Three questions each NFC South team must answer before start of season: Is Baker Mayfield the Week 1 starter?

In one of the weirdest NFL offseasons in history, the NFC South helped put on a show. Tom Brady retired only to quickly unretire, and Matt Ryan is no longer with the Atlanta Falcons — the franchise legend traded away to the Indianapolis Colts. The Carolina Panthers are in on trading for Baker Mayfield, but then they’re not, but then they are again (maybe, kinda, sorta?), and the New Orleans Saints are entering their first season without Sean Payton as head coach since the 2006 season (his “Bountygate” suspension in 2012 notwithstanding) when he and Drew Brees began their reign over the division. 

Add to this the fact Bruce Arians decided to give the keys to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coaching castle to his defensive coordinator, Todd Bowles, and it’s not difficult to see just how much upheaval has occurred in what is often one of the most competitive divisions in all of football. But with so much change comes an equal or greater number of questions, and while there are plenty, there are three for each team that stand out the most ahead of 2022 NFL training camp.

Carolina Panthers

Is Baker Mayfield the Week 1 starter?

Logic dictates the Panthers didn’t make a trade for Mayfield with the idea of having him sit behind fellow former top-five pick Sam Darnold, particularly after seeing the failures of Darnold in 2021. After all, when you trade for Mayfield only one year after trading for Darnold, it sends the message to the latter that he’s not at all what you hoped he’d be — maybe more suited for a backup role. Still, the Panthers aren’t publicly conceding to the idea of Mayfield being the definitive starter for Week 1, positioning the trade as a design to create a more robust QB competition, one that also involves … er… um… P.J. Walker. I think it’s safe to say we can all bet on Mayfield being tossed the keys before the season gets underway.

Is Mayfield the answer for the future?

Once he is firmly in the driver’s seat, the onus is on Mayfield to prove he’s everything Darnold isn’t: a former first-round pick who is still worth the price of admission. He’ll get an early chance at not only making waves, but creating a full-on storm surge, because his first opponent will be the very same Cleveland Browns who traded him away to the Panthers after making a blockbuster trade (and then awarding a historic contract) for Deshaun Watson while Mayfield was still on the roster (ouch). The clash…