The defending NFC champion Carolina Panthers resided in the NFC South carrying a chip on their shoulders heading into 2016. That isn’t to say the Falcons, Buccaneers, and Saints won’t try their best to close the gap. Let’s take a look at each teams outlook heading into the 2016 season.
- Carolina Panthers, 2015 record (15-1)
Key Free Agents: Charles Tillman, Dwan Edwards, Jerricho Cotchery, Cortland Finnegan, Roman Harper, Mike Tolbert, Brad Nortman
Carolina was one game away from a Super Bowl title last season. Heading into this offseason the Panthers will have roughly 28 million in cap space to work with. The team will also get back Kelvin Benjamin from an ACL last season. Areas that need to be addressed moving forward would be runningback and offensive line depth as well as defensive line and secondary voids.
- Atlanta Falcons, 2015 record (8-8)
Key Free Agents: Paul Worrilow, O’Brien Schofield, Kroy Bierman
Atlanta started out on fire at 5-0 before plummeting down the stretch. Offensively the team performed well under offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. Defensively there are just to many holes to go around. Expect the team to address the defense needs first with their 30 million in cap space. Atlanta may target Bruce Irvin who played under Dan Quinn in Seattle.
- New Orleans Saints, 2015 record (7-9)
Key Free Agents: Kai Forbath, Khiry Robinson, Ben Watson
It is actually a miracle this team won as many games as they did last season considering their cap issues. Let’s not forget the Saints defense was the league’s worst in 2015 as well. With just over 10 million in cap space to work with it is hard to wonder how this team can improve next year. The team has already released Marques Colston and Jahri Evans to get them to 10 million. Reworking Drew Brees’ contract seems like the only possible solution as he has a 30 million dollar cap hold. Outside of that trading center Max Unger is the only other thing they realistically can do which would clear about 4.7 million. I’m sure Seattle would gladly trade for him back.
- Tampa Bay Bucs, 2015 record (6-10)
Key Free Agents: Doug Martin, Mike Jenkins, Henry Melton, Bobby Rainey
The Bucs started the offseason by strangely firing Lovie Smith in favor of Dirk Koetter. The good news for them is they have about 50 million in cap space to work with. The first thing I would do is let Doug Martin go elsewhere. We have seen in the past that over paying running backs is usually a mistake. Next I would release Vincent Jackson, which would create 9.77 million in cap room. Some targets to watch include Janoris Jenkins and Eric Weddle.
*All salary cap numbers are courtesy of overthecap.com
