Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Strength: It is hard to imagine Tampa Bay thought their Safety would work out this well when they drafted him in the second round out of MInnesota in 2020. Last year he showed out in a big way. He finished the season as the 2nd rated Safety in the NFL. He was the 4th rated in coverage and the 3rd in run defense. The sky’s the limit for this young player and I am sure the Bucs are ecstatic as well
Weakness: As everyone knows, it is not easy to replace a future HOF player, but the Bucs have no one to replace Gronkowski at TE. Their projected starter at TE for next year is Cameron Brate. You have to go all the way back to 2016 to see the last time Brate had over 50 receptions in a season. That is a steep drop off from Gronkowski who was automatic at getting 50 receptions in a season. The Bucs will need Brate to relive some of his old glory next season.
Atlanta Falcons
Strength: This will be an interesting season for the Falcons since it is the first time in years that the Falcons have had a QB not named Matt Ryan under center. One thing they do have is an absolute stud TE, Kyle Pitts. He was targeted 107 times last season. There are WRs in this league who would love to be targeted that many times in a season. He was able to convert the 107 targets into 1026 yards. While he only converted one reception into a TD, that has more to do with the OC and how they schemed for him in the redzone.
Weakness: The WR depth of the Falcons is concerning. The Falcons addressed the WR position in the 1st round of the draft, but they have no one after Drake London. The 2nd and 3rd WR on their depth chart are Bryan Edwards and Damiere Byrd, who are rated as the 86th and 109th WR out of 115 respectively. I believe this offense is going to struggle this season with Mariota under center and no depth at WR.
Carolina Panthers
Strength: The Panthers have arguably the most dynamic player in the NFL, Christian McCaffrey. The only downside with McCaffrey is he is injury prone and always seems to miss some games every season. When he is playing he is a threat to score every time he touches the football. He is one of the most dangerous pass catching RBs in the NFL. The Panthers have to hope he returns to his previous form when he had 116 receptions in 2019. If he can stay healthy he will likely haul in 75 receptions at least.
Weakness: It is hard to point to anything but the QB position when your currently projected starting QB is Sam Darnold He was drafted 3rd overall in 2018 and has failed to live up to those expectations. He has never passed for 20 TDs or more in a season. He has only passed for over 3000 yards once and on that occasion he only eclipsed 3000 yards by 24 yards. Those are hardly stats that should make the Panthers enthusiastic about the upcoming season.
New Orleans Saints
Strength: The prospect of what Marcus Davenport can do when he plays for a full 16 game season brings a smile to any NFL fan who loves to watch dominant DEs. Davenport played in 11 games last year and still managed to collect 9 sacks and 3 forced fumbles. He is ranked as the 8th of 109 DEs last season. If you project his sacks over a full season he would collect approximately 15 sacks over a season.
Weakness: Their starting CB, Paulson Adebo, leaves room for improvement. He was drafted in the 3rd round out of Stanford in 2021. He was targeted 80 times and the WRs hauled in 52 of the targets in 2021. My concern is the Saints have a superb CB on the other side so most OCs are going to target Adebo. With that in mind I would expect Adebo to need to improve see an improvement from last season.