Joe & Daphne's Preview: The NFC South

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe) and Daphne Parello (@DaphnePup)

Daphne and I return to discuss the NFC South, a division that was among the worst in league history last year.

Reigning champion Carolina captured the division crown with just seven wins in 2014, and perennial contender New Orleans enters full rebuild mode next to inconsistent Atlanta and the hard-luck Bucs of Tampa.

Can anybody in this division actually make some noise in 2015? Daphne and I investigate.

NFL Week 16 Primer (With Picks): Losers Leave Town

It's been a down year for the Falcons and NFC South as a whole, but a win in New Orleans this week would lock up a season sweep of the Saints and, likely, a home playoff game for Atlanta.

 By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Atlanta at New Orleans. Baltimore at Houston. Kansas City at Pittsburgh. Indianapolis at Dallas. Seattle at Arizona. Denver at Cincinnati

All six of those games hold a tremendous amount of importance regarding either playoff berths or playoff seedings. The winner of the first will almost certainly win the NFC South. The loser of the second game will almost certainly miss the playoffs (and if the loser is Houston, they will). The loser of the third receives a shotgun-sized hole to their playoff hopes. The loser of the fourth almost certainly loses out on the No. 3 seed in their conference. The winner of the fifth will take the NFC West and a first-round bye along with it. And the winner of the sixth will set themselves up nicely for a first-round bye in the AFC bracket.

Let's not mess around. Let's get straight to the picks. Also because I'm 20-9-3 over the last two weeks and can see Joe in my sights.

-Jeremy

Underdog Update:
Last Week: 7-7-2
Season: 108-112-5
Home Dogs, Last Week: 1-4
Home Dogs, Season: 29-36-1

Long And Suite Preview: The NFC

Both of our experts are unusually optimistic about Aaron Rodgers and the Packers this year.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

We're just gonna blow through these quickly - just post our picks for how each division will finish, what each team's record will be, and how the playoff seedings stack up. The heavy analysis as to how and why those things will come about will be in tomorrow's full-season preview. This is just quick and dirty picks. First will be each division's order of finish. The second section will have each team's record (and a pick for each team's respective over/under). The third section will be our top six teams.

Long And Suite Preview: The NFC South

The hopes of the Carolina Panthers rest squarely on the shoulders of Cam Newton

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

The NFC South has been in flux as much as any division in football, as it's had three different division winners in the last three years - only the NFC East can match that. Last season, the two teams at the top of the division got there by improving their record by four (New Orleans) and five (Carolina) wins. As the late, great William Costigan once said, "families are always rising and falling in America." To re-appropriate the turn of phrase, teams are always rising and falling in the NFC South.

The NFC South was probably the second-best division in football last season (it's a decent argument between the NFC South and AFC West). The Falcons and Buccaneers did both go 4-12, but both sported the point differential of teams at least a win better - the Falcons would have expected to win 5.9 games, the Bucs 5.3. And at the top of the division, the Panthers and Saints were both convincingly top-5 teams in the league. They just had the misfortune of running into the NFC West buzz-saw in the playoffs.

And again, the division is in flux. After being ravaged by injuries in 2013, the Falcons should storm back towards playoff contention. After winning the division on the strength of their defense and opportune play-calling, the Panthers might take a step back after losing their two best wide receivers from a year ago (Steve Smith and Brandon LaFell) and re-vamping their secondary. The Buccaneers have climbed out from under the Josh Freeman saga, picked up a new head coach, and should have star running back Doug Martin back to 2012 form, when he was 3rd in the league in yards from scrimmage. And the Saints, well, they're still the Saints.

Long and Suite Preview: The NFC South

There are four great quarterbacks in the NFC South, but Matt Ryan is poised to be the best. (Flickr)

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Depending on how liberally one defines "arguably," there are four divisions in the league that can claim to be "arguably" the best top-to-bottom division in the NFL. Somehow, all four of them are in the NFC. We already covered the other three. In the NFC West, even the last-place Arizona Cardinals had wins over Seattle and New England, and have vastly improved their quarterback situation. In the NFC North, all four teams have won 10+ games in one of the last two seasons. And the NFC East has seen more parity than any other division in football over the last handful of seasons, with four different division winners in the last four years.