The Buccaneers lead the messiest division in football, the NFC South

Image via Kim Klement Neitzel/USA TODAY Sports

By Lucas Kochevar

The Tampa Buccaneers are moving on in the playoffs after a convincing win over the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles did their best tribute to the NFC South by getting outplayed from the first drive and on. Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers took advantage and never trailed in one of the multiple playoff game blowouts. How did they get here?

The Buccaneers went through massive changes in the offseason with the greatest quarterback of all-time hanging it up in Tom Brady. Multiple players are older and it looked like the Buccaneers were going to be bottom feeders again with Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask competing at quarterback. The Buccaneers have never been really close to competing for multiple seasons so no one paid any mind to them.

A 5-1 stretch at the end of the season propelled the Buccaneers into the playoffs as no one truly wanted to win the NFC South. Although they boast a 9-8 record, the Buccaneers tried their hardest to not make the playoffs after losing at home to the Saints in week 17, but someone had to rise to the top in the worst division in football, the NFC South. 

The Buccaneers are in the playoffs by the skin of their teeth, but there was a very real chance the Falcons or Saints could’ve been in their spot. The Panthers were never close to this as they’re a two-win team that doesn’t have their first round pick, which is also the first overall pick. 

The Panthers are a good place to start when looking at this cluster of incompetent teams. Bryce Young was the first overall pick in the draft for Carolina and he was coming into a staff that was heavily rumored to want the quarterback taken after him, C.J. Stroud. Alas, Young came in and won the starting job and maybe he’d show those flashes for why he was the first quarterback taken. Not so fast, my friend! Young struggled and just never hit his stride.

I watched the Panthers game against the Packers, statistically Young’s best game. Although he made a number of throws that were good, I noticed things missing from his game that he had coming out of Alabama. Throwing outside the numbers was a real struggle accuracy wise. He couldn’t drive the ball and it’s a product of choppy footwork and a messed up internal clock. It’s clear that Young’s confidence was shot by this point in the season. Losing those fundamentals that made him so dangerous in college brought him down to looking like a real amateur in the NFL. 

Although he could bounce back in his second season with a new head coach, Young will have to overcome incompetent ownership. David Tepper, who bought the team in 2018, has already seen three head coaches come through Carolina. Another wrong choice at head coach could see Young become a bust. The Panthers aren’t the only NFC South team looking down the barrel of a critical head coaching hire. 

The Falcons' woes have been well-reported and they fired Arthur Smith. He took a gamble on Desmond Ridder being the guy and, my god, he wasn’t close to being the guy. The Falcons were hilariously bad and good at the same time. They beat three of the teams that advanced during wild card weekend, including the Bucs. They lost to three of the teams that pick ahead of them in the draft, including the Panthers.

Now, Arthur Blank and shadow GM Rich McKay face the biggest hire of their tenure in Atlanta. If they don’t nail it, “sell the team” chants could break out at Falcons games in the future. They’ll have to find a new franchise guy at quarterback too, whether it’s through free agency or the draft. We’ll see what their franchise-changing move is in the near future. 

Lastly, there’s the Saints. They’re holding on to one of the worst head coaches in the league and they’re $70 million in the hole with their salary cap. The Saints could be stuck in this ever-ending loop of mediocrity. It’s a brutal place to be, but I can’t see the Saints coming close to being a legitimate playoff contender with head coach Dennis Allen and aging-quarterback Derek Carr. 

This entire division doesn’t know what their future holds. They each face a unique challenging heading into next season, but right now the Buccaneers are in the moment playing with house money heading to Detroit. If Baker Mayfield can play like he did against Philadelphia, the Bucs could play spoiler on Detroit’s party.