The Dirty (NFC) South

In a time when all fans of football are searching for any news other than Lockout talks, we need something else to keep our already numb minds entertained. We all read the great posts here at CSC everyday, but what's going on in those dark corners of the NFC South? Well ladies and gents, I'm going to put on the rubber gloves, don my gas mask, and scour the depths of our rival's SBN sites...wish me luck!

via cdn1.sbnation.com

I decided to start at the bottom, and no, not the geographical bottom, but the bottom of the totem pole per se. Carolina bound I am, where I (practically) lived for 6 years.  The Panthers are now under a magnifying glass now that they have drafted the number 1 draft pick, Cam Newton. I'm assuming they've got alot about him and their other draft picks of course...but enough wasting time, let's take a road trip to Charlotte!....

Carolina Panthers:

Here we are, feels weird being back, everyone is (of course) talking about the lockout and such, besides that a post about Jon Beason being in court for assault, in which he is also counter-suing for what I'm assuming is defamation. A couple more posts about their later round picks, and prediction of what will transpire next season:

NFC South (Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

Arguably one of the strongest divisions in NFL football, the NFC South promises to be one of the most-feared divisions for the foreseeable future.  It is also, perhaps, the most difficult division to try and predict (as if the insanity of predicting this early isn’t wacky enough).  Still, for the sake of completeness:

1:  Atlanta Falcons

2:  New Orleans Saints

3:  Carolina Panthers

4:  Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Despite a crushing loss to the Packers in the playoffs last season, the Falcons will likely be coming away with the win for the division this coming season -- they will definitely be a team to watch, mostly to see whether their audacious gambit from #27 to #6 in the draft to grab Julio Jones will show any signs of panning out (though really, it will take three years to get a fairly accurate picture on that front).  The Saints will take second, and possibly a wild card.  The Panthers will move up -- and be another team to watch, in no small part to the impending QB battle between Cam Newton and Jimmy Clausen (and any free agent Marty Hurney can pick up in the meantime, if they don’t stick with Matt Moore or Tony Pike), but also to see what changes in defense will come from the combined minds of new head coach Ron Rivera and defensive coordinator Sean McDermott.  The Buccaneers will likely be last, but not by much:  I think it will be a one-game difference between the Buccaneers and the Panthers.

I will leave the comments on that last one to you guys...but I've had enough of the Cat Scratch Reader for now (not that I needed any at all), so onto our next stop on our divisional road trip: Tampa and the guys over at Bucs Nation!:

Tampa Bay Buccaneers:

Heading further south, the Bucs should be elated to grab 2 of the best pass rushers in this years draft...to go along with 2 of the best DT's in last year's, but that elation is actually starting to become deflation with reports that 2nd round pick Da'quan Bowers might not even play football at all. They're also wishing for some OL help to keep Josh Freeman on his feet, with talks of possibly getting former Saints LT Jammal Brown possibly to play RT. One member over there is actually complaining about too many posts at Bucs Nation...weird...but anyways...on to the lowest of lows, the darkest pits of the NFC South...we continue our journey *GULP* to Atlanta and visit The Falcoholic.

Atlanta Falcons:

The Falcons finished one spot ahead of us last season, and tried to pull a fast one and grabbed Julio Jones in the top of the first round, they gave up way more for a 2nd receiver than we did for Mark Ingram. The Foulclowns think that Matt Ryan is the next coming of Joe Montana still, and the Julio Jones thing is making their bird heads even bigger. Like us last year, there's hopes of signing Ray Edwards to try and help their defense, they are also wondering if their team is doing private workouts like our beloved Saints are.

And there you have it, a short, but hopefully informative trip through our rivals fan sites. And now you can go back to enjoying doing what we love the most and just stay put here at Canal Street Chronicles. This is GRIZZ signing off for now, and remember: I do the dirty work so you don't have to!