The NFC South has been a crapshoot for several seasons now. Since Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Matt Ryan hung up their cleats, it has chronically been a poor-record division that is up for grabs until the final weeks of the season.
That is why everyone in the division has high hopes entering each season. You could make a case for any of the four teams to be crowned the winner. But we ultimately want the Atlanta Falcons to win it.
And even if they don't, there is one team they certainly hope doesn't take the crown -- the New Orleans Saints. The Saints have gained steam in the media as a potential dark horse to win the NFC South, which is a tough sell for Falcons fans.
Atlanta Falcons fans can't imagine their bitter rival winning the NFC South
When you have a division that can be won with eight wins, anyone can win it. We saw it last year when it all came down to the final weeks and a three-way tiebreaker that went to the Carolina Panthers.
However, everyone seems sold on the one team that was eliminated weeks before-- the Saints. ESPN's Ben Solak is among those, predicting the Saints to take home the crown while going over some bold predictions for 2026.
"The Saints look like an ascendant team to me," Solak wrote. "They have a young quarterback good enough to win with, sharp coaches on both sides of the ball, good offensive line play and enough young bets at the skill positions for this offense to be more than just Olave. They're a few blue-chip players away from true contention, but in the measly NFC South with a fourth-place schedule? A divisional title is achievable."
Why is everyone forgetting the fact that the Falcons swept Tyler Shough and the Saints last season with two different quarterbacks? The 2025 second-round pick went 43-for-78 for 502 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. But people are going nuts over his stats against bad opponents.
While those numbers aren't awful, he was forced to throw the ball 35-plus times in each game after trailing in the fourth quarter. He led the Saints to just 27 points in those two games against the Dirty Birds. So, why are we to believe the Falcons' bitter rivals will win their first division title since 2020?
Personally, I think you could make a stronger case for the Falcons, Panthers, and Buccaneers -- they had better seasons and added just as much talent.
One key will be the Saints' secondary. Their depth chart doesn't look great with starting cornerbacks being Kool-Aid McKinstry, Quincy Riley, Jordan Howden, and safeties Julian Blackmon and Justin Reid.
How will that secondary stop Drake London, Kyle Pitts, Chris Godwin, Emeka Egbuka, and Tetairoa McMillan? All that said, we don't know who will win the NFL's worst division. All we can hope is that it won't be the New Orleans Saints.
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