Two of the NFC South’s four teams will debut new head coaches in 2024: the Carolina Panthers hired Dave Canales, while the Atlanta Falcons reunited with Raheem Morris. Can either of them dislodge the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints in the division standings?
That’s what we’re about to find out. The Saints gave Dennis Allen a third year on the job after his first winning record in five seasons as a head coach, while the Buccaneers have to feel pleased with Todd Bowles’ leadership after not just qualifying for the playoffs, but winning a game in the postseason after shackling themselves to more than $81 million in dead money in the wake of Tom Brady’s retirement.
Morris, a former Bucs head coach himself, has gone 21-38 between his three-year run in Tampa Bay from 2009 to 2011 and an 11-game stint as the Falcons’ interim coach in 2020. His career win percentage (.356) is better than Allen’s (.343), but not by much.
Canales is the wild card. Russell Wilson’s former quarterbacks coach with the Seattle Seahawks did a great job getting the most out of Baker Mayfield in 2023, and the Panthers are betting he can cure what ails Bryce Young, too. He’s the only rookie head coach out of the bunch and arguably faces the toughest challenge with a team that just went 2-15, Carolina’s worst record since NFL realignment in 2002.
So who is going to come out on top? Allen has to take down his rivals (and, yes, remember that they’re rivals and not apologize for running up the score every now and then) and win big in order to justify the trust that Saints leadership has put in him. He hasn’t returned results so far. Nailing his offensive coordinator hiring and getting the Saints back to the playoffs would go a long way to quiet his critics. If he can’t win the NFC South in these circumstances, it’s tough to imagine a scenario exists where he can.
