By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Over the past few years, I feel like I’ve been living in my own personal Groundhog Day when it comes to NFC South quarterbacks; it has become a yearly ritual to write about how the division has the best collection of QB’s in the NFL.

Yet, it never fails that either Matt Ryan will have a down year, or Cam Newton will get injured, or Jameis Winston will, well, be Jameis Winston.

You’d think at some point I would learn my lesson, but apparently this isn’t that time because here I am writing about how our area should once again be privy to the best overall quarterback play of any division in football.

The one constant at quarterback in the NFC South has been Drew Brees. As much as many of us want to talk about Tom Brady’s ability to play at a high level for the better part of two decades- and I’ll be doing just that soon enough- you could argue Brees has been even better.

Over the past three seasons Brees has thrown for an average of 3,768 yards and just over 27 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, and that’s with him missing five games last season.

If this season happens to be Brees’ finale, there’s been recent speculation that is the case, I don’t expect it to be because of his on-field play.

Matt Ryan certainly hasn’t been a bad quarterback, just a bit of an inconsistent one. In his defense, a good portion of the blame can be attributed to the coaching changes the Falcons have had on the offensive side of the ball, but not all.

Ryan followed up underwhelming seasons in ‘15 and ‘17 with two of his best seasons in ‘16 and ‘18. If he continues along that pattern, 2020 should be a very promising season. (It’s smart to base a prediction solely off something as menial as patterns, right?)

Even though Tom Brady showed signs last season that his play could be regressing, he’s still an upgrade over Jameis Winston.

When you combine Bruce Arians coaching with the level of talent the Buccaneers have on the offensive side of the ball, Tampa Bay seems like a fairly obvious choice for Brady to have landed.

Mix that in with the former Patriots penchant for giving all his doubters the middle finger while outperforming expectations, would you be all that surprised if he turned in MVP type numbers this year? At this point, I’d almost be more surprised if he didn’t.

To me, the x-factor in this whole thing is Teddy Bridgewater. Before Bridgewater’s horrific injury that cost him a few seasons, he had one of the more promising futures of quarterbacks in the league.

But he had missed the better part of three seasons before stepping in for an injured Brees last season. The good news for Bridgewater is he performed well in Brees’ absence and many of the things Cam Newton struggled with- accuracy, pocket awareness, decision making- are some of Bridgewater’s strengths.

The bad news is the Panthers offensive line is still awful and as a team, I expect them to really struggle.

So, just to clarify, my prediction is based on one quarterback playing well because it’s an even year, two quarterbacks in their 40’s, and one who has thrown a grand total of 221 passes over the last four seasons.

Maybe this should’ve been the season I learned from my past mistakes.