Atlanta Falcons
Love: The Ground Game Is Just Getting Started
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the Falcons' 5 - 0 start last season was the emergence of a very productive and punishing running game. Led by Tevin Coleman and then Devonta Freeman, Atlanta averaged over 125 rushing yards per game in the first half of the year. That average plummeted to less than 75 yards in the back eight games along with the Falcons' chances of making the postseason, but we now know the dangerous potential this offense has when they can pummel opponents with Freeman on the ground and leave them in the dust with Julio Jones through the air. And the running game should only get better in 2016 with the addition of All Pro center Alex Mack, who made Isaiah Crowell a fantasy household name in Cleveland and who will be rejoining his old offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan in Atlanta. Although most people's money will be on the Panthers to retain the division title for another year, don't count out the Falcons' multifaceted offensive attack in keeping things interesting.Deep question here: Are the Falcons the Bengals of the NFC? For the better part of Matt Ryan's career, they've dominated the regular season with big numbers on offense only to end things with a whimper in January (or December, more recently). No one could have blamed Atlanta for signing Ryan to a long-term mega-deal back in 2013. In his five years with the team to that point, he had earned Rookie of the Year and Pro Bowl honors, taken the Falcons to the playoffs four times and won two division titles. In the three years since, Atlanta has missed the postseason altogether and gone 18 - 30, due at least in part to Ryan's uneven 75 touchdown-to-63 turnover performance over that span. All told, the Falcons have just one playoff win (barely) to show for their time with this mostly good but inconsistent QB who can't seem to go the distance in his biggest moments. From the looks of things, the Falcons' chances of making the Super Bowl are about as thin as Matty Ice's lips. Zing!
Carolina Panthers
Love: They're All Packed for a Vengeance TourYeesh. If there's anyone in the world who could understand how the 73-win Warriors felt after their collapse in the NBA Finals, it has to be the Carolina Panthers. After going 15 - 1 in the regular season and cruising their way to the Super Bowl versus the corpse of Peyton Manning, the Panthers suffered one of the more shocking upsets we've ever seen at that stage. MVP Cam Newton got pancaked by the Broncos' incredible defense and was understandably despondent after a game that most of us thought would be a leisurely coronation for the Panthers. As disappointing as all of this was for Carolina and its fans, you better believe they'll bring not just the wood but that big chip on their shoulder all season long in 2016. And most troubling for the rest of the NFC, they'll also bring back just about every key starter from that magical 15 - 1 season except for Josh Norman, not to mention a healthy Kelvin Benjamin for the reigning MVP to air it out with. Beware the vengeance-fueled Panthers of 2016.
Here's something else the Panthers have in common with the Warriors: a brand-new disingenuous fan base that will stick around just as long as the wins do. I'm not talking about the few and proud who suffered through the George Seifert/Steve Beuerlein years, or "Who?" as they are known to most alleged Panthers fans. I'm talking about those Johnny-come-latelys who have never seen a Jake Delhomme meltdown, who just traded in their 12th man car flags for Carolina ones, and who yell "Luuuukke" any time a white guy makes a tackle. I can make an exception if you're a new Panthers fan with a small child who is enchanted by Cam Newton's generous football donations, but the rest of you can go back to trying to find that new Kevin Durant jersey on eBay while the rest of us keep dancing with the one that brung us.
New Orleans Saints
Love: Enjoying Drew Brees' Golden YearsI still remember vividly what it was like to watch Drew Brees play for the Saints for the first time in 2006. Having wallowed in the Jim Everett / Billy Joe(s) / Aaron Brooks quarterback "situation" for most of my childhood, it was thrilling and just plain weird to see a Saints QB convert pass after pass and score at will. Although he's been overshadowed by the likes of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady for most of his career, there's no doubt Brees will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer who has given New Orleans its finest football and only Super Bowl win. Although he's edging up on 38, Brees has led the league four times in the past six years in passing yards, holds the all-time NFL record for accuracy and shows no sign of slowing down. It's a crying shame that this team can't even field a mediocre defense to give themselves a chance with a once-in-a-generation quarterback. It's also a crying shame that the Saints have failed to extend his contract that is now entering its final year, so enjoy this one, New Orleans. It could well be the last time we have a legitimate quarterback for years to come.
Once upon a time, Saints GM Mickey Loomis seemed like the cream of the crop in finding steals in the draft and free agency. He lured Drew Brees away from Miami, picked up guys like Jimmy Graham, Terron Armstead and Pierre Thomas for beans during and after the draft, and to his dwindling credit, has consistently given Brees the kind of offensive line most teams dream about. But in the past few years, Loomis has landed bone-headed contracts and acquisitions left and right that even I know are completely ridiculous. The first signs of trouble were when the Saints let the perfectly competent safety Malcolm Jenkins and versatile RB Darren Sproles go in 2014 only to replace them with the hugely expensive and perpetually injured Jairus Byrd and C.J. Spiller. Then in 2015, the Saints front office went absolutely AWOL, trading away All Pro TE Jimmy Graham less than a year after signing him to a 4-year deal as well as WR Kenny Stills and OG Ben Grubbs for relative peanuts. For a team that's constantly out of salary cap room, you'd think they would have finally settled down this year by loading up on draft picks and staying away from new mega-deals, but they signed TE Coby Fleener for a king's ransom and managed only five picks in this year's draft, one of which is a guy who had literally never seen a football game until 2011. All of this, and they still weren't able to extend Drew Brees, meaning he's worth a $30 million cap hit this year with all of the leverage. To call Loomis' recent wheelings and dealings a hot mess (the kind that smells like old oysters in a French Quarter alleyway in July) would be too generous at this point.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Love: Mike Evans Is FantasticI can't bring myself to love anything about the quarterback for this team who shall not be named, so let's talk about big-play wideout Mike Evans now entering his third season with the Buccaneers. Despite a nagging hamstring injury, Evans has already averaged over 15 yards per catch and earned over 1,000 receiving yards in each of his two pro seasons to date. And he has no problem making fools of cornerbacks in the end zone like this. Heck, he might have been the real reason so many people were fooled into thinking Johnny Manziel was ever going to be a viable NFL quarterback. Given all of that and fellow Bucs WR Vincent Jackson's dropoff in his late career, expect Evans to become even more central to this team's offense in 2016. Assuming he stays healthy and continues to build rapport with Tampa's young quarterback, it would not surprise me at all to see this guy mentioned alongside Antonio Brown and Odell Beckham by the time the dust settles this year. Too bad he's still trapped in sartorial alarm clock hell:
Honestly, what else can Lovie Smith do at this point to prove he belongs as an NFL coach? You may recall the way the Bears dumped him unceremoniously after a season in which his team went 10 - 6 and generated an eye-popping 47 turnovers and nine touchdowns on defense. They didn't make the playoffs that year, but they had suffered a terrible slew of late-season injuries, and Chicago has yet to earn a winning season since that time. A year later, Tampa hired Smith and handed him one of the worst rosters in the league helmed by wildly unreliable backup quarterback Josh McCown. Although the Buccaneers went 2 - 14 in his first season, Smith tripled that win total a year later with a rookie quarterback starting in Week 1. Moreover, he improved Tampa's defense from 25th in 2014 to 10th in 2015 in terms of yards allowed. Smith won't be the first or last head coach to get axed because of an impatient front office that believes there's some other "win now" silver bullet, but the Buccaneers fired him in the crappiest way possible - with no warning whatsoever via phone. Now they'll try their chances with former offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter - I'm guessing Lovie will hope it turns out just as well as when the Bears replaced him with a freakin' CFL coach and promptly face-planted in their division.
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