My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

As I see it, other than the Saints all the other teams in the NFC South have huge question marks. I see this as the finish:

New Orleans 11 - 5 I would say 13 - 3, but their linebacking corp still worries me a bit.
Carolina 8 - 8 NO running game and an old d.
Tampa Bay 7 - 9 Gruden is done.
Atlanta 6 - 8 and this is only if Joey Harrington works out better than I think he will.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

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Hmmm. Well I agree with the Saints.
Jey Harrington is a better QB than Michael Vick. Vck gave some teams problems, but as D's have gotten faster he is no longer. Look at their stats. Joey Harrington is one year shot of Vick in Playing time, but has more TD's, better completion percentage and more yards. Who has Harrington had to throw too? I believe I heard he has had one pro bowler on offense with him in the skill positions his entire career. Vick.... has had Crumpler, Dunn, Finneran(not a PB but great Possesion RCVR), Price. Probably some others I cannot think of.

Harrington will have more talent on offense with him this year than he has had in all of his previous years combined. I believe now that Harrington will get all the snaps he will do just fine. Look for a Delhomme type year, ie above average but not great. I believe the Saints win the division and Carolina barely edges both Atlanta and TB( I think Garcia is a good fit there). Worse record in the division will be 7-9, maybe as high as 8-8.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

Tampa is definitly this years sleeper team. They made a few small changes that I think will make for big wins. I would keep an eye on them. I see Atlanta as being too distracted by all that is going on in the media with Vick, and Carolina is just an underacheiving team which if they catch a few breaks might slip into the playoffs but I doubt it.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

I think it's going to be another year before Tampa start making some noise in our division. As of right now, I can only see a fully healthy Carolina squad competing with us for the division title. Looking at our schedule, it going to be very challenging. There aren't many "easy" wins on there. I can see us with anywhere from 8-11 wins. I definately see us entering the postseason and playing well in the playoffs. It's going to be an exciting year... lots of good games and I hope everything goes our way.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

The thing that worries me most is the timing of games. We open AT Indianapolis and then travel TO Tampa Bay before entertaining the Titans on Monday Night Football. It's going to be tough to get on a roll like we did last year and gain the confidence that carried us through the season. The test will be to see how we recover from early season adversity.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

Well as we all know, at the beginig of every season all teams have high hopes.
The one that takes it all is the true champion, we've already have won our Div.
quit a few times, It's time for us to look at winning the Super Bowl and I think that the Saints have the fire power to take it all. Winning the Div. does'nt mean JACK! if we lose
in the playoffs. It's time to look at our team to take it all!! no matter who were playing & where were Playing! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

12-4 mark it down. You heard it here first. We are going to roll the rest of the division. 6-0.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

Actually I think their running game will be good w/ Foster and DeAngelo Williams. Their OL isn't great, but they have a good system in place.

The one nice thing about the NFC South - other than the Saints, all the other teams have a high chance of QB controversy/changes - which never bodes well for a team's outlook. Brees is the #1 QB in this division, no doubt about it.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

Seems like each season the NFL produces a new "Cinderella story". Don`t be surprised if that glass slipper lands on the foot of a NFC South team other than the Saints. All it takes is a spark; a coaching change, a new playbook, a couple of key players that get drafted or picked up, and you could see the nostradamus-sports-show-elite once again scratching their heads wondering where "this" team (that wasn`t on the radar) came from.

I love to kick predictions around as much as the next guy, but I`m well aware of the fact that adversity in this league is also a breeding ground for a come-back. All of our NFC South opponents have good coaches and good skill position players and frankly, I`m not ready to scratch any of them off the list.

But, I still hope Atl, TB, and Carolina all get at least 12 big fat L`s beside their name by the end of December.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

I too am a little concerned about TB. The others we SHOULD Be able to handle. The thing about TB is how good will Garcia be without that OL of Philly?

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

.. I see TB and I see something like when you reach for your drink, and instead of grabbing it, you hit it with the back of your hand, and you see the glass start tipping over, and you know is going to spill off the table and all over the floor, yet you can't do anything about it.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

Exactly. Couldn't have put it better myself.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

What scares me the most is that several of the teams we are playing are teams that should be very improved. San Fran, St. Louis, and Tenn are all teams that should be on the rise. We are going to face some tough runningbacks this year as well. Gore, Jackson, Addai, Benson, Westbrook, and I think Norwood in Atlanta could have a very good year as well. I still think we should get the better of all these teams listed but they are must wins. I do like the fact that we are starting with the Colts and ending with the Bears. Last years predicted super bowl and a rematch of the NFC championship game. But, whoever it was talking about the timing is right. That will be tough to deal with. Not to mention we play 5 preseason games and then start the season on a Thursday night. Of course if any team is ready for a wacky schedule, it should be us. I am so ready to get it started I can't stand it. I can't remember ever going into a season with expectations this high. We may not reel off 11 wins but we should be very confident to be a playoff team again this year. GEAUX SAINTS!!!

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

[QUOTE=neugey;135099]Actually I think their running game will be good w/ Foster and DeAngelo Williams. Their OL isn't great, but they have a good system in place.

I would agree with that except, they are still trying to run Foster and Williams like they ran Stephen Davis a couple of years ago and they are not those kind of backs. I am presentl living in Charlotte and they are saying Nick Goings is having the best camp. Delhomme is not liking the Carr aquisition and is taking it personally. He is not having a good camp and is very unhappy. Not to mention the dissention on this club over contracts. You cannot believer the quotes I hear on local radio. This is not a team in harmony.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

If this were last year I would have agreed with you. But not this year. In 2007 the Saints are the frontrunner. The contender. They are the team that already has the players, the coach, and the system in place.

There are no questions that Brees is healthy and is a top 3 QB in the league.

Remember last year when many thought that the Saints would have the wost OL in the league. No questions about that this year.

Last year Reggie was a talented but unknown quantity. Colston was simply an unknown. No doubts about either this year.

Last year there were new players and a new scheme on defense at every level. All three LBs were new guys and Harper was a rookie. Now there's only a hole or two that will be plugged with really talented guys (Clancy at DT, David at CB, possibly KK at safety) with the LB being pushed by talented playmakers like Simmons.

Oh yeah, I forget about Deuce.

In short the Saints are the team on the roll. There's no doubt in my mind that we'll roll up 30 spots on each of the three teams that you named above. They are going to have a tough time keeping up. You should plan to see a lot of games like the 42-17 steamroll over Dallas last season.

I doubt there will be early season adversity. We'll come out of that stretch 3-0 or 2-1 at the very worst (and that would probably be a loss on some fluke).

We saw all the adversity we needed to see last season when the Saints turned the ball over 3 times in the first half of the GB game and was down 14-0. Actually we saw the same in the NFC championship game. The team recovered both times. In January the only mistake Payton made was abandoning the run. I doubt he'll make that mistake again.

SFIAH

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

I'm afraid 3-0 is a little optimistic. I sure hope that's the case but I don't think Indy is just going to roll over in their season opener.
I agree that we're going into this season with more confidence but that kind of thing is so fragile. There are a lot of people who remember that Haz had a good first year also and how that turned out.
Don't worry about me though. I've been a Saints fan for a long, long time and I always temper my optimism.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

What bothers me is Carolina is the only team, besides us, that will not be doing some major changes in there game plane.
Carolina will be a bit pissed off at us after we pulled all our starts in game 2. That was a slap in the face.
Atlanta now will be a basic offense with a QB that stays in the pocket, if Vick gets bit in court. If so look for them to run alot more. Norwood is going to get more carries and he looks good.
Tampa now has a gun slinger and a Caddie, also.
The defensive approach we have employed for years against the two can be thrown out of the window.
That is why the two scare me.
The fact that our road schedual is hard than our home schedual is another reason for concern. This by no means will be an easy season in the division. If you want a superbowl, we need to win home field for the playoffs. That will be tuff in the south. The division is too hard to call.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

I think that Atlanta is on the verge of imploding. The Vikings tried to get past it when their lineman passed away at practice and had a horrible year. The Falcons are starting off on very bad footing and I think the wheels will come off. They may go 2-14.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

;):p:-D:lol:

good one hagan....

Teams don't worry me. The early bye week worries me. I think our boys will play hard, intelligent football and as a result, win the games we need to win.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

I agree with all except ATL.....
I think the birds are gonna surprise some folks this year..
may even make the playoffs....
Harrington has never had this much talent on "O" in his NFL career...
IMO.

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

It's going to be a shootout for sure. You have the two of the top NFL offenses duking it out. The Saints had the better defense during the season last year, while Indy's defense put it together for a fabulous playoff run.

But the difference is what happened in the off season. Indy's defense got stripped. We got David. Cato June is gone. Indy lost their other starting CB.

OTOH the Saints acquired David, Clancy (a starting DT in this league) and valuable depth at LB with Simmons and Jones. More importantly we resigned all of our free agents.

The Saints defense really wasn't bad last year. 11th in total defense and 3rd against the pass. However, the run defense was suspect, turnovers were like squeezing blood from a turnip, and Fred Thomas was the GameShow, giving up the long ball at every possible turn. But the key is that the organization took positive steps to address each of these issues.

Let's not forget that Indy's defense was 32nd against the run last year and we have arguably the best running back tandem in the league.

The NFL is full of flukes and injuries. That's a given. But all things being equal the Saints are currently the class of the NFC and has sufficient firepower on offense and filled enough holes on defense to compete with elite AFC teams like the Colts.

SFIAH

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

I have to live in Atlanta with my work, and, I'd love to see that happen!

:handguns:

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

I would hope we would be more pissed at Carolina. They gave us our ONLY 2 losses in the division, and we could have won both games. The first one if we were better prepared and the second one if it were a real game. I hate Carolina now more than any other division foe, because of last year. GO GET'EM SAINTS!!!!!!!

Re: My personal opinion is the NFC South looks weak this season.
 

I'm also predicteing the Saints to go 12-4...

IMO the Bucs will be much improved compared to last year, I really don't see the Panthers having a good season this year...
Bottom line: All Saints in the NFC South this year, bet on it!!!:handguns: