“With the first pick of the 2023 NFL draft, the NFC South all of a sudden got better.”
That’s not what NFL commissioner Roger Goodell actually said when he stepped on stage for the first time Thursday night in Kansas City. But it’s very well what he could have said when he announced the Carolina Panthers were using the first overall pick on Alabama quarterback Bryce Young.
How much better the division gets remains to be seen.
However, those days of all four teams in the division having losing records, which was the case this past season, should be in the rearview mirror now.
The Panthers’ selection could very well change the landscape of the division, much like their decision to draft Cam Newton with the top pick 12 years ago did. The Panthers won the division in three of the next five seasons after drafting Newton, who won league MVP and led his team to the Super Bowl in his fifth season.
Time will tell whether Young has a similar impact.
But we do know this: The quarterbacks in the NFC South are now a whole lot better than they were when the season ended in January with Andy Dalton (Saints), Sam Darnold (Panthers), Marcus Mariota (Falcons) and the now retired for good — we think — Tom Brady (Bucs) behind center.
The improvement of the quarterback room in the NFC South doesn't come as a surprise. Everybody knew the Panthers were going to grab a quarterback. It’s why they made a trade with the Chicago Bears in March to jump from the nine spot to the one spot to grab themselves a quarterback for the future. They had played musical chairs with five different quarterbacks since Newton was their starter three seasons ago. Now, the team that swept the Saints this past season for the first time since 2015 is an even bigger threat in a division they almost won in the 2022 season.
The Saints, meanwhile, have had somewhat of a carousel of their own since Drew Brees retired. They’ve trotted out five different quarterbacks (Jameis Winston, Taysom Hill, Trevor Siemian, Ian Book and Dalton) since No. 9 called it quits.
They addressed the position six weeks ago by signing Derek Carr in free agency, a move that at least for now gives the Saints the lead in the NFC South quarterback race. Carr is the most seasoned quarterback in a division where the other projected starters now are Young, Baker Mayfield (Buccaneers) and Desmond Ridder (Falcons).
Carr, who spent his entire career with the Raiders organization before signing with the Saints, is the only one on that list with a Pro Bowl on his resume. He has been named to four of them. His nine years of NFL experience is more than Mayfield (five), Ridder (one) and Young (zero) combined. Because of that, the Saints should still be pegged as the division favorites.
“We like our quarterback room,” Saints general manager Mickey Loomis said Wednesday on the eve of the draft. “We love having Derek here and we are excited about seeing how that unfolds.”
The Panthers probably aren't too far behind the Saints as far as being the division favorite, especially if Young's college success translates to the NFL. The Falcons and Bucs made big splashes, too, albeit it not at the quarterback position. Atlanta selected the top running back in the draft (Bijan Robinson from the University of Texas), while Tampa Bay chose defensive tackle Calijah Kancey from the University of Pittsburgh. Kancey, who has been compared to Aaron Donald, is the player I thought the Saints may try to climb up in the draft to get.
But it's the Panthers No. 1 pick that may have the biggest impact on the division. Young, mostly because of his stature, often gets compared to Brees and we all know how well that turned out.
It's the reason Carolina made the leap to go get him, drafting a quarterback in the first round for the third time in the franchise's 29-year history.
The Saints haven’t drafted a quarterback in the first round since taking Archie Manning with the second overall pick in 1971. Loomis, who took over as Saints general manager in 2002, hasn’t really had to.
“We had 15 years of Drew Brees,” Loomis said. “That’s like gold. Holy cow. When you don’t have that guy that is proven and elite in the NFL, it’s uneasy. It’s hard to have success without a signal caller.”
Now, everyone in the division has theirs in what has been a changing of the guard over the past 12 months.
The Falcons drafted Ridder in 2022.
The Saints signed Carr to a four-year deal March 6.
The Bucs signed Mayfield to a one-year deal 10 days later.
On Thursday night, the Panthers drafted Young.
And just like that, the NFC looks a tad bit better than it was the season before.