NFC South

Three of the last six NFC South division titles have now been taken by the New Orleans Saints and after a spectacular 2011 season, Drew Brees is now the NFL’s single season record holder for passing yardage. In spite of a five-turnovers playoff performance, they only fell just short of another berth in the NFC Championship. This team appears well set to repeat, right? How does one of the most powerful offensive teams in the NFL take that next step and get back to a Super Bowl they seem so driven by?

The most obvious stumbling block for the Saints this offseason is not only how they fill some of the gaping holes in their defense, but also how they lock up a high volume of their own free agents who are hitting the open market. The Saints have been masters in recent seasons of making shrewd signings while also handling their own free agents to keep the core together and consistently build upon it. That juggling act promises to be the toughest yet this offseason, though, with a number of their free agents looking for big pay days, they simply cannot hope to bring back all at once. Assuming the Saints slap the franchise tag on the aforementioned record-holding Brees as expected, here is how we see the Saints’ to-do list:

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Continuing our tour around the league in the run up to free agency we’re going to move into the NFC South, and we begin with a rundown of the Atlanta Falcons.

Strangely, in the past couple of seasons the Falcons have allowed several key players to hit free agency at the same time; something most teams usually try and avoid as much as possible. They did well to limit the impact of such timing last offseason, but having traded so much in the draft to snag Julio Jones this offseason, that task may be even tougher.

With at least three key components of the defense all upcoming free agents, the Falcons won’t be short of needs, only able as they are to Franchise Tag one of them.

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The New Orleans Saints broke all sorts of records. The Atlanta Falcons broke down under the weight of expectancy. The Carolina Panthers broke out, thanks in part to Cam Newton.  The Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Well they were broke heading into the season, we just didn’t realize how badly until they tried such advanced football concepts as tackling.

This was a year in the NFC South when the haves continued to dominate the have-nots, despite the Panthers suggesting they could challenge, while the Buccaneers showed everyone how beating teams with losing records can come back to haunt you a year later, if you fail to invest wisely. Take note Falcon fans.

So as we continue our look at some of the most notable individual performances of the 2011 season, let’s see what the NFC South has to offer, starting with those disappointed Falcons.

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I’m not sure if this article wouldn’t be better titled “All-Saints offense” and “All-Falcons defense” because of the majority each team is featured in those respective units.

It’s not all good news for New Orleans, however, as three of their best players are set to become free agents. The fact the Bucs have just two participants here goes a long way to explaining why Raheem Morris no longer has a job. The up-and-coming Panthers have four entrants which, while still pretty poor, at least helps to avoid Tampa Bay’s embarrassment.

With that said, lets train our gaze on the PFF All-NFC South team for 2011.

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A finer playoff game you could never hope to see. This game had it all, big plays, stifling defense, periods of yo-yo scoring and a final two minutes that will live long in the memories of partisan and neutral fans alike. In the game the San Francisco 49ers couldn’t win they did just that–and in absolutely spectacular fashion. The 49ers had a narrow margin for error in this game and in a game they dominated with five takeaways and led by as many as 17 points, they only just edged out the victory with a touchdown in the final 10 seconds. The 49ers needed every advantage they gave themselves in this game and just scraped out victorious with some new heroes crowned in the great folklore of 49er playoff history.

For the defeated New Orleans Saints, the franchise is still without a road playoff victory and even though the offense came alive late, it was mistakes by the offense early that proved costly. Read the rest of this entry »

Wow. What a game and if you, like me, are pretty stoked after such a thrilling matchup, perhaps you’ll excuse some rather excited rhetoric in this report.

After staying on the defensive side of the game last week, I decided to look to the other side of the ball and after three and a half minutes of the first quarter was regretting my decision. On a sideline go route, Jimmy Graham, my “Focus Point” for the day, banged his head and left the field injured to various calls from the commentators about concussions and how he may not return. Was this the flaw in my plan?

As it turned out, Graham returned on the next drive and played a fairly pivotal role in what, at the moment at least, appears to be one of the best playoff games ever. Read the rest of this entry »

The first encounter of divisional weekend is the only game of the four that isn’t a rematch from the 2011 regular season, but it does provide the matchup between arguably the best defense in the league and the best offense. A true meeting of fire and ice.

Coming into the season, the prospect of the Saints travelling to an NFC West team on divisional playoff weekend would have seemed absurd, no one could have expected an NFC West team to secure a bye, but the 49ers have done just that and they will need their defense to be at its best to ensure the Saints leave the left coast with another defeat. The 49ers have faced some good offenses this season in the shape of the Eagles, Lions, and Giants but nothing comes close to the Saints’ explosive, deep, and varied attack. As good as the 49ers’ defense has been this season, this is a new test. Read the rest of this entry »

The 49ers have a lot going for them this weekend when they face the Saints, but this game is going to come down to how each team fares in the red zone, and that will ultimately prove to be their Achilles heel. San Francisco is playing at home, and New Orleans does not have a road playoff win in the franchise’s history (0-4). The 49ers have the best defensive player in football (Justin Smith), and arguably two of the next three on that list this season (ILB duo of Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman). They will also field the player that led the entire league in our Pass Rushing Productivity metric this season in the shape of Aldon Smith. If ever a defense was set up to combat the Saints, it’s the 49ers.

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Our Off-season Depth Chart Outlook series continues today with the NFC South division.

What I’m doing here is going team-by-team and taking a look at each team’s roster situation at the four key offensive Fantasy Football positions (QB RB WR TE). I’ll also be speculating on a few potential off-season moves we could see each of these teams make.

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An eerie sense of déjà vu descended on MetLife Stadium as another playoff victory and another chance to prove their doubters wrong slipped through the fingers of the Atlanta Falcons. After a solid start where the Falcons spurned their chances to make early inroads on the New York Giants, they simply fell away and were comfortably picked off. The Giants got off to a very lethargic start on offense, but once they got into some sort of forward gear they never looked back and cruised to a rematch with the Green Bay Packers, harking back to memories of their last Superbowl run.

For the Falcons this was yet another crushingly disappointing playoffs loss in the Mike Smith/ Matt Ryan era where once again the promise they showed in the regular season failed to materialize in the postseason. Their offense looked slow and ponderous, making poor use of the offensive upgrades they acquired, while the defense (though solid for much of the game) wasn’t good enough to keep the Falcons in a slug fest. Read the rest of this entry »