The Atlanta Falcons on track to dominate NFC South for years

We are watching a new Atlanta Falcons team each and every week this year. For the first time in a long time, they are fighting hard for four quarters and have shown the ability to win those scrappy games and the NFC South should be on notice.

They have garnered the praise of outsiders as people are finally seeing this team take its form. Despite this, their chances to win the division this year are pretty slim but that will change in the coming years.

Why is this the case? Well, there are many reasons that this will be the case and we will go over them here.

The Atlanta Falcons have a brighter future than any other NFC South team

People will laugh at this, mostly the outsiders, but laugh all you want because the facts are the facts, things line up well for the Atlanta Falcons while the opposite can be said for the other three teams.

First, let’s look at the projected cap space that each of the NFC South teams will have in the upcoming offseason and where that ranks amongst the rest of the league:

• Atlanta Falcons: $56,848,498 (2nd in NFL)
• Carolina Panthers: $-17,672,023 (30th)
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers: $-47,370,683 (31st)
• New Orleans Saints: $-65,875,038 (32nd)

The only team that has more projected cap space than the Atlanta Falcons is the Chicago Bears while there is not a single team that has less cap space than the other three NFC South teams.

Basically, you can expect to see the Falcons being in play for any top free agent while the other three teams will be scrambling to even resign their own players. On a different note, to this day, Saints fans cannot wrap their heads around the fact that their lack of money DOES hold them back from doing certain things each year, it just does not appear like that because they are not sitting in on the conversations between front office people.

The Falcons also have more draft picks than the Panthers and Saints in 2023 and the same number as the Buccaneers. The Saints pulled off a head-scratching trade during the 2022 NFL Draft with the Eagles so they are lacking a first-round pick next year. The Panthers have essentially thrown away prior and future picks to acquire Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield.

Also, you look at the age of these teams and, once again, the Atlanta Falcons have a significant advantage. The Falcons are the seventh youngest team, the Panthers are close behind at ten, while the Saints and Buccaneers are the two oldest teams.

The Atlanta Falcons have a young core of players with Drake London, Kyle Pitts, Tyler Allgeier, Arnold Ebiketie, A.J. Terrell, Richie Grant, and Jaylinn Hawkins, just to name a few. They also believe they have their future quarterback in Desmond Ridder, which is more than any of the other three teams can say.

The Buccaneers are not going to have Tom Brady forever. Once he officially retires, then Tampa will no longer be a desirable spot for free agents. He attracts a lot of players to that team, take him away and they likely become irrelevant.

For the Saints, boy are they a complete disaster right now. Jameis Winston is clearly not the answer at QB and they have no one on the roster who has the potential to be that. Add in the fact that many of their players — Cam Jordan, Tyrann Mathieu, Demario Davis, etc… — are aging players whose play will only decline each day. They clearly do not have what it takes to contend right now and they do not have the money or draft picks to fix that in the near future.

Finally, we have the Panthers who are in a mess right now. They fired their head coach experiment that blew up in their face and they still have to pay him for years to come. They have a few stars but one of those is Christian McCaffrey who gets injured every time someone bumps him. Their quarterback situation is terrible and they keep trading for mid-to-low-tier QBs. Who knows, maybe Matt Corral is the answer but are we really confident that this team can actually find an answer for the position?

All of this is to say that outside of the Atlanta Falcons, the NFC South will be a complete mess in the coming years. Everything bodes well for the Dirty Birds and it is time to go out and take over the division.