Shough on You: Previewing the NFC South

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
You know when you're locked in, focused and fearless.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:03)
Welcome to the WNBA.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:05)
Your vision narrows. You can't look away. Every assist, every stop, every logo three. From beyond the logo.
Every did you see that moment? You bet.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:19)
What records are going to be broken this season?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:21)
All of it, right here. Lock in. It's the WNBA on ESPN, all season long.

**Mina Kimes** (0:34)
Welcome back to The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny, only NFL podcast. One of the hosts here, Zachariah Branch, and thinks, I'd like to go fetch him. That's Lenny. I mean it, Kimes. Zachariah, this is a great, I guess, litmus test for how close attention people pay to the draft, because Zachariah Branch plays for the Atlanta Falcons, who are in the NFC South, which is the division that we're previewing today.
So excited to talk about this division. I really like, I don't want to say that always, but I'm legitimately excited after watching some of these games. Also very excited to have my friend, host of NFL Daily, teammate now, Gregg Rosenthal. Welcome to the show.

**Gregg Rosenthal** (1:13)
I love that you had me on for the messy, dirty NFC South. I've been trying to lift it up for years, and it's at its messiest. I also love you have me on after Bill Simmons, so I gotta live up to that.

**Mina Kimes** (1:25)
Bill, actually, it's so funny because in his Power Rankings pod, which people should go check out, last one is next week with Scott Van Pelt.
We were talking about The Saints, and he was like, Vailay, pretty good. And I think I made fun of him. I don't remember. I was like, really, Vailay, okay. And then while watching The Saints, I was like, damn, Devon Vailay is kind of nice. He's tough. So Bill Simmons, ball nower. I like this division because it made me go in rewatch games. And full disclosure, I don't feel the need to rewatch Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson and various other quarterbacks, the veteran quarterbacks when I'm talking about other divisions. But in this one, I felt like, especially with the quarterbacks in particular, but some of the players on Atlanta's defense, I went back and watched a lot of their divisional matchups, Gregg, which was like a ride. I don't know. It was really interesting. I changed my mind about some players. I became more convicted about some. What was your experience in reviewing this messy division?

**Gregg Rosenthal** (2:26)
Yeah, they have great rivalries. It's one of the reasons I love this division is I think it has among the best rivalries. Great fans too. Because of the fan bases, because there's a college vibe to it, and because they always ugly it up against each other. We really reached peak NFC with that week 18 game, which the Bucs won, was ugly, and was rain, but then it sets up them watching the Saints. I feel like this season might be a little bit of a letdown after that, because I don't think we can top that for peak NFC.

**Mina Kimes** (2:56)
It was peak NFC South, yeah. Backdooring their way through. Yeah, it's a lot of teams in flux, new coaches, quarterback competitions. In the case of the Bucs, some unexpected drama, contractual drama, which we'll get to. Well, you know what, maybe we should start with the Bucs because that is the newsiest thing. Before we get started, though, I wanted to mention this at the top and I forgot. Over the years, I've done a couple survey, I did a survey of fans and I've asked people to give feedback and I realized it's been a while since I've done that. So if you are a long time listener of the show or have been listening for a while, I would love to hear from you. Leave it in the reviews. I will go back in a week or so and they take like a couple of days to upload and read some of them. But yeah, so I just wanted to make that little note. Okay, so please leave a review. What does Bomani Jones always say? Five stars if you leave four, I'm inclined to think you're a hater.
Okay, yeah, let's start with the Bucs. Okay, so the Bucs, and let's just start with the news, right? The Bucs are sensibly the favorites to win the division.
Some interesting additions and subtractions this off season. But the news is that there's two pieces of news. One is that they do not have a contract in place with Baker Mayfield, who is playing on a very middle class quarterback, I guess maybe a little bit lower, I think he's about average, and feels that he earns more. I don't know if you've heard this, but Baker Mayfield is at his best when he's got a chip on his shoulder. Then the other thing that I think maybe, I wouldn't say a bigger deal, but could be, is Vita Vea. Their stalwart defensive tackle announced yesterday that he, Adam Schafter reported, who knows, that he wants out. And specifically, it's happened because of the Bucs in him have not been able to get a contract done. So this isn't a player who's like, I don't want to be here anymore. It sucks. Send me to ABC Contender. It's a player who said, I want to make more money, and you guys are paying it to me. So trade me. I think I saw a report that he would like to be in California.