Josh Freeman Makes NFC South “Best”
July 11th, 2011
The Bucs coulda, shoulda been in the playoffs. It’s one of Josh Freeman’s favorite sayings.
But it is because of Freeman that the NFC South may just be the best division in the NFL. That doesn’t come from Joe, that comes from “The Professor,” John Clayton of BSPN.
The longtime NFL scribe fielded questions recently and suggests if the NFC South is not the best division in the NFL, it should be shortly.
Q: In the NFC South, the Saints seemed to hit a stumbling block. With Matt Ryan guiding the Falcons to a 13-3 record and only getting better, as well as Josh Freeman being called the most promising QB since, well, Matt Ryan, the Saints aren’t the only good team in the South anymore. The Saints have Drew Brees, but no running game and an inconsistent defense. Are they legitimate this year?
Cal in Los Angeles
A: The NFC South is turning into a marathon, not a sprint. It’s becoming the best division in football because of Brees, Ryan and Freeman. It’s only going to get better once Cam Newton develops. Part of the problem for Brees and the Saints last year was that the Saints played their toughest games on the road while the Falcons’ toughest games were at home. Don’t be surprised if the Saints win the division this year, and Ryan and the Falcons get a wild card. We’ll see where the Bucs finish, but I think you’re going be seeing at least two teams make the playoffs from the NFC South.
If one is to believe the suits Clayton works for, one would be brainwashed into thinking the NFC East is the beast of the NFL. Not only is this unadulterated propaganda, it simply isn’t true. Just off the top of Joe’s head he can think of four divisions better than the NFC East, yet those teams are pounded into innocent viewers’ subconscious as the best division in football, year in and year out by the four-letter outfit.
Yeah, when Joe Gibbs, Bill Parcells, Jimmy Johnson, Buddy Ryan and Gene Stallings were coaching in the NFC East, it was a beast of a division, but not since.
Joe doesn’t think it’s outrageous at all to suggest the NFC South is the strongest division, though the NFC North is likely the best, but not by much.
July 11th, 2011 at 4:45 pm
According to Clayton, the NFC South will have the most competitive QB play. That doesn’t always translate to the best division. Also, I’m still down on Cam Newton. The Panthers spent too many draft picks on QBs the last couple of years and their highest will bust. I think Tony Pike is the way to go but because of their bad drafting, he’ll end up elsewhere and the Panthers will be in the same position they are now. The Saints didn’t have a running game mostly because of injuries. They don’t need one to be dangerous, but it’ll be better this year.
July 11th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
NFC = conference. NFC South, North, etc = division. come on Joe, ur better than that…
July 11th, 2011 at 5:07 pm
Saints are trending downward and won’t make the Playoffs this year. I say they’ll finish 7-9 with Mark Ingram out due to a knee injury, along with Bush, Thomas and the rest. Their running backs miss multiple games every year. No reason to see a change this year. The Saints are getting old, tired and beat up. Brees and Payton should both be heading to Dallas in 2012.
July 11th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Good catch Marlon.
Joe, its because the media loves the north east. BSPN folk, umm, play with themselves (is that ok to say on this family friendly website?) whenever the Yankees and the Red Sox play eachother.
July 11th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Geez. Tough freaking crowd. Joe makes a one-word error in the last sentence and you’re ready to beat him with a baseball bat.
Damn, Joe hopes you don’t ever make such a trivial error in your real job. Joe appreciates you watching his back, but wow. As Mike North would say, “Take it easy.” 🙂
July 11th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Honestly, Joe cannot stand the NFC East. Only team there Joe can stomach is the Redskins and now with Bruce Almighty and Rat Shanahan running that team, it’s even painful to watch that outfit.
Dallass, Philly, New York… Joe’s changing the channel.
July 11th, 2011 at 5:31 pm
I think the NFC South is incredibly competitive and contains three teams that are playoff contenders this coming season.
Actually, IMO that’s a no-brainer.
Here’s another gem for you! I would not trade our QB for any other QB in the NFL today, straight up. Given his talent, size, athletic ability and obvious desire to win to go with leadership skill? Well, at 23 years old and with his connection to this team and it’s system and fellow players……another NO-BRAINER!
And finally, isn’t that nice? Cannot WAIT for this season to begin, preferably AFTER August 1 of course.
July 11th, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Ahhhh, the old “best division” conversation…..
NFC north 2 playoff teams, 1 fringe, 1 rebuild
NFC south 2 playoff teams, 1 fringe, 1 rebuild
Afc north 2 playoff teams, 1 fringe, 1 rebuild
Afc south 1 playoff teams, 2 fringe, 1 rebuild
Afc west 1 playoff teams, 2 fringe, 1 rebuild
NFC east 1 playoff teams, 2 fringe, 1 rebuild
Afc east 2 playoff teams, 0 fringe, 2 rebuild
NFC west 0 playoff teams, 3 fringe, 1 rebuild
I think the Vikings are better than Carolina
Bucs edge out the browns, cin and car are a wash
Afc west and south are kind of a wash
The rest seems simple…
July 11th, 2011 at 6:59 pm
Another expert predicting the bucs miss the playoff and finish third in the south. I hate third place, unfortunately the sheep, Glazers and the hc don’t.
July 11th, 2011 at 8:04 pm
what did the “experts” predict for the bucs last year thomas?
July 11th, 2011 at 8:52 pm
Give me a double digit win season and I will take my changes with our division.
July 11th, 2011 at 10:13 pm
And before it riles up those who don’t care for the current administration, yeah the last coach and gm won the division with a 9-7 record. Wow! What a shocker…. so yeah complain about us being 3rd in our division at 10-6….
July 11th, 2011 at 11:17 pm
@Thomas 2.2
It seems like the only thing you look at is “3rd place” all the time! You frequently also point out Raheem’s HC record “13-19” with most of the losses coming from one bad season in 2009.
We were 3rd place in arguably the toughest division in football and in a conference that had a lot of good teams last year. 10-6 is a damn good record. Freeman had a great year and should have gone to the pro bowl in my opinion. Raheem grew a lot as a head coach. Blount had a great rookie year, so did Mike Will, Cody Grimm and others! 90% of the time a 10-6 record at least gets you a wild card spot.
Before the 2010 season, I disliked Raheem probably more than you did. I thought he was way too inexperienced to have a HC job. But the guy surprised us all and did one hell of a job last year! You may be the biggest Raheem hater out there, but you definitely can’t say the guy did a bad job last year. It’s not just talent that got us 10 wins, you have to have some pretty DAMN good coaching to win 10 games with 10+ rookies starting on a team. Raheem isn’t perfect, but hell, he’s done pretty good for never having even been a cordinator.
July 12th, 2011 at 12:09 am
What the heck is Clayton talking about with the following?
“Part of the problem for Brees and the Saints last year was that the Saints played their toughest games on the road while the Falcons’ toughest games were at home.”
Atlanta played Pittsburgh on the road and Baltimore at home. New Orleans played the reverse. Pretty sure Pittsburgh was the tougher team last year.
Atlanta played Philly on the road and GB at home. NO played Dallas on the road and Minn at home. Both of NFC E/C teams Atl played were better than either of the ones NO played.
The rest of the games were either against garbage teams (NFC West + Cleveland + Cincy) or division games (home-and-home).
Clayton is ass-backwards on this. There’s just no way to spin it that the Saints somehow had a tougher road than the Falcons. In the only two games against non-common teams, Atl faced two playoff teams (one of which was SB champ) and NO faced zero. And Atl faced the other SB participant on the road.
July 12th, 2011 at 1:04 am
“I hate third place, unfortunately the sheep, Glazers and the hc don’t.”
———–
To quote Ricky Bobby, “If you aint first, you are last.” In the grand scheme of things, only one team had a good season.
Thomass fails to understand the difference between being happy and being optimistic. Maybe if you use that law school education you received, it may one day all make sense to you. Then again, maybe if you weren’t such a negative pr!&k all the time, you might actually understand what optimistic means.
July 12th, 2011 at 10:33 am
OK, the “jack ass” is yelling “hee haw” again. Thanks Jack Ass 2.0, we now know that we took third in the devision last year, and that if we show some optimisim after a 10 – 6 season that we are sheep. I have already stated why your animal nickname is jack ass, so I will spare the redundent post.
July 12th, 2011 at 2:24 pm
Outside of Tommy boy’s affinity for sheep…which proves amusing when he goes to the ” I swear officer I was just trying to help it through the fence” defense…has he contributed anything other than pissing and moaning about Rah and the Glazers?
Honestly though the nose picker (Clayton not Little Tommy) is right, QB play is what makes this the toughest division in football. It certainly wasn’t the top notch D on any of the teams. Brees is top 3, Ryan and Free are top 10, that much talent at that position in 1 division is a diff maker…that and very good coaching….like it or not …Rah and his staff are reason 1b to Freemans 1a on this teams turn around.