2. New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints have to be feeling good about their chances in 2026. In 2025, the Saints saw Tyler Shough play quite well. The Saints went 5-4 in his starts and won four of their final five games of the season.
Shough also put a lot of good football on film, and while he already turns 27 years old this season, it's clear that the Saints might have a franchise QB on their hands. The offense also got multiple notable boosts with Travis Etienne, Jordyn Tyson, and David Edwards.
When Tyson is back in the picture, the Saints are going to have quite the crop of wide receivers, and with the front office also putting an emphasis on the run game, New Orleans might soon be a rather tough out on offense.
And defensively, the unit more than held their own. Veteran coordinator Brandon Staley has been an excellent DC during his time in the NFL, and while his first head coaching stint didn't work out with the Los Angeles Chargers, that doesn't mean he can't excel as a coordinator.
The Saints are absolutely going in the right direction and have positioned themselves nicely to be a frisky, fringe-playoff team this year if all goes well.
1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
It's hard to really buy into any team fully here, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers do at least have a track record of being able to win this division, and even in a down year last year, they nearly did enough to win the South.
Tampa comes in at No. 1 in our rankings, but it's not exactly a slam-dunk ranking. The offense took a step back, and the defense was and is still missing that oomph that other units have. Head coach Todd Bowles is also honestly 'just a guy' at the position and doesn't appear to be a coach who is going to lead this team to anything more than a modest season.
We haven't seen Tampa win more than 10 games since the Tom Brady era, and on paper, the Buccaneers just do not scare you.
I do believe it's reasonable, though, to think that this team can somehow find a way to win another game or two in 2026 with Zac Robinson now running the show on offense, as he does come from the Sean McVay tree, which is where former offensive coordinator Liam Coen came from in Baker Mayfeld's best season of his career back in 2024.
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