D... starting with locker room swag and ending with each position on the field having to work harder to compensate for the loss of a league premier pass rusher...

[st. diehard]

Maybe I just hate them too much to see what their fans see, but I just can't buy that shell of the Saints team we saw do so poorly last year being better than they were; and they were bad last year. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the Buccs pass them this year.

They were an inconsistent 7-9. Hopefully, the contributing factors have been adequately addressed, but it's not like they're coming off a dumpster fire of a season.

[Born A-Ginn]

Maybe I just hate them too much to see what their fans see, but I just can't buy that shell of the Saints team we saw do so poorly last year being better than they were; and they were bad last year. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the Buccs pass them this year.

I could see Carolina winning maybe two more games than last year, but losing a monster like Hardy will affect every phase of the D... starting with locker room swag and ending with each position on the field having to work harder to compensate for the loss of a league premier pass rusher...

Lol you say this like we even had Hardy last year. He played the 1st game of the season, then was put on the exempt list for the rest of the year - with full pay - and the whole thing turned into a huge media distraction.

[Des-pool]

Did Carolina address their offensive line?

[LightsCameronAction]

Did Carolina address their offensive line?

Contrary to popular belief, the interior of our offensive line is very strong with Norwell, Kalil, and Turner. Both Turner and Norwell are coming into year two after great rookie seasons and I have no doubt they will pick up where they left off. Remmers played admirably at RT and we drafted mauler Daryl Williams from Oklahoma after trading up early in the 4th round. Those two will compete and may the best man win.

Big question mark is Michael Oher at LT. He is pencilled in as the starter at LT. I can't imagine him being any worse than Byron Bell and he is now reunited with the his line coach from his Baltimore days where he played pretty well for them early in his career. If he can be just average our offensive line should be improved greatly.

Edited July 30, 2015 by LightsCameronAction

[LightsCameronAction]

Until I see another team in this division field a semblance of an NFL caliber defense I think Carolina still has to be the favorite. The division is always up for grabs prior to week 1, but I think Carolina's defense has the floor of a top 10 defense and a ceiling in the top 3. The potential is there for this defense to be better than 2013 with a couple young guys that showed promise last year taking the next step.

Also, continuity: Carolina is returning 94% of their offensive snaps on offense and won't miss Byron Bell or DeAngelo Williams. A healthy Cam behind an improved offensive line, another big weapon in Funchess, and a healthy Stew/Tolbert should make for a very tough running game to slow down. I think Carolina matches up well against the defenses in Atlanta and New Orleans in that a tough downhill ground and pound offense may be tough for the front sevens of the Saints and Falcons to slow down. Lots of new personnel now and the 'strength' of both of your defenses resides in the secondary and not up front.

[Falconcheff]

Lol you say this like we even had Hardy last year. He played the 1st game of the season, then was put on the exempt list for the rest of the year - with full pay - and the whole thing turned into a huge media distraction.

... and you went from 12-4 to 7-8-1. You realize you dropped off five games, even though you won our crappy division, right???

[Des-pool]

... and you went from 12-4 to 7-8-1. You realize you dropped off five games, even though you won our crappy division, right???

No, they actually think they had as good a season as Green Bay and Dallas because they won their division. They conveniently forget they had a losing season, still haven't had back to back winning seasons and their playoff win came against a team with no QB.

7-8-1 is nothing, and I mean nothing to write home about. Congrats on winning the special Olympics division last year.

[Born A-Ginn]

... and you went from 12-4 to 7-8-1. You realize you dropped off five games, even though you won our crappy division, right???

I still don't know what the **** that has to do with you talking like Hardy is going to somehow impact us in some way this compared to last year, considering the fact we didn't have him last year.

[Des-pool]

I still don't know what the **** that has to do with you talking like Hardy is going to somehow impact us in some way this compared to last year, considering the fact we didn't have him last year.

I think he is saying it impacted you negatively last year and that will continue into this year. Carolina did drop from the 2nd ranked defense in 2013 to 10th in 2014, so yeah, I'd say you were impacted.

[LightsCameronAction]

Going from 12 wins to 7 the next year had more to do with Dave Gettleman having to completely rebuild three position groups in one off-season: the WRs, the Secondary, and the offensive line. Those are his own words. When you overhaul that many positional groups in one off-season it's rarely going to be painless. The fact we won a division after doing so speaks more to the lack of talented rosters across the rest of the division. Once the rookies got some experience under the belts we experienced the turn around that allowed us to win the division and make a playoff push. No reason to think we will be impacted because Gettleman added great depth to those positional groups this time around that already exceeded expectations late in the season last year. The Panthers team in December of last season and the year previous should be what you can expect to see this season.

[Falconcheff]

I think he is saying it impacted you negatively last year and that will continue into this year. Carolina did drop from the 2nd ranked defense in 2013 to 10th in 2014, so yeah, I'd say you were impacted.

Exactly. Plus, they didn't replace his productivity this year as well, considering they once thought they'd have him back...

Steve Smith's lasting legacy in Carolina will be the fact that he left all these Panther fans with "little man inferiority" syndrome. Can't even hint that you think they won't be good (even though they have and always will suck) without them jumping up to shoulder height ready to fight...

[Born A-Ginn]

Exactly. Plus, they didn't replace his productivity this year as well, considering they once thought they'd have him back...

Steve Smith's lasting legacy in Carolina will be the fact that he left all these Panther fans with "little man inferiority" syndrome. Can't even hint that you think they won't be good (even though they have and always will suck) without them jumping up to shoulder height ready to fight...

Good grief, I know you and Des are dense as ****, but come on now... surely you can't be this bad

I could see Carolina winning maybe two more games than last year, but losing a monster like Hardy will affect every phase of the D... starting with locker room swag and ending with each position on the field having to work harder to compensate for the loss of a league premier pass rusher...

Your original statement, in the context you said it, implied that we were somehow going to feel some newly sudden loss of Hardy this season, as if we didn't already feel it and deal with it last season. Stating that it was going to be some new reason as to why were going to fail, even though we didn't have him last year either. I point that out and now all of a sudden you're trying to flip the script.

Yeah, you're right, it hugely impacted our overall defense for quite a stretch last year as they were in quite a flux in losing such a big piece - last season... but they eventually rebounded and adjusted once it became obvious he was gone for good. We started throwing out different types of coverages, defensive schemes, and overall concepts instead of just relying on "releasing the Kraken" every snap and completely wrecking **** with our front 4.

It's still the same defense that, once those kinks were worked out and things shifted here and there with the best fit players for their respective roles being put in position, over their last 6 games was once again became 2nd best in the league after the Seahawks.

The same defense that held the Saints scoreless for 54 minutes, aside from a pointless garbage time score for Drew Brees to hold onto his streak

It's also the same defense that helped produce this glorious image right here:

And the same one that set the all-time record for fewest yards allowed in a playoff game

[Des-pool]

Against a team with no QB. wasnt their QB on the street 4 weeks before? Stop tooting your horn on that one, it wasn't an accomplishment. Even the Falcons beat Arizona weeks before.

[Trouble]

Panthers still not over .500