Pre-draft, let’s discuss how the NFC South will shake out in 2018

The division promises to be a slugfest yet again in 2018, which should not come as a surprise. The NFC South might have the NFL’s best concentration of starting quarterbacks, two or three of its better rosters (it depends on how you feel about Carolina, really), and a mean streak a mile long and a mile wide. The divisional battle every year is fun as hell, and that shouldn’t be any different this season.

For starters, you have our beloved Falcons, a team that has not significantly upgraded its roster to this point, but has all the pieces necessary to be a contender. Then you have the Saints, fresh off a Divisional Round game they very narrowly lost, playing perhaps one final season with Drew Brees at the helm of an underrated team loaded with young weapons. After that, it’s a Panthers team that hasn’t demonstrably improved in most areas but still has a dominant defensive line and Cam Newton, and then a Buccaneers team that eventually has to put together its talent into something approaching a playoff-caliber football team.

It’s not exactly easy to pick a divisional winner. It may be after the draft, and it certainly will be closer to the season itself when we see if any injuries or worrying Drew Brees declines (cough, cough) surface, but at the moment it’s just a lightly educated guess. I’m still eager to get the pulse of the fanbase on this front, however.

Go ahead and vote in our poll! We’ll take a fresh look after the draft and just before the season to see how your attitudes shift, if indeed they do.

Okay, now that you’ve presumably voted, I can tell you that I still believe the Falcons can and will win the division in 2018. I firmly believe the Saints will be the team to beat unless Brees finally takes a step back, in which case things get fraught in a hurry. Atlanta’s got the talent necessary to triumph, however, so long as they tinker with their roster a little bit and land at least one impactful defensive tackle between now and September.