The NFC South has become the league’s great shrug.
Carolina won the division in 2025 for the first time in a decade, but it did it at 8-9 with a minus-69 point differential. And heading into 2026, the picture for the Panthers, the Buccaneers, the Falcons and the Saints looks murky at best.
CBS Sports’ new power rankings from Carter Bahns put all four teams in the same Super Bowl tier, the C Tier, and his explanation says plenty about where this division stands. “The C Tier might be the most fluid.
If everything clicks for these teams, they can clinch a spot in the playoffs. If it falls apart, they could bottom out and face tough questions about whether to keep their coaching staff and whether to blow up their rosters.
Nothing exemplifies that reality quite like the NFC South. All four teams landed in this tier for two reasons.
One, they are all on equal footing, as evidenced by the three-way tie atop the division in 2025. Two, none of them are particularly great, which showed in all of them finishing last season under .500.”
That’s the clearest read on the division right now: a group with no obvious separator and no real safety net.
Atlanta may have some of the most talented players in the NFC South, but it also carries the division’s worst quarterback situation. Tampa Bay has impact pieces such as defensive lineman Vita Vea and second-year receiver Emeka Egbuka, yet Baker Mayfield’s contract situation has the team at an impasse, with the possibility that their run could be nearing its end.
New Orleans may have the most promising quarterback in the division after Tyler Shough’s strong rookie season, but the Saints are still paying for how long they held onto the Drew Brees-era roster after he was gone.
Then there’s Carolina, which may be the hardest team to pin down of all. Much of what happens next depends on Bryce Young. Bahns sees a wide range of outcomes for the Panthers, saying they could land anywhere from 10 wins to five, depending on Young and the health of the team’s key pieces.
So yes, the NFC South has four teams in the same tier. And based on the way Bahns frames it, that’s not a coincidence. It’s the division in its purest form: no clear favorite, no clean answer, and plenty of uncertainty hanging over every roster.
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Saints Week 3 Matchup Just Got A Lot More Uncomfortable
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That matters because Cousins brings a familiar kind of stress for a defense, even with an uneven track record against New Orleans. Mendoza would have offered the Saints a far more forgiving assignment, with the usual rookie mistakes likely part of the package, but now the margin for error shrinks and the game plan gets a lot more complicated. [Read more 🡒]