I WANT YOUR FLEX - Summer Division Preview: NFC South

Published Jun 30, 2025, 5:28 AM

It's FOX Sports Radio's official fantasy football podcast! On the most recent FOX Sports Sunday, Mike Harmon and Dan Beyer continue their divisional breakdowns for fantasy football ahead of the season... This week, they hone in on the NFC South, taking a look at each team from a fantasy point of view.

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World, Hi, and then you find me over at Swollen Dome. Dan, let's continue our fun and exciting trip around the NFL dial. In the fantasy realm, you got the NFC South and there's one position that rises to the level, like we know what Tampa is, right, you still have that base of players coming back and trying to figure out all right, what Godwin is health wise alongside Mike Evans Bakman look great. Atlanta's just a giant question mark because I'll start the conversation off with one piece. Michael PENNOCKX Junior is ranked twenty fourth.

That's crazy, and it's crazy in my mind because as we look throughout fantasy football, I think you can look at the quarterbacks and see a lot of familiar names, but we sometimes you think those familiar names, Mike and we just mischaracterize them as fantasy producers.

I think Michael Pennock.

Junior has an opportunity to be a top ten quarterback. And I know ranking are more of your thing, but I think everything is there for Atlanta this year. A lot of us felt that was the case last year of bringing in Kirk Cousins. But what I like about it is now you're committed to Pennix Junior. You don't have even though Cousins is there and we don't know how long, but you don't have it hanging over of if Cousins messes up, should Penix Junior play and how long? Like it's Michael Pennock's job and Mike We've looked at this this team and said, what are you gonna do with Kyle Pitts? How are you gonna use Kyle Pitts. Well, now Kyle Pitts was on the training block this offseason, still there, but it tells me that they found their direction, their backfield magnificent. The targets of Drake London emerged last season. I'm gonna call him your boy, Darnell Mooney. Yeah, You've always been a Mooney supporter. He emerged. And you have an offensive line that is top ten in the National Football League, something that Atlanta had asn't always had. So you take all that stuff and even though Pennix is not going to give you anything rushing, I think with all of the weapons that they have and how they'll play offensively, I think he could be a top ten quarterback this year.

Talk about jumping over and you got familiar names, and this is where it's always fun, the fantasy the reality split, right because we used to do this years ago. I remember arguing oftentimes with you know, big prominent guys that get a lot of heat. I'm not going to name names that sas that used to be here, and it would be about Michael Vick fantasy player versus winning quarterback and things of that nature, and we have those and certainly where we have the landscape in twenty twenty five, you look at the quarterbacks currently ranked ahead on average fantasypros dot Com that I contribute to a small voice and a sea of fantasy analysts. But you've got Trevor Lawrence still above him by several spots to a tongue of Iloa. Lots of question marks going down here in Miami. As we've talked about in the prior episode. J J. McCarthy's not taking a snap as of yet. And there were still some concerns this offseason that, at least early on, maybe more noise than reality, but enough noise of hey, maybe Aaron Rodgers, maybe Captain Kirk comes back. Like there were a little there were whispers of a lot of these things, perhaps just planning to give folks to talk about in the long off season, but they're there. We've got Matthew Stafford well winning versus numbers at this point right last year. Not exactly a fantasy darling, but winning football games is what it's all about. You got Bryce Young just ahead of him, a guy who had a fine finish to the twenty twenty four season. Sure, maybe some expectations of moving forward go up a little higher in the rankings. You're looking at CJ. Stroud, everybody looking for a bounce backs, Like, have they fixed that offensive line? I don't think they fixed that offensive line. You've got Drake May, You've got who's got better Who's got.

Better weapons offensively? Drake May or Michael Pennick Junior.

Yeah. Rhetorical question, yeah, yeah, Like.

It's and and yet and who plays indoors? Who's who's likely to be affected by the elements for the second half of the season, Like that's it. I'm looking at a site that isn't fantasy pros. I'm not gonna name who it is, but Mike, you've rattled off a bunch of the names. We know that justin Herbert and how the Chargers play football. It's not about fantasy stats, right. I see one ranking where Joe Flacco's ahead of Michael Pennocks Junior. Wow, I just I do not. I just do not believe that his value is being appreciated for what it could be. I think they're gonna score a lot of points. They have an offensive line, they have a running game, you have the ability to get yards from your back your backs as well. You've got two solid wide receiver options and Ray Ray McLoud who is actually a productive player as well.

Well.

We haven't even figured out the Kyle Pitts portion of it. I just like I am bullish on the Falcons this year and specifically PENNOCKX Junior because of everything that is around him and how they've I feel now they have the team for him set up to succeed. Doesn't change my opinion on how we all came to the team and what they did with Kirk Cousins. But we are where we are, and I love where Atlanta is at this point.

Yeah, you mentioned Mooney and now McLeod like two guys that are being drafted as deep fourth wide receivers for fantasy purposes, the opportunity perhaps to outperform at Outshine there. You mentioned Bjeon Robinson, depending on your flavor, either the first or second back off the in most drafts that we're looking at Gibbs and Barkley shortly thereafter, and then you start sliding down Bucky Irving staying in division with the Buccaneers. He's ninth or tenth, depending on which boards you're looking at. Alvin Kamara is still a top fifteen guy, but questions on his health and whether they're gonna kind of downgrade his touches per game. But with the quarterback situation there, probably gonna have to lean on that run game a bit more. But do you have enough balance to where he gets to be at his best certainly a question mark.

It's the running back scenario that you've got in the NFC South right now is actually more fruitful than I think people would realize. Now, I don't know what's gonna happen in New Orleans, Mike, So as we break down down this divisions, it's not a lack of investment that we have in the New Orleans Saints is. I just think they're gonna be so bad that I have no idea how it turns out. So I kind of remove, like Alvin Kamara, you know Miller from the conversation, But if you have Bijon who's borderline number one, Bucky Irving sure seemed like he fit a lot more than Rashad White did. Even after White's solid sea that he had in twenty twenty three, there was still some questions you.

Were like, does this work? Is this him? Is this not him?

It seemed to work with Bucky Irving and with Carolina Chuba Hubbard was amazing.

Yeah.

Year, and when you look at what Bryce Young has done, the bar was so low for Bryce Young that anything that he did above that bar was considered progress. But the reason they were a team that you thought at the end of the year was because of the emergence of Bryce Young and because of how good of a back Chewba Hubbard ended up being for them. And there was a lot of what conversation with Jonathan Brooks and other guys coming in trying to take over the spot and instead Chewba Hobbard ends up holding on to the gig himself. And Yeah, I really like what he I really like his spot in Carolina because they we do expect them to get better. But just running backs in that division I think are underappreciated, not Bijon but even Tyler l Jeer for what he does being the you know, the number two guy in Atlanta.

He gives it, yeah for fours near to five yards of carry absolutely moving.

Uh.

The curiosity right when we look at Carolina, Jonathan Brooks, he's going to be on the shelf again. So they bring in Rico Doubtele of the Dallas Cowboy fame. Uh and Trevor at ten. Yes, so we'll see. But yeah, certainly Hubbard with every opportunity to capitalize and parlay great success from a year ago moving forward. Uh.

When we look at the division as a.

Whole, it's look, it's not going to get talked about a ton, right, It's yes, it's they who's the last team standing more or less as much as there's a renaissance of Baker Mayfield love and such that it's just kind of pushed to the side a bit.

I I think the Buccaneers are the given okay in all of this, but I'm going to go to Georgia and in Sat Trevor et and I gotta say Florida and Georgia.

It's the only fair thing to do. Sorry, Bulldogs. But Mike, I do love this Falcons team.

There's I think that there's something different about them. But the one thing that is holding me back from saying that they can supplant the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from the top spot is this schedule. Okay, if you'll bear with me. I did a breakdown of the Falcons schedule, and this isn't a winneror loss. This is just to hear there and everywhere. They have their buy in week five. Never great to have an early buy and one of the things the NFL does, for some reason, I don't know why they do this, but they'll put a team on buy and then they'll have them play Monday night, so they almost give them like an extra day, which I think is weird because I would rather just play on Sunday and be a normal week the next week. But that's not what the Falcons get. They get Week six home against the Bills on Monday night. Then they have to travel to San Francisco on what is now a short we against one of the better teams that you would think health if they stay healthy in the NFC, come back home to face Miami. Then they're at New England in Germany against the Colts, come back and play at home against Carolina, then have back to back road games against the Saints and Jets host the Seahawks.

The reward for.

That is going to Tampa on a short week and play Thursday night football, and then they're at Arizona after that so after their mini by of playing on Thursday night, they still have another road game. They basically have three home games between Week four and Week seventeen. Very wacky schedule. So what happens when you get with the seventeen games schedule? But to have your buy so early and to then not have it after the Germany trip when you're traveling to San Francisco and whatnot. If there's anything that could mess them up, it could be just how irregular it is, and then you and I can rant on schedules forever. But they're here, there, everywhere, with very little break during the middle of the season.

Buccaneers the division favorite plus one hundred, Falcons second favorite plus two to forty. Then we get to Carolina four to one, Saints all the way out there at ten to one, the over under for wins for the Atlanta Falcons seven and a half?

Am I crazy? Do you like the Falcons as much as I think?

There's certainly the opportunity. It's all depending on what we get out of Penix. Right? Is he the guy that we saw play college ball that we can now plug in and we look I like that receiving court, right, We mentioned like the secondary tertiary guys. Kyle Pitts is an enigma, like we've been trying to hype in It seems like you and I do in the Fantasy podcast they I watch flex podcast by the way, get it where ever you download your podcast, trying to evaluate him for years as to is he a top five guy? Is he ever gonna be a top five guy with consistency? It's one thing to get to the final numbers based on two or three Monster games that come out and know, but he's never been that consistent contributor that I'd say that with the tight end position, because there is so much fluctuation that you can still be a monster just off a couple of games. But he's like one of the hardest players to rank year to year. Just is it finally the breakthrough? But for Penis Junior, the expectation like I don't worry about Captain Kirk like he's there, it's his presence is a nuisance to what they're trying to push forward. And I'm not saying he's a bad guy or whatever. He wants his space. And if you believe the reports that he had no idea that Pennix was coming into the room, does he make a different decision. I don't know, maybe maybe not. They paid him a lot of money. Kirk spent a lot about getting his dollars.

Through his years.

Right, He's the.

Business Hall of Fame, is what we joke around the hallways here with him all the time. So I don't think that really, if anything, it means they'll be better at some point because there will be an injury. There will be a team that, yes, and the throws the white towel like Duke in the Rocky movie or well that he didn't throw the towel sorry, uh spoiler Uh that that you get to the point where team wants to make it make a deal, and really it just becomes about how much money Arthur Blank's willing to eat to get out.

Yeah, yeah, you're right, And there will be a team.

You're right. There will be an injury in somebody that that wants to, uh to do something. It just isn't happening right now.

Crazy action on a Sunday morning. He's Dan Byer, I'm Mike Carmon, and this is Fox Sports Radio.