Sportsnet's Jim Lang previews each of the NFL's divisions leading up to the opening kickoff on Thursday, Sept. 10. Today is the NFC South and the rebuilt Atlanta Falcons.

NFC South

Atlanta Falcons

(2008 record: 11-5)

Mike Smith enjoyed a charmed life in his first year as a head coach in the NFL. He had a rookie quarterback throw for over 3,400 yards, his team didn't suffer too many serious injuries and they were able to make it into the post season.

With each practise, with each game, the bitter memory of Michael Vick continues to fade off into the distance. Matt Ryan sure didn't look like a rookie quarterback in 2008. That's why his teammates call him "Matty Ice". And Ryan is just going to get better this year as he has the luxury of throwing to Pro Bowl Tight End Tony Gonzalez.

My good buddy at the NFL network, Jamie Dukes, is a former Falcons offensive lineman and lives in Atlanta. I asked him about the kind of impact that the addition of tight end Tony Gonzalez have on Matt Ryan and the Falcons offence?

"For the Falcons to take the next step, "Ryan to Gonzalez" has to be a familiar call by the play-by-play announcer. Last season, the Tight End position had just 19 receptions. Matt Ryan is growing as a quarterback and thus far is getting the ball to Hall of Famer to be, Tony Gonzalez. The biggest impact is going to be in the Redzone where Gonzalez can use his 6-6 frame and basketball skills to score touchdowns."

So not only can Ryan throw to Roddy White and Michael Jenkins, he also gets to work on one of the very best at his position in Gonzalez. If the passing game gets shut down, Ryan can feed the ball to Michael Turner and let him pound it on the ground. Turner ran for 1,699 yards and 17 touchdowns in 2008.

The combination of a solid and productive running game and their vertical passing game make the Falcons offence tough to slow down. It helps too to have a nasty throw back Guard like Harvey Dahl anchoring the offensive line of the Dirty Birds.

Defensively, the Falcons struggled against the run last year. To remedy that problem, the Falcons drafted 300 pound defensive tackle Peria Jerry out of Ole Miss in the first round. In fact, the Falcons went with defence with their first five picks of the draft. Linebacker Mike Peterson escaped Jack Del Rio's doghouse and will be a welcome addition in Atlanta. One thing Smith doesn't have to worry about on his defence is Rush End John Abraham. Coming hard off the edge, Abraham was second in the NFC with 16 and half sacks last year. If the Falcons can find a way to stop the run, the defence has a chance to become a solid and effective unit.

Falcons second year General Manager Thomas Dimitroff deserves a lot of credit for the way he has rebuilt the Falcons from the ashes of the Michael Vick fiasco. A former Guelph Gryphon, Dimitroff proved to a lot a people that he learned a lot of lessons working for Bill Belichick and the Patriots. Entering year two of the Falcons program, Dimitroff can only hope that Ryan keeps improving and his team stays healthy. If they do, the Dirty Birds will give the Panthers all they can handle in the often overlooked NFC South.

The Falcons will find out in a real hurry what they are really made of when they begin the season with games against the Dolphins, Panthers and Patriots.

Interesting note: There's a good reason why Gonzalez is heading to Canton as a first ballot Hall of Famer; his complete and total dedication to football. Gonzalez is an expert on fitness and nutrition and is the one player that will still be in the weight room and still be on the practise field long after his teammates have headed to the showers.

Carolina Panthers

(2008 record: 12-4)

Panthers coach John Fox is one tough coach and he likes his team to play tough football. It's too bad about his quarterback though. With all due respect, Jake Delhomme just isn't the "man" in the NFC. But that's not a bad thing in Carolina because Fox has no issue with pounding the ball on the ground with his powerful one-two running back tandem of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart.

Stewart and Williams combined to run for over 2,300 yards and 28 touchdowns in 2008. Stewart and Williams were also a big reason that the Panthers were second only to Colts when it came to Red Zone efficiency.

Running the football early and often is exaclty the way John Fox likes it. Despite the fact the Panthers have a dynamic receiver like Steve Smith who is capable of taking any pass all the way, the Panthers love to pound the ball on the ground. When the Panthers do throw, Smith has an incredible knack for some huge YAC, or yards after the catch.

Jake Delhomme is getting up there in years and he is not the kind of quarterback who can win it all by himself. He needs his offensive line to hold their blocks and his skill players to make plays. Delhomme needs to shake off the bitter memory of his awful performance against the Cardinals in the playoffs. Fox doesn't need Delhomme to win a game by himself; he just needs him not to screw it up. In other words, don't fumble when you hand off the ball and make safe, high percentage throws to Smith and let him do the rest.

Tackles Jordan Gross and Jeff Otah weigh a combined 635 pounds and they form the perfect bookends to the Panthers offensive line.

A big concern for Fox and the Panthers front office is the mental state of Defensive End Julius Peppers. When he's on, Peppers is one of the top pass rushing defensive ends in the NFL. However, Peppers is far from being a happy camper in Carolina. Peppers has given a list of teams that he wants to be traded to so keeping him dialed in every game will pose a big challenge for Fox and his staff. To hedge their bets, the Panthers drafted Florida State defensive end Everette Brown in the second round of the draft. Linebacker Jon Beason and Safety Chris Harris fit in perfectly with Fox's style of hard hitting football. In fact Beason led the entire NFL with 110 solo tackles last year.

The Panthers are a talented, tough, experienced and well coached team. Repeating their 12 win performance of 2008 won't be easy because of their schedule and because of competition within their own division. Carolina has a brutal stretch of games in late December where they're on the road in New England, home to the Vikings and back on the road to face the Giants. Meanwhile the Falcons made some good moves in the off season and won't go away without a fight to the finish.

Cool fact: If Panthers coach John Fox seems like a tough, hard nosed guy, there's a very good reason. John's father Ron Fox was a Navy SEAL.

New Orleans Saints

(2008 record: 8-8)

I had a chance to meet Saints quarterback Drew Brees two years ago at Super Bowl 42 in Phoenix. After talking to him for a few minutes, it suddenly dawned on me that Brees is tiny compared to most starting quarterbacks in the NFL. Despite his lack of stature, Brees nearly broke Dan Marino's single season passing yardage record last year. He's the unquestioned leader of the Saints and is passionate about winning.

While head coach Sean Payton and the Saints wait patiently for running back Reggie Bush to live up to all of his potential and expectations, they can always rely on Brees to heave the ball down the field. When you think that Brees threw for over 5,000 yards last year, it's remarkable to think that the Saints did not have one receiver go over the 1,000 yard mark in 2008. That's no knock against the likes of Marques Colston or Lance Moore, it's just a testament to the way Brees spreads the ball all around the field with such ease.

If Bush could ever stay healthy, he has the speed and the moves to make the Saints offence look downright sick. With Pierre Thomas coming off of a decent season, Payton is not going to hesitate to rotate his backs. I liked the Saints decision to sign full back Heath Evans from the Patriots. He can block, he can catch and he knows a thing or two about winning from his days in New England.

There are no household names on the Saints offensive line, but there should be. Brees threw the ball over 600 times in 2008 and was only sacked 13 times. That is a remarkable feat in today's NFL with so many fast and complex defenses. I will say this about Jon Stinchcomb and the Saints offensive line; they are big, even by NFL standards.

For a middle of the road defence, the Saints have some solid linebackers. Scott Fujita has great size and Jonathan Vilma has incredible speed. Vilma, Fujita and the entire Saints defence received a big shot in the arm with the hiring of coordinator Gregg Williams. While he never worked out as a head coach, Williams resume as a defensive coordinator is beyond reproach. To help out Williams in his transition to New Orleans, the Saints went out and signed cornerback Jabari Greer and safety Darren Sharper. To beef up the defence even further, the Saints drafted highly touted cornerback Malcolm Jenkins out of Ohio State.

Sean Payton and the Saints catch a bit of break when they begin the season at the Super Dome with a game against the Lions. After that, the schedule gets a lot harder. The Saints can move the ball and put up pints, that isn't the big worry in New Orleans. It's the defence. Williams needs to work some magic in D and needs to do it in a hurry. I like Brees as a person and as a player. At the end of the day, I can't help but thinking that the Saints area a good team, but they just aren't' good enough to make the playoffs in the NFC. .

Interesting fact: The city of New Orleans has played host to nine Super Bowls, tied with Miami for the most all time. Of those nine Super Bowls, six of them have been held at the Superdome. The seventh Super Bowl played at the Superdome will take place in 2013, seven and half years after Hurricane Katrina.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

(2008 record: 9-7)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie head coach Raheem Morris had quite the dilemma since taking over the team. He walked into camp with basically four back up quarterbacks. On the final day of cut downs, the Bucs dealt veteran Luke McCown to the Jags. That means the Bucs will go into the season with veteran Byron Leftwich, second year man Josh Johnson and rookie Josh Freeman as his three quarterbacks. In other words, Morris and the Bucs will go into the season with little hope of making the playoffs.

Whomever is behind centre in Tampa won't have to look far when they drop back to pass. Receiver Antonio Bryant is coming off of a season where he had 83 catches for over 1200 yards and seven touchdowns. The mercurial Kellen Winslow comes over from Cleveland to give the Bucs a potential playmaker at tight end.

Derrick Ward comes over from the Giants to add some depth and talent to a mediocre running game in Tampa. Ward and Earnest Graham could get a lot of work this year.

Following a disturbing new trend in the NFL, the Bucs fired offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski before the start of the season. So that means quarterbacks coach Greg Olson will take over the play calling duties in Tampa. This is the last thing the Bucs offence needed before the start of the season.

Morris is a defensive coach first and foremost so the mere mention of the name Barrett Ruud gets him excited. On a team desperate for top end talent and top end leadership, Morris thinks a player like Ruud is invaluable:

"He is amazing. He is really the quarterback on defense. He has been that way for the last couple of years. That is why you miss him so much in OTA days. He is a great player. He is going to be a great player. I hate to throw around 'Great player' too much, but he has the ability to be that type of guy. He knows it. He leads that way. If he has a bad game, then the whole defense has a bad game. That is how he works. His defense and his leadership role have come out already. We just didn't know it. You guys just didn't know. I have seen it from the defensive backs. I used to tell my safeties all the time, 'When you don't know, just listen to Barrett. He will get you right.' If Barrett is wrong, then we are all going to be wrong together".

Morris will need Ruud and holdovers like Ronde Barber, Gaines Adams and Aqib Talib to hold the defence together through what could be a trying year in Tampa. If the quarterbacks struggle, that means the Bucs defence could be on the field for a long, long time.

Matt Bryant was one of the Bucs final cuts so that means Mike Nugent takes over the place kicking duties in Tampa this year.

The Bucs are far from the worst team in the NFC. They have some solid talent on both sides of the ball. Having said all that, Tampa has a very young rookie head coach and a death of talent at quarterback. On top of that, the Bucs have a pretty nasty schedule. Add it all up and it means another year out of the playoffs in Tampa.

Neat fact: The Bucs starting cornerback Ronde Barber, is one year older than his new head coach, Raheem Morris. In fact, Morris has never even been a coordinator anywhere, even at the college level.