We continue with our preview series including overall take, fantasy football tips and predictions. This week we head to the South. There are a lot of great football teams in the South. The problem for this post is all those teams are college teams. On the NFL side, the South divisions are arguably the worst in both conferences. Last year’s division winners were a combined 17-17 and those were the best teams in the division. Not only do we get the joy of these teams playing their own division but these two divisions also play each other. You are going to see these teams playing each other in the early time slot on Sundays…a lot.

NFC South

1st Place: New Orleans Saints

Do I think the Saints are good…not really. Do I think they have the most competent Quarterback and players…yes. Look Carr is not great but we at least know what we are getting. And besides last year he looked pretty good. And to be fair no one looks good when Josh McDaniel is your coach. They also have the most veteran players who have actually won something. Their defense is very good and they have some younger players stepping up on the offensive side of the ball. The biggest question mark is the coach but I am not a believer in any of the other coaches in the division either. Carr never won a playoff game for the Raiders and as a Chiefs fan, it would bring me much joy for him to go to a new team and immediately win one.

Reason they will win the South: Carr returns to his top form, defense plays great and their schedule is real easy.

Reason they won’t win the South: Their head coach is as bad as everyone says he is and screws it all up.

Fantasy Players to draft: Alvin Kamara shouldn’t be draftable because he should be suspended for the season but instead he is only out 3 games so he is draftable. You have to put your emotions aside when playing fantasy football. I once had a team of mostly players that had gotten in trouble and did quite well that year. Anyway, he is still a top running back when he plays. And you can get him a little later than he would normally go. Olave is a great young receiver that should get better with a bit of an upgrade at QB. Taysom Hill is in interesting one as well. Even though he didn’t play any at tight end last year, the Fantasy Football programs don’t know what to list him at. So you can have a tight end that might come in and rush for a couple of tds and then throw for another. Not too shabby. I am sure Michael Thomas will be hurt by the time you draft or shortly after that so don’t draft him.

Predicted Record: 10-7

2nd Place: Carolina Panthers

All the reports are that Bryce Young is amazing. He is teaching protections, throwing great balls, etc. But lets remember that as AI once said…”we talking about practice.” Everyone is paper champions this time of year. Let’s see him do well in a game against other teams before we place him on a pedestal. The other issue could be injuries. He got hurt at Bama and is small. I think he could be a Kyler Murray that actually cares. So he’ll do more studying then playing call of duty but could still easily get banged up. They have some good young players but no one that really scares you. And they have a coach that had some success and some failures as a head coach so far. I think this is a team that could get better as the year goes on but probably is a year or two away.

Reason they will win the South: Frank Reich returns to his old form, providing tutelage to the talented young QB and they lead the team to victory.

Reason they won’t win the South: Early head coach Frank Reich was a fluke, and what we have seen the last few years is the real Frank Reich. Bryce Young is Kyler Murray 2.0.

Fantasy Players to draft: Well, no one I feel real confident in. If you don’t get the QB you want and wait to draft one later, you might draft someone like Jared Goff for instance and then draft Young incase he pops. Sort of like you might have done with Justin Fields last year. Miles Sanders is serviceable and he might get more carries since they paid him a chunk of change. They have to throw to someone so Hayden Hurst, Adam Theilen and DJ Chark are all draftable I guess. I’d go with Chark out of the 3. He is the only one that doesn’t seem like he is on the back end of his career.

Predicted Record: 7-10

3rd Place: Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons had a great running game last year with 3 solid running backs, but had bad QB play and a worse defense. So what do the Falcons do with the 8th pick in the draft? They draft a running back. This is how bad teams stay bad. Robinson I am sure will do well and will get the ball a lot but with so many other needs and already having quality backs it was an odd choice to say the least. Desmond Ridder could be alright but is far from a sure thing. To be honest any of these teams could win the division and then host and lose a playoff game. But does anyone else think Arthur Smith looks scared all the time? He has that deer in the headlights look about him. That combined with questionable quarterback play and what seems like sort of a lost organization in general lands them in 3rd.

Reason they will win the South: Every year one team goes from worst to first and this dumpster fire of a division is the easiest one to do it in.

Reason they won’t with the South: They are a running team in a passing league.

Fantasy Players to Draft: Well, if you are going to draft a running back that you don’t need with the 8th pick in the draft, you better get him the dang ball. Alliger is a decent pick up late for running back depth. Everyone is high on Drake London but he still has Ridder throwing to him so I am less of a fan. If you like to be disappointed, draft Kyle Pitts.

Predicted Record: 7-10

4th Place: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Their stupid coach with the dumb hat left the team in the hands of Todd Bowles and it did not go well. It went so poorly that even made Tom Brady finally retire. Because the rest of the division was so terrible the Bucs still went to the playoffs. They hosted the Cowboys who absolutely smashed them which is extra amazing because the Cowboys haven’t played a good playoff game since 1996. With Brady retired, they are rolling with either Baker Mayfield or Kyle Trask. Baker is really entertaining as long as he isn’t on your team. Let’s be honest, this team is on a downward spiral and it isn’t going to get better soon. They got lucky that Brady chose to make them relevant for a couple of years. Although they have some good veteran players, I believe they will lose early and often and those guys will lose interest. Back to losing lots of games and drafting really high for the Bucs.

Reason they will win the South: Tom Brady gets bored half way through the year and comes out of retirement. The rest of the division is so bad that he is able to lead them to enough victories to win it.

Reason they won’t win the South: Todd Bowles is their coach and Baker Mayfield is their quarterback.

Fantasy Players to draft: There are a few sure things in life, one of them is Mike Evans gaining a thousand yards. Chris Godwin is good as well but get hurt a lot and will likely suffer due to who is throwing to him. Their running back White is decent and good running back depth.

Predicted Record: 5-12

AFC South

1st Place: Jacksonville Jaguars

The only team in either south division that I have any faith in is the Jaguars. I am all in on the Jags being the team to beat so I am sure they will be terrible. But if I am right, which I think I am, this team should have a very good year. Lawrence got better as the year went on. He is super talented and is just starting to untap his potential. He is like Sunshine in Remember the Titans. He couldn’t make that pitch but once he could…it was history for everyone else. Sunshine and Doug Pederson have a lot of good years ahead of them starting with this year. And their schedule is a breeze. Even if they lose to all the other major AFC opponents they can still easily win 10 games and 10 games should be plenty to win the division.

Reason they will win the division: They have the best QB/Coach combo in the division and it isn’t close.

Reason they won’t win the division: Lawrence gets hurt or Pederson coaches the season like he did the last game he ever coached for the Eagles.

Fantasy Players to Draft: Lawrence, obviously. Their running back Entienne should be an early pick as well. There aren’t a lot of great tight ends but Engram is a pretty good choice. Calvin Ridley gets a new start after sitting out last year for gambling. He should have a good year. Christian Kirk is an underrated pick up in the late rounds.

Predicted Record: 12-5

2nd Place: Tennessee Titans

The Titans lost like their last 7 games last year and still almost won the division. That says more about the division than it does the Titans. They have a very good but aging running back who no longer is unstoppable. Henry has gotten hurt a couple of years in a row now. Seems like maybe they have leaned on him a little too much. Tannehill should be better now that D-Hop is on the team. He was pretty decent when he could throw the ball up to AJ Brown all the time so this could be similar. The schedule is not overly challenging but the Titans are not overly good. This has the classic Mike Vrabel 9 win season written all over it.

Reason they will win the division: Tannehill lights it up, Henry doesn’t get hurt and Vrabel coaches lights out to enough victories to edge out the Jags.

Reason they won’t win the division: They are running team with an aging running back and a terrible offensive line.

Fantasy Players to draft: D-Hop scored a lot of fantasy points with Colt McCoy throwing to him. He will be just find here. Although I am not high on Henry, he will still get the ball a lot and you have to sort of draft him sometime in the 2nd round. People like their tight end as a pick. I am not one of those people.

Predicted Record: 9-8

3rd Place: Houston Texans

The Texans are the worst run organization in most all of sports. So this really tells you something about how I feel about the Colts. Lots of people are hyping them up because of their new coach, DeMeco Ryans. I’m just hoping they give him more than one year to find out. I think they will be better because they can’t be worse…but then again, I thought that two years ago too. I think CJ Stroud could be alright. He will be better than David Mills. On paper they do appear to have gotten better. 5 or 6 wins isn’t unreasonable but the management of this organization is so piss poor I am sure they will find a way to screw it up.

Reason they will win the division: The Jags never come back from Europe and the Titans run out of players.

Reason they won’t win the division: they still have the same owner and gm of the last few years.

Fantasy Players to draft: Woof. I don’t know. Dameon Pierce served me pretty well last year. All the fantasy experts say you should draft Nico Collins and he is underrated. So you can draft him, if you want.

Predicted Record: 5-12

4th Place: Indianapolis Colts

What’s worse than the Texans with an unproven quarterback? How about the Colts with an unproven quarterback? The Colts are working hard to top the Texans as the worst run organization in the league. They have had a new quarterback every year since Andrew Luck left. Now they are in a fight with their best player Jonathan Taylor. The hired an inexperience coach so I guess they are making progress because the last guy they hired had less coaching experience than me. There is just not a lot to be positive about when it comes to this team right now. I already miss Jeff Saturday being their coach. It was really good material.

Reason they will win the division: Peyton Manning, Eric Dickerson, Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne travel to the future from the past to lead this team to glory.

Reason they will lose the division: they have an inexperienced coach, leading a bad roster of a team ran by a crazy man.

Fantasy Football Players to draft: Jonathan Taylor if he plays and Michael Pittman because they have to throw to someone and they will be behind a lot.

Predicted Record: 4-13 (this feels generous)

Tune in next week when we visit the North.