Where Have all the Good Teams Gone??

In 2002, when the NFL re-aligned to eight four-team divisions, many experts thought the NFC South would be one of the toughest conferences in football. And those experts were right. That year, the NFC South produced three teams that finished over .500, with the outsider being John Fox's Carolina Panthers at an abysmal 7-9. The division went a combined 25-14-1 (.638) when playing foes from outside of the NFC South, and watched two teams, the Falcons and the Bucs, go deep into the postseason. The Bucs, of course, ended up winning the Super Bowl, in what everyone thought would be the beginning of a glorious Jon Gruden era. Moreover, since 2002, the conference has been represented in the NFC championship game in every year but one, twice by the Panthers, and once by the Falcons and Saints. The landscape of the NFC South, however, has recently undergone a drastic change.

The 2007 version was weaker than ever, with two teams lacking both an identity and a direction as a franchise (Bucs and Panthers), one team in complete shambles (Falcons), and one team whose hopes for its first trip to the Super Bowl had to be temporarily put on hold while it looked for defenders. What actually transpired on the field in 2007 is unimportant- an average Bucs team at 9-7 mercilessly bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. The other three teams-- the Saints, Panthers, and Falcons-- combined to finish 18-30. And if the Saints had been half of what they were the year prior, the conference's "best team," the Bucs, wouldn't have even smelled 9-7. They would have been considered fortunate to finish 8-8. Well what's the point, you ask? The point is that the NFC South is as up for grabs as it has ever been. Gone are the days when the Saints were at the bottom looking up, asking if Carolina or Tampa Bay would have an "off year." Gone are the days when-- at least in the case of the Saints-- you could put a relatively decent product on the field and still fall short of the playoffs at year's end (see 2002 as a great example). The NFC South needs a dominant team, and as fate would have it, the Saints are the most likely candidate for that position.

Below, I will give a non-scientific-- very non-scientific-- take on each team, and why the 2008 NFC South is nowhere near its 2002 version, giving Saints fans everywhere hope that “next year” could really be this year.

Bucs

The Bucs, once a team known for a formidable defense featuring the likes of Warren Sapp, John Lynch, Simeon Rice, Derrick Brooks, and Ronde Barber, are now a team known for having an equally scary, but more concentrated, roster of Jeff Garcia, Chris Simms, Bruce Gradkowski, Jake Plummer, Brian Griese, Luke McCown, and, most recently, Josh Johnson. Wait, all those guys are quarterbacks. That's right. It seems that Jon Gruden has a quarterback fetish. The problem with Chucky is that he treats quarterbacks like my cousin used to treat G.I. Joe's-- he loves to collect them. Someone should tell him that it's generally better and a lot easier to pick one good one and stick with him. And don't tell me Jeff Garcia is the answer-- he is 38 years old and simply unable to play a whole season doing what makes him effective, running around and making plays. That means that he will either complete the season, but be terrible for a great part of it, or be awesome for 10 games and have to be replaced in week 11. At that point, you might as well play pin the quarterback on Jeff Faine's rather large goolah to find out who will be calling the signals in Tampa Bay. That's no way to build a playoff team.

The Bucs, simply put, are not the Bucs of old. Their defense has aged, their quarterbacks have multiplied, and the "skill" has vanished from their skill positions. There is a reason why Jon Gruden's scowl, once perceived as a mark of his toughness, now appears to be a mark of his craziness-- he simply can't re-create the magic formula that worked so well in 2002.

This year, the Bucs succeeded in drafting a pothead cover corner and a fast slot man with an "upside" that makes J.T. O'Sullivan jealous. But so what? The Bucs of today are a team straddled with what I would consider the biggest stigma in all of sports-- an identity that used to work (see 2002 World Champions) but may be impossible to recover.

Panthers

The only consistency of the Panthers' last few seasons is John Fox's gum-chewing habits. Carolina and Fox had incredible success for a number of years with a simple and very effective formula: efficient offense led by role players (Ricky Proehl, Brad Hoover, Stephen Davis, DeShaun Foster) and one superstar (Steve Smith), and a hell of a defense. But Mike Minter, Kris Jenkins, Mike Rucker, and Ricky Proehl are names from the past in Carolina, and the names from the present don't sound so good. Consider their 2008 draft: they drafted a running back in round 1 after taking DeAngelo Williams (a running back) in the 1st round just two years ago. And then they basically pulled a Mike Ditka in giving up a second and fourth rounder in 2008 and their first round pick next year to obtain services of Jeff Otah. If that doesn’t tell you that John Fox and company know that the clock is ticking, then I don’t know what will.

It's now or never for the Panthers, and never appears to be the good bet. If I hadn't cleverly changed the name of this article, and kept it as the true title to Paula Cole's song "[W]here have all the cowboys gone," then my ultimate conclusion would have been quite different. The answer would have been that the cowboys are still here in the NFC South, more specifically in Carolina- in the form of Louisiana's own Jake Delhomme. I know, I love Jake Delhomme too-- but only to the extent that he is roping cattle and breeding horses in Breaux Bridge-- not as a quarterback having to lead an offense with a shortage of weapons. And you're damn right that Jake has a special place in the heart of Saints fans. Jake was the backup to Aaron Brooks. Hugo Chavez would have had a special place in the hearts of Saints fans if he were the backup quarterback during the excruciating Brooks-Haslett years. Having a special place in the hearts of Saints fans doesn't mean squat when you have to lead an offense that boasts of only one good player. The bottom line is that John Fox, Jake Delhomme, and whoever else they have over there in Carolina show absolutely no signs of regaining the swagger they had a couple years ago.

Falcons

Not much explaining to do here, but I think a quick point is in order: I assume at least some of you reading this are fantasy owners. That said, are you going to select anyone on the Falcons' roster this year? I didn't think so. And that's right, Warrick Dunn is no longer a Falcon. So you can't pick him in the 8th round to the resounding "good pick, good pick" approval of your fellow fantasy mates. You'll have to settle on Roddy White instead. And oh yeah, the most significant investment the franchise has made in the last 10 years is still sitting in jail, and from all reports is making a strong push to unseat Adam Sandler as the star in "The Longest Yard 2."

Saints

In 2003, after a Saints season that featured an unbelievable end-of-the-year meltdown, Jim Haslett put in an official request to ride in Orphues. Mardi Gras, however, rebuffed him, saying that it wanted to reserve Bacchus as the parade for people to throw things at the floats. That's why I watched in amazement this year as Sean Payton, fresh off one of the most frustrating campaigns in Saints history, rolled by on one of the first floats of Orpheus. I was obviously excited to see him. Just the thought of Saints football made me nearly wet my pants. But I also couldn't help but think, "Sean Payton…what did he do to deserve to be on this float?" Then I looked around.

The rest of the crowd was just as enthusiastic as I was -- yelling and screaming as if Payton's team had just won it all. But they had not even come close. The 2007 Saints were a disappointment beyond words, but the people yelled and screamed nonetheless. Watching Sean Payton be treated as if he were Tom Coughlin fresh off a Super Bowl win, I could only conclude that this town collectively senses that now is our time. We sense that the NFC South is there for the taking. And then we look at the 2008 off-season, and this past weekend’s draft, all the while reminding ourselves that Drew Brees is still our quarterback-- and there's more reason than ever to believe. Perhaps this really is the time for our Saints.