Can the Tampa Bay Buccaneers claim their fifth straight NFC South title this year? They are favored to do so. Our football experts Chris Raybon and Stuckey break down their predictions for the entire division, plus an NFL futures bet they like.
Continue below for their favorite NFC South NFL futures predictions, which include a bet on the Atlanta Falcons to win the division and break Tampa Bay's streak.
NFL Futures — NFC South Predictions
| NFL Futures Picks |
|---|
| Falcons – NFC South Winner (+240) |
Falcons – NFC South Winner (+240)
I project the Buccaneers as the favorites to win this division, but not by an overwhelming margin.
The fact that a pair of bottom-dwellers in the Panthers and Saints reside in the division certainly helps, but I think I want to fade the Bucs again this year despite getting burned by them last season.
Last year, I was wrong.
Baker Mayfield was great with Liam Coen — but one thing I mentioned in the preseason was the possibility of Bucky Irving providing a significant boost for their offense, and he did.
However, I'm still not a believer in the Buccaneers' defense, especially on the back end. They didn't do much to address it in the offseason either.
They went 3-5 in one-possession games last year, but if you dig deeper, the Bucs benefited from how the schedule broke for them. They faced Spencer Rattler twice, Aidan O'Connell, Cooper Rush, Desmond Ridder, Tommy DeVito and the Eagles without all their receivers.
They faced Jayden Daniels in his first ever road start in Week 1. In their matchup against Detroit, they were outgained significantly and somehow won.
Plus, there were some significant departures and potential injuries.
The Bucs lost Coen to the Jaguars. Chris Godwin is hurt, Jalen McMillan is banged up.
How about Tristan Wirfs? He won't be available. Down one of the best tackles in the NFL early in the season? Doesn't sound like a recipe for success.
So yeah, I'm not buying the Bucs. A lot of people are betting Tampa Bay to win the division at even money. No, thank you.
Instead, I prefer to bet the only other team that seemingly has a pulse in this division: the Falcons.
It's important to note the Falcons host the Bucs in Week 1, and if the Bucs are going to make another run at the division title, this will likely be the worst of their injury woes. Atlanta is catching them at the right time out of the gate.
The Falcons need Michael Penix to be good. I like some of what we saw from him last year, but he played some really bad defenses. We'll see, but it can't be worse than Kirk Cousins, who was hurt and just looked like he was throwing away games. That's how banged up he was.
But if Cousins is healthy this year, I like him as a veteran backup. I still disagree with how they're building the roster and what they did with that whole situation.
However, the Falcons are running it back with Penix at the helm on offense, and I think that puts them in decent position to compete for the division title.
Their offense line should still be good. The wide receivers are good enough. They have Bijan Robinson, but everybody needs to stay healthy because the depth simply isn't there.
Did they make enough upgrades to improve their pass rush?
I believe that's they key — they need to put pressure on the opposing QB in order to get off the field on third downs, which they are never able to do.
Their secondary is good enough for a solid D-line to generate more pressure.
Did they solve the issue this offseason?
In the NFC South, you likely only need to get to 9-10 wins to win the division. I think that number is very much in range for this Atlanta team with four easy ones on the schedule within the division.
