{"id":160032,"date":"2025-06-26T13:15:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T13:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/160032\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T13:15:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T13:15:10","slug":"nfc-south-offensive-starter-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/160032\/","title":{"rendered":"NFC South offensive starter rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NFC South has been one of the worst divisions in the league over the last few seasons. This may be optimistic, but it feels like all four teams are heading in the right direction. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> and Atlanta Falcons<\/a> should challenge for a playoff spot; the Carolina Panthers<\/a> should be much improved in Bryce Young\u2019s third season and the New Orleans Saints<\/a> have finally committed to a rebuild with a new coach and quarterback.<\/p>\n

While I don\u2019t expect the NFC South to be a powerhouse in 2025, I think we\u2019ll see the division take a step in the right direction towards getting back to their mid-to-late 2010\u2019s ways when they were one of the best divisions in the NFL.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re at the point in the offseason where rankings are popular, so today, we\u2019re going to rank each NFC South team\u2019s starters by position groups.<\/p>\n

Quarterback<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>
\nCarolina Panthers<\/a>
\nAtlanta Falcons<\/a>
\nNew Orleans Saints<\/a><\/p>\n

I think there\u2019s a pretty clear pecking order when it comes to the NFC South quarterbacks. In my opinion, Baker Mayfield is clearly the best signal caller in the division, and personally, I think he\u2019s probably a top-10 QB in the league at the moment. He\u2019s had back-to-back 4,000-yard passing seasons and seems to be offensive coordinator proof, so I don\u2019t think he\u2019ll struggle with Liam Coen gone.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure if this is a hot take because I know it\u2019s popular to hate on Bryce Young, but I think he\u2019s the second-best QB in the division (I believe Penix will start for Atlanta over Kirk, who I\u2019d have easily above Young). Despite what the stats say, I think he was much better in 2024 than 2023 and should take another step this year.<\/p>\n

I have the Saints and Falcons bringing up the rear because of the uncertainty at the position. Michael Penix has played a bit and looked alright, but he hasn\u2019t played a full season yet. I think he\u2019s definitely better than Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough, though, so I have the Falcons pretty far ahead of the Saints.<\/p>\n

Wide Receiver<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Buccaneers
\nNew Orleans Saints
\nAtlanta Falcons
\nCarolina Panthers<\/p>\n

The receivers were much harder to rank than the quarterbacks. Tampa is pretty clear of the pack with Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Emeka Egbuka\/Jalen McMillan, but the next three were tough.<\/p>\n

I like the Saints\u2019 1-2 punch of Olave\/Shaheed more than the other two, and I think Brandin Cooks will be a solid third option, so I gave them the slight nod for the No. 2 spot (might be a bit biased, but oh well). <\/p>\n

I actually really like the Panthers\u2019 unit as a whole, but they just don\u2019t have the high-level starters the rest have. Tet McMillan and Adam Thielen will be a good 1-2 punch, but not as good as Drake London and Darnell Mooney. I\u2019m a fan of Jalen Coker and Hunter Renfrow, but Coker might not get a bunch of time, and nobody really know what Renfrow will do after a year off.<\/p>\n

Running Back<\/p>\n

Atlanta Falcons
\nNew Orleans Saints
\nTampa Bay Buccaneers
\nCarolina Panthers<\/p>\n

The Falcons pretty clearly have the best running back tandem in the division. When he\u2019s used properly, Bijan Robinson is the best back in the NFC South, and Tyler Allgeire is a perfect compliment. <\/p>\n

I really like the combination of Bucky Irving and Rachaad White, but I just can\u2019t put an Alvin Kamara-led backfield lower than two. I still think Kamara has a good amount in the tank, and if Kellen Moore uses him in the pass game like they did with Brees, I think he can play at a 2017 to 2020-like level.<\/p>\n

Chubba Hubbard played well last year, but he and Rico Dowdle do little to move me, so the Panthers are fourth behind the Bucs.<\/p>\n

Tight End<\/p>\n

Atlanta Falcons
\nTampa Bay Buccaneers
\nNew Orleans Saints
\nCarolina Panthers<\/p>\n

I know it\u2019s very easy to hate on Kyle Pitts because he hasn\u2019t lived up to expectations, but he and Cade Otton are the best tight ends in this division in my opinion. I think you could put them in either order, but I have Pitts slightly ahead because of his ceiling.<\/p>\n

Juwan Johnson seems to be pretty clearly the third best tight end in the South. He\u2019s not on the level of Otton or Pitts, even though it seems like he should be based on his athleticism. I still do hold out some hope that Kellen Moore can extract a little more from him this season and he can maybe leapfrog one of the previously mentioned players.<\/p>\n

I actually really like Ja\u2019Tavion Sanders for the Panthers, but I think he has a ways to go in his development, so I have him and the Panthers in fourth.<\/p>\n

Offensive Line<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Buccaneers
\nAtlanta Falcons
\nNew Orleans Saints
\nCarolina Panthers<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay has one of the best offensive lines in the league led by Tristen Wirffs, so they\u2019re pretty easily No. 1 on this list. The Falcons also have one of the better lines in the league, especially in the run game, so I think they\u2019re a pretty comfortable No. 2. The real debate comes between the Panthers and Saints. <\/p>\n

The Panthers were very average last season in both the run and pass game, and while the Saints might\u2019ve been worse in 2024, I think they\u2019ve got a really solid unit in 2025. If Kelvin Banks pans out, they have two franchise tackles, a Pro Bowl<\/a> center and a couple solid guards, especially if Penning can play well inside. I also think the combination of Kellen Moore, T.J. Paganetti, Jahri Evans, and Brenden Nugent can help these guys improve this offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFC South has been one of the worst divisions in the league over the last few seasons.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[398,400,7,29,896,55,401,2588,2572,2571,854,6,1127,3775,397,327,10919,399],"class_list":{"0":"post-160032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-canal","9":"tag-chronicles","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-front-page","12":"tag-new-orleans","13":"tag-new-orleans-saints","14":"tag-new-orleans-saints-news","15":"tag-new-orleans-saints-roster","16":"tag-neworleans","17":"tag-neworleanssaints","18":"tag-nfc","19":"tag-nfl","20":"tag-offensive","21":"tag-rankings","22":"tag-saints","23":"tag-south","24":"tag-starter","25":"tag-street"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114749854617673108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}