The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the 2023 winners of the NFC South, will the Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints, or Carolina Panthers get in their way of a repeat? The 2024 NFC South preview covers predictions, win total over/unders, potential MVP candidates, top to bottom division rankings, and everything you need to know about the NFC South heading into the 2024 NFL season.
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It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. If you're looking to refinance or get a loan right now, let me tell you about InnerCap Lending. InnerCap Lending is one of the largest independent lenders in the country. They are hyper responsive. They embrace change and their borrower experience is absolutely fabulous. At Lockdown, we have our own personal loan officer, InnerCap Lending. His name is Steve Carter, and if you call him and tell him you're locked on, you get the corporate discount. But more than that, what's so great about Steve Carter is the reviews at Lockdown that we continually get about Steve. Mike Curtis emailed me to say, "I just wanted to thank you for your network. We just refied with Steve Carter. It was so incredibly easy. I can attest to it. I got my loan done with Steve Carter. Who else? Richard Gordon emailed me and said. Thank you so much for promoting InnerCap Lending. We used them earlier this year. Steve was amazing and Steve is amazing. 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This episode we are focused on the NFC South and today's episode is brought to you by our friends at FanDuel right now through September 22. All FanDuel customers can put $5 down and get three weeks of free trials of NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV. Just visit fanduel.com/lockdown to get started. I am Ross Jackson, host of the lockdown Saints podcast and I'll be your host for this division preview. Joining me are my wonderful colleagues from around the NFC South James Yarko have locked on bucks. Aaron Freeman of lockdown Falcons and Julian council from over at locked on Panthers today. We're going to be taking a look at the contenders. What makes a successful season for each team and a whole bunch of good stuff from all around the division, including any early host seats. What one thing could be that could derail the expectations for a season MVP candidates and much more we're going to give flowers to each and every team before they enter the season as well and enter that long battle for a division against, of course, each other. Let's get started with the end who wins James, let's start with you as a 2024 NFC South division winning team. The tape may bucket ears. Who do you look at as the winner of the NFC South in 2024? Honestly, it's a two horse race in, in my opinion, but I think the Buccaneers win it again. There's no reason that they shouldn't win it again. They bring in Liam Cohen as the offensive coordinator who has a history with Baker Mayfield. He comes from the Sean McVay tree. He's going to put a lot of power in the hands of the Buccaneers offensive leaders. And then, you know, you take a look at what they did, everyone talks about, oh, they're just running it back. Well, if any other team in the NFL had signed Mike Evans, Tristan Worf's Antoine Winfield junior and Baker Mayfield, and let's go ahead and throw in Jordan Whitehead, they'd be talked about as off season champs. So this is a team that's been together now. They're comfortable with one another. They're running a similar offense with a couple of little variations here and there. You add in a much better offensive line, which is going to be huge. And you know, the Buccaneers can go toe to toe with any other team, you know, in this division pretty easily. Yeah, you know, like the New Orleans Saints finished in second place last year. And I don't see them finishing in first place this year. I just haven't seen anything from this New Orleans Saints team. It's really exciting that they've got this new offense and some of that, but I don't feel like their roster has improved. And I don't know if Derek Carr is going to be able to execute the new offense and things like that. So I'm really curious to see how New Orleans finishes, but I don't think they're going to be challenging for first. I think I agree with you, James. I think it's going to be the Tampa Buccaneers cleaning up again. I think that the opportunity to continue when it comes to continuity, that there's value in that, there's very much value in keeping a team together, even with the new offensive scheme, Liam Cohen, absolute genius, very much looking forward to seeing what Tampa's going to be able to do. And I think that they'll finish up at the top of the NFC South. But Aaron, uh, over a lot of Falcons, I feel like you have a different way that you might go with this one because the Falcons have had quite an exciting off season for being off. They have, and I'm going to say the thing I said last year on the division preview. Of course, it's going to be the Atlanta Falcons that win the division. That didn't age particularly well a year ago, but it's going to age beautifully this year. You know, you just keep repeating the same takes over and over and eventually you'll get it right with the Atlanta Falcons finally winning the division, I think for the first time since what 2016, maybe. So I think the Falcons adding Kirk cousins, obviously that gives them a lot more stable quarterback place, something that has been sorely missing from this team over the last couple of years. They just picked up a couple of big time defense of pieces in Matthew Judon and Justin Simmons, the pass rusher in safety, respectively, that's going to enhance their defense and get it to a respectable level. And with the weapons that they have that, you know, have been much, you know, hyped over the last couple of years that they've used a lot of top 10 picks on with Bijon Robinson, Drake London and Kyle Pitts and Pitts is healthy this year and all those things and you have Zach Robinson, I think the probably all these teams in the NOC self have new offensive coordinators. Everybody's kind of excited about what their guy is going to bring to the table, but you know, maybe I'm biased, but I'm particularly more excited about what Zach Robinson is going to bring to Atlanta, bringing that Sean McVay style offense to Atlanta. And I think he's going to be able to maximize all the pieces that the Falcons have acquired this offseason. And that will give the Falcons, you know, that leg up going into week eight team where they have to play the Carolina Panthers and, you know, have to get a win in your end sort of situation. And, you know, knowing the Falcons, you can't trust them in those situations, but this year it will finally pull it off and they will emerge victorious in the NOC self. And I love what the Atlanta Falcons did, they went out and they got a great quarterback this offseason. Unfortunately for them timing wise, they signed Kirk Cousins first, but I'm excited to see you. Yeah, I agree with James and you guys are saying this is probably going to be a two horse race between Tampa and Atlanta this season. I do like what Atlanta has done, bringing in Kirk Cousins, he's probably the best quarterback in this division. Now that's not necessarily saying that much considering Derek Carr, he's had his struggles back when he was with the Raiders and so far as first year, also down to Orleans. I love what Baker may feel is able to do last season with Dave Canalas as his play color. And in fact, that he does have that relationship with Liam Cohen dating back to their time, brief time back with the Rams, that should help transition there as he's now seemingly I guess their quarterback for the next couple of years. I don't know how long term that's going to be. I think Kirk's the best though. And there's a lot of enticing pieces there on the offense. Love it. Let's take a look at our friends over at FanDuel. They have over-unders in terms of win totals for each of these teams. Julian, if you don't mind, let's stick with you and the Carolina Panthers here over under five and a half wins. What's your expectation for this Carolina Panthers team? Expectations not to be two and 15 again. I think that should be fair. I still expect this team to likely be drafting in the top five, top 10 of the NFL draft, which honestly wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. They still a lot of needs, especially defensively looking at the past rush. It was terrible last year and they got rid of Brian Burns and Frankie Louvoo and they brought in Genevieve on clowny. And right now, DJ want them not quite sure when he's going to play again. I think they're going to take a step back defensively, but you can question whether they're taking a step back after all the injuries they had last year anyways. It's kind of hard to evaluate how good that defense really was. But I've been telling people to ask me, well, how many wins do you think? It's like, well, five and a half. That's their number. It sounds about right. And I just tell people, what if they tripled their win total? I mean, if you say six and 11, that doesn't sound that enticing. You say triple your win total. That sounds pretty good. So it's hard to trust this team and go over to six wins. I do think they're better up front on the offensive line. I don't know necessarily if they need to spend $100 million on Robert Hunt and $69 million on Damian Lewis. Their problem last year was back at Austin Corbett was never healthy and Brady Christians and got hurt in week one. And they had no depth. And that's a problem for what 27 out of the 32 teams in the NFL when it comes to offensive line depth. I mean, you have injuries again this year, they're going to struggle and they're just going to be paying those guys a lot more to be on IR than they were paying the guys last season. And in a skill position wise, they have another receiver. They only had one last year. Now they have two with the Aunty Johnson. But it's still thin if one of those guys goes down. I don't love the skill core outside of those two guys that wide receiver running back. They should be able to run the football, especially with the offensive line additions. And I just think being better up front on the offensive line, I think there'll be better against the run this year, defensive line wise, but they're not going to get after the passer. I could go either way, but I would probably go with the under who go at five and 12 this year. I'm not super confident and it seems ability to get off the field and their ability to really be that high caliber of a passing offense this year. Makes sense. Let's take a look at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now James, this was probably pretty easy. I mean, many of us are picking the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win the division, but yet they're over under said at seven and a half, you got to be taking over on this, right? Oh, hammer deal. And I've said on locked on bucks, I feel like if this team stays healthy and that's the biggest thing for all these teams, right? They have to stay healthy, but if this team stays healthy, I feel like they're sealing as 11 wins. I feel like this could be a team that goes 11 and six. I feel like they're floor barring again, like Tristan Worves or Baker Mayfield going down. They could, you know, the ball doesn't bounce their way a couple of times. They could fall below 500, but still finish at eight nine, which won the division two years ago. I don't think it wins the division this year, but, you know, I kind of feel like that's the range they're in. I feel like they're probably going to finish the year out 10 and seven, a one game improvement over over last year with all the additional weapons and Liam Cohen there and all that. So yeah, at seven and a half, this is, this is back to back years now that the odds makers have drastically underrated the Buccaneers in the, in the over under. Yeah. Aaron, the Falcons right now over with their friends at FanDuel are at nine and a half. They might not need to hit the over to win the division, but will they? I would have said two weeks ago, no, they probably won't hit the over at nine and a half. I would have probably predicted them to win eight or nine games, but then with the additions of Judon and Simmons, I think it gets their defense to a respectable enough level where they actually will stop people, right? The thing with the Falcons is it's, it's not new to have a good quarterback in Atlanta. It's not new to have dynamic skill position players in Atlanta. What is new in Atlanta is having a competent defense. And until the Falcons picked up those two players a week ago in mid August, it was one of those situations where it's like, I don't think they're going to have a good defense and it's going to be the same thing that caused them to miss the playoffs, even when they had Matt Ryan and Julio Jones for multiple years, because they can't really stop anybody. So now that they've picked up those guys, I'm willing to take the over on nine and a half. I think they probably get the 10 wins. Obviously, if they can do that, that's probably going to win the division, although I'm sure everybody would love to again see an NFC South where you get multiple teams getting to double digit wins and multiple teams in a wildcard. So this division can get a little bit more respect back that they've lost over the last couple of years with some, you know, less than stellar and not very top heavy performances from these teams. So I would go the over right now with the Falcons, but it was, it was looking, you know, pretty tough to get to that level until they made these recent additions on defense. Yeah, absolutely. And those additions, by the way, for anybody who missed it, Matthew Jude on the elite edge rusher from the New England Patriots, and then of course, Justin Simmons, who got a free dinner in Orange County, California from the New Orleans Saints before signing with the Atlanta Falcons. As for the New Orleans Saints, seven and a half is there over under, which typically is the biggest we don't know what to do with this team kind of line. That's why I'm surprised to see Tampa in that range. I don't know if I'm equally honest. I would love to say that the Saints floor is eight wins because they won nine last year and they shouldn't be any worse than they were last year, but they might be. I love the new system and the offensive coordinator and what he's bringing because it's creative. It's fun. It's new. It's fresh. It's all these other things. But will the Saints be able to execute it? It took them 11 weeks last week to get their far less complicated offense under their belt. Is that going to be the case again here in 2024? If so, under, right? They could be a seven win team, but if they're able to get it off the ground a little bit faster and maybe steal some of these early complicated games, then I could see them coming in under. I could really go either way on this, but I think the big thing for me is that I would probably be more willing to take the under than the over at this point. I might change my mind after week one, but who doesn't? Coming up next, we're going to take a look at much more when it comes to the NFC South because we're just getting started. Coming up, we're going to be taking a look at the one thing that could derail the success of each of these team seasons. It's the 2024 locked on NFL season preview of the NFC South. 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Keep your ride or die alive today by visiting ebaymotors.com, LG Vitam's only, Exclusion Supply and eBay Guaranteed Fit available only to U.S. customers. This is David Harrison of the locked on commanders podcast and you know we love talking stats here at the locked on podcast network. Well, here's one that's super simple to remember, discover automatically doubles the cash back you've earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with cash back match. That means with discover, you could turn $150 cash back into $300. That's right, you can put it towards some sports memorabilia you've had your eye on or treat yourself to a premium sports network you earn and discover doubles. See terms at discover.com slash credit card. The 2024 locked on NFL season preview continues a reminder you can get coverage of your favorite NFL team by subscribing to their locked on podcast. We also have the NFL covered nationally with locked on NFL locked on NFL scouting peacock in Williamson and of course your fantasy coverage at lockdown fantasy football locked on dynasty football and of course you can check out locked on NFL draft as well get 24 seven coverage of the NFL with our brand new locked on NFL 24 seven stream streaming always free on YouTube and Amazon fire TV. All right, let's go back to division finish order from 2023 here and take a look at our next category which is going to be what we expect from each of these teams and what can derail them James, what is your expectation for the bucks and what could get in the way. I mean I fully expect this team to compete in each and every game they have a really tough schedule to open up the year you know you get the commanders but then you have to face Detroit you have three prime time games in five weeks you have the Eagles you have the Chiefs you have divisional matchups you have the 49ers on the row it's it's tough then after the bi-week things open up a little bit you could see a run like they had last year where they go through a little bit of a slump that all of a sudden they rattle off you know seven wins in a row and find themselves in the playoffs so I do expect them to be to be competitive even with some of these top tier teams but ultimately what can really throw everything off and they end up hitting that under that we just talked about is the edge rush you no longer have Shaq Barrett in the building he went to the dolphins and then he retired you you brought in Randy Gregory to be part of this rotation he never showed up and he's no longer with the team so you're pinning a lot of hopes and dreams on a second year player in Yaya Diabi who didn't really even see the field until the second half of last year and still led the team in sacks then you have a second round pick and Chris Braswell who's gonna get some time Jose Ramirez has just absolutely exploded in preseason he and Marquis Watts were guys that the Bucks were really high on but you don't have that marquee guy and if they can't get an edge rush going against some of these top tier quarterbacks they have to face you're pinning a lot of pressure on Zion McCollum, Jamel Dean, Jordan Whitehead and Aruki and Taiki Smith as guys that have to cover some elite wide receivers so that edge rush has to get home yeah that's huge for the New Orleans Saints I think my expectation is for this team to have a really really really really good defense again and maybe even better than the one that they had last year they finished in the the 20s bottom third of the league when it came to run defense in 2023 I expect them to take a step forward for just about any game in 2024 that's not playing against Bijon Robinson and the Atlanta Falcons I think that would be the one exception there but I just really think that this defense will take sets forward the addition of Chase Young has looked really really good in training camp so far I was out on the West Coast while they were out there watching these guys looked really good on the defensive line can they stay healthy well that's where we get to what will derail that expectation this season I think that health has been a major major issue for this team already I mean there's a couple of guys there's one player Kendra Miller their running back second year running back they drafted last year in 2023 that participated in like some of individual drills the first day of training camp and has not been able to get back out on the practice field ever since individual drills individual drills and that was it and like there's one dude that had surgery on a fractured foot and he's back and that's tied into one Johnson and so like there's big question marks in terms of things like that lots of starters dealing with injury so on and so forth so I think that that's always going to be the thing that's going to derail any team I understand that but for the New Orleans Saints they're kind of already trending in that direction and that's not great Aaron what about you expectations for the Falcons and what can derail them well my expectations for the Falcons are similar to what James talked about with the box they're going to be in every game every game is probably going to be a one score game as we often see in this league and ultimately you know it's going to be who's the team that makes the plays in the final five minutes I think the Falcons now adding Kirk Cousins getting some help on the defensive side of the ball that gives him a big leg up in those situations so I'm hoping that the Falcons will be able to win a lot of games these one score games these tight games late in the game with their offense with the firepower that they're going to have on the offensive side of the ball and getting some critical stops against some opponents and that's going to allow them to come away with that winning record but I think as you guys have stated it's the same issues for a lot of these teams in the same division injuries are a concern for the Falcons they do not have the world's greatest depth at a lot of key positions especially on the skill positions on the offensive line you know in the D on in the secondary and whatnot so those things can derail and I think the the concern I have is similar to what James expressed with the the Falcons schedule they have the easiest schedule according to various metrics and statistics but the schedule makers didn't do them any favors by scheduling arguably some of their five hardest opponents right out of the gates no offense to Carolina they play in week six but you have you know Pittsburgh week one Philadelphia week two Monday night football Kirk Cousins prime time Eagles I mean I'm sorry Chiefs Sunday night week three you have New Orleans at home at week four then you have Thursday night against the box and if the Falcons take a couple of weeks Kirk Cousins hasn't really been in preseason games and so you know he's not necessarily known for the fastest starts with all the prime time games at the beginning of season if they get a little bit behind the eight ball in terms of the record everybody's just assuming oh this schedule is going to soften up in the back half and they'll be able to get their groove and rattle off some wins and and build that sort of momentum like James was talking about what the Bucks did last year but what happens if injuries sort of derail that and all of a sudden your team can't necessarily go out there and put their best foot forward later in the season as those injuries accumulate and so I think the Falcons really need to get off to a fast start and if they don't do that that opens them up for another disappointing season yeah yeah absolutely uh Carolina's an interesting one Julian what's the expectation in Carolina right now and and what gets in the way um to be competent on offense that would be nice um I guess that's my expectation uh Dave Canales has talked a lot about getting the football right so what does that mean don't fumble the ball don't throw interceptions uh don't be on discipline they played a game last year in Seattle where they had seven false starts how does an NFL team have seven false starts like this is the NFL none of these places are loud you're not playing at LSU you're not playing Ohio State like these stadiums they're they're not allowed like that's where you should be having those issues also you're professionals and it's just unacceptable for that to be an issue that they had last season so that's just competence generally on offense what I'm expecting to see from them I mean win totals I'm not super caught up in that I feel like this year's a lot like last year where evaluating Price Young is the most important thing they gave him a ton to get him uh they don't have DJ Moore anymore who could have helped him last year he's now in Chicago we know what the Bears got number one overall of Caleb Williams and the Panthers have a question of whether this is the right guy so not really worried about how many games to win how many games to lose what does Price Young look like and Dave Canales is here to get Price Young to play competent but really above average football this year and beyond and show that he is the right guy so what can derail the Panthers being competent the same day that derails him seemingly every other year is he often to line injuries and just the offensive line not living up to any sort of expectations and I do think that this year for Brady Christensen who was a starter in the past being a backup now being their sixth offense alignment and then bring it in Yash Diamond as their swing tackle who currently is on pup and don't really know when he's gonna be available but those two guys can stay healthy behind the starters they at least have seven guys that they can depend on and that can also be derailed if diamonds never have back healthy and they lose two or three offense alignment and that would be a problem for any team in the league as this is a line of scrimmage game I know people get caught up in the quarterback or the quarterback didn't have a chance last year because the old line was banged up and the receivers couldn't get open and when they got open they couldn't catch and if they caught it they did nothing with it so yeah general competency would be something that I'm expecting and what could derail it well what derails every team injuries yep yeah that's always always giving me the thing uh gentlemen I think we can have the shortest conversation on this next topic than any other locked on NFL division preview because what we're set to discuss next is NFC South MVP candidates and understanding the MVP award is mostly just the best quarterback award as Julian was talking about earlier before we started recording uh are there any NFC South MVP candidates period only guy could be would be Kirk Cousins with those weapons if he just if he goes off that's the only way I can see I guess Baker could be in that category too but I mean I feel like the voters are biased against them anyway so Kirk Cousins would be the one who would be the opportunity yeah we're just being honest yeah I would say this I don't expect Kirk Cousins or any quarterback to be a serious candidate for the MVP the one thing I was in the caveat the asterisk that I would put is maybe Bijon Robinson can be all great player of the year type of candidate which basically goes through the best non-quarterback on offense and so that's the one that's the one example of a player that could have an incredible year and you know put up 2,000 all-purpose yards have a Christian McCaffrey type of season that's the hope you know every foul profan is hoping for that and if you've ever watched Bijon played football for five seconds you've seen the potential there can't wait all right look we're about to enter a grueling 17 game season and an 18 week season including the bi-week where all of the teams that we cover we're gonna want them to come out on top but before that battle begins we give some flowers to the other teams it's the 2024 locked on NFL season preview of the NFC South this NFC South Division preview brought to you by our friends over at Fandal America's number one sportsbook and the only sportsbook that you need to be checking out for your NFC South Division odds right now of course of course the Fandal folks have the Atlanta Falcons favorite right now to win the division minus 145 to win the division the Tampa Bay Buccaneers come in second place at plus 290 the New Orleans Saints a distant third at plus 550 and the Carolina Panthers an impossible fourth at plus 1,100 but hey if you're feeling spicy on any of those Fandal is absolutely the place to go to get in on the action and right now is the absolute best time to do that because now through September 22nd all Fandal customers will bet $5 and can get a free three week trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV with your YouTube TV base plan that means you're going to be able to watch every single regular season out of market Sunday afternoon game for those three weeks all you need is a google account a current form of payment and you can cancel any times visit fandal.com/lockdown to get started and download America's number one sportsbook the 2024 lockdown NFL season previews continue a reminder you can continue to get coverage of your favorite NFL team by subscribing to their lockdown podcast we also have the NFL covered nationally with locked in a fell locked in a fell scouting locked in a fell draft picocta will use a lot of fantasy football and dynasty football as well for all you fantasy players and you can get 24/7 coverage with the NFL or on the NFL with our brand new locked in a fell 24/7 live stream free on YouTube and Amazon fire TVs all right guys time to give each other some flowers what is it that you would want to give the other teams some flowers on it could be a specific team a specific player it could be their defensive scheme it could be their defense their offense their head coach whatever it is let's start off with you Julian who would you like to give some flowers to and why i'll give flowers baker mayfield the way he played last year i know that you're prior in carolina i never felt like they put him in a position succeed when you don't trade for him until july 5th and he doesn't get the playbook until a week before training camp what do you expect i mean obviously he's so gonna be better and say i'm darn old but come on man like he was never in a situation where he was gonna succeed for him to get last year have an opportunity have the competition with kyle tras like come on i thought it was awesome to see how well he played i've always been a fan of that guy since he was at texas tech as a true freshman walk on it's really cool to see him in a position where he gets paid and hoping that uh brashong can do can i can i always can do the same thing with brashong as he's done for gino smith and baker mayfield in the past few years karen freeman and we also can't get flowers to be jon robin because we've already done it enough uh during this episode so james that takes bijon robison off the board for you and i erin how would you who would you like to get flowers to and why new ones saints you know cam jordan you know even though he's cooked even though he's washed you know he's still keeping the the rivalry alive so i appreciate and respect that man that even though his best football playing days are long gone he is keeping up his end of the bargain james what about you buddy what'd you like to get flowers to uh i'm gonna start with rihi morris and and look rihi morris former head coach of the buccaneers and and i know i joked around about how you should find someone that loves you the way rihi morris loves overdrafting quarterbacks in the first round um you know his first draft pick with tamper was josh freeman and it it wasn't a great one and then in lana could have done so much to help but they got penics who knows what's going to happen with kirk cousins 36 coming off a ruptured a keelies but to see the path that rihi morris took from the young gree box in the surprise 10 and 6 to just absolutely imploding and being terrible and then having to start all the way down at the bottom again and work his way all the way up to get this opportunity again i could not be more excited for a guy that deserved it more than rihi morris uh i wish him the best kind of um you know all all things considered uh as far as the panthers are concerned i i would like to give some flowers to dape canals and i i said on locked on box that if if he got offered the panthers job he probably shouldn't take it but that he would because there's only 32 of these you only get so many opportunities and while i didn't think it was a great situation because of ownership for him to have his first head coaching job who knows you know i hope it doesn't go the path of rihi where he has to go back to the bottom and he's not going to get another chance for another decade he's such a genuinely nice dude he he really is and i'm excited to see if he really can't turn brice young around because he's he's had success julie and you talked about it with baker with gino uh i absolutely you know i i hope he finds success and again he deserved it you know he deserved that opportunity for what he's done the last couple years i'll go right to tampa because mine is the safety and tampa antoine uh windfield jr i mean just incredible and i'm so excited that they were able to get everything done and be able to keep them and get all that taken care of and everything i thought i just think he's an outstanding player his ability to have grown from somebody that might have been looked at as more of like a one-dimensional run support type guy into an elite coverage guy i mean just outstanding you don't see a lot of safeties in today's nfl able to make that transition one per here rookies on your teams from from this year's ricky class obviously uh that will make the biggest impact of your expecting the biggest impact james what you got oh that's that's tough uh i'm gonna say javelin mcmillan and you know he an absolute stunable wider stutter wide receiver um out of washington had he not been injured he might have been he might have been the second receiver from washington drafted uh definitely would have gone before the end of the third round but one of the things that this team was lacking so much last year was a number three wide receiver it was supposed to be a Russell gauge he gets hurt in training camp and he doesn't participate now you have javelin mcmillan who is an absolute stud he's a contested catch guy he is a refined route runner and he has the benefit of having mike evans and chris godwin so now baker all of a sudden has the opportunity to really expose some weaknesses in these defenses when they try to you know focus all their attention on mike and chris now there's a legitimate threat it's not just trey palmer it's not devin tomkins it's not uh you know k dot and god love him it's it's a tried and true wide receiver that could be a number two if chris godwin leaves as a free agent after the season so mcmillan's gonna be a a guide that is going to turn some heads this year love that uh going over to carolina is it the wide receiver for that draft last year you go a different direction julia oh yeah i mean legan has not been healthy he had a hamstring back in the spring then he had a foot injury early on in training camp has not played in pre-season i think he actually would have played and even when he was healthy i really haven't seen enough from him to have that high expectations and i was not the biggest fan of the pick did nothing for four years and exploded last year it's out kind of like kudos people made a lot of excuses which also reasons why it took that long uh it's hard i like brooks right now running back they took out of texas john the brooks he's probably gonna start a season on pup and he tore his ACL back in november and they have chuba hubber and mild sanders run into the grounds they don't really need to utilize him that much and that seems like a pick for 2025 trevin wallace is a linebacker they really like how to kentucky in the third round he's actually i think going to get on the field so i would have to say him and just have you on sanders maybe but nah i think it's a lot to expect out of a rookie tied in so i would say trevin wallace and that's not something i would have said back in the spring just based off of legett not really making any headways and he's been kind of banged up and it brooks no clue when he's gonna play so i would say trevin wallace even though he's going to be behind jack tomsen and josey jul i do think he's going to get opportunities and probably make the biggest impact out of the rookies out panther fans are hoping it's going to be legett i don't know they they've talked a lot about johnson being their third guide and i obviously know what theilin did last year i don't think he's gonna bat that big of an impact even when he's healthy yeah yeah oh really good analysis and i love that that deep dive into the rookie last so it's excellent uh erin what about you for the falcons i mean the falcons really aren't expecting a whole lot from the rookies michael penics kind of embodies this of he's gonna sit the bench for two years they have some guys that will contribute on special teams they have some guys that will be some of the back-end defensive line rotational pieces right but the one player that they were really kind of contri- counting on the contribute this year out of their rookie draft class was brian trice their third round uh outside linebacker from washington and he suffered a torn ACL in that first pre-season game so he's out for the season so really like their most impactful rookie is maybe going to be rukororo their second round pick he's gonna work he's probably gonna play like 15 snaps of games so it's not like a huge impact he's probably like the seventh or eighth guy in their d-line rotation so it's like yeah man this rookie class is you know this draft class is really a 20 25 20 26 draft class uh and penics really embodies that so i don't know if there's a whole lot of expectations for any of these rookies outside of maybe making a couple of key special teams tackles on on the new dynamic kickoff and whatnot yeah man there you go uh for new world and so i think it's first round offensive tackle out of oragon state it's telling us they fall on that i mean especially the fact they drafted and moved him from right tackle to left tackle making him the blind side guy he's the guy that has to have the biggest impact for this team it's a offense that wants to be predicated on its run game it's an offensive line that needs to improve from what it did last year all these other things i think he's got to be the one Talia say fuanga to be the uh big uh kind of name out of this draft class in 2024 we'll see what happens what's been so rather in the future i think a lot of saints fans would like for him to be the one that makes the biggest impact this year uh but that's just not going to happen and so we'll see where things end up for him in the future but i think it's Talia say fuanga for now all right let's wrap up with a look at division finish across uh our shows here and across our hosts here uh just from one to four nice and easy we've spent the last several minutes laying out the reasons why erin let's start with you what do you think the division finishes for the NFC South in 2024 well you know i'm gonna take the homework pick i'm gonna take the atlanta first place second place camper bay third place New Orleans and fourth place carolina all right julian where you see it going yeah i was gonna take the homework pick i know atlanta i think we'll win the division uh followed by tampa who i think will be a playoff team as well new Orleans and in carolina gotcha uh james getting a lot of love so far even his second place but still a playoff team but you see it another way i'm sure yeah i have tampa atlanta new Orleans carolina and and it could be as simple as tampa and lana tie and it just goes down to a tie breaker but i i think this is you know another division title for the box yeah yeah i'm going uh tampa the division champs until they're not uh i'll say atlanta i'll say new orleans and then carolina i think we're all kind of looking at it the same way except for the the the swap at the top uh for uh for james and i except for the two homework picks what's your say i didn't make a homework pick i'm talking about oh you guys did a homework pick yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i love it i love it i love it that's where we go i would be able to be only to pick against their team i i like the i like the way that uh i i could also go so far as to say that atlanta and and new orleans will tie but atlanta will win uh the tie breaker but i won't go that far because i'm not really sure i could even convince myself uh of that so i can't even go that far all the hell we're thinking all right shall we appreciate you very much for being here for our friends julian council of locked on panthers erin freeman of locked on falcons james yarco of locked on bucks myself rush jacks and of locked on saints we very much appreciate you being here with us for this nfc south 2024 locked on nfl season preview we thank you very much for listening and of course uh if you want to hear more about the divisions and how they'll play out all around the nfl this year subscribe to locked in nfl wherever you get your podcasts part of locked on podcast network your team every day a prime members you can listen to this locked on podcast add free on amazon music download the amazon music app today
