FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The NFC South had an interesting start to the 2026 NFL Season.

There were games of every flavor: A true-blue shootout involving the Panthers and Bears; a second-half comeback attempt by the Buccaneers against the Bengals; an overtime nail-biter with the Saints and Lions; and a defensive battle with standout star performances between the Falcons and Steelers.

Each game provided minor revelations about the teams involved, but is ultimately 1/17th of the overall puzzle. And, in a weird bit of irony, every team is a winner—at least as far as the division standings are concerned—because all four of them lost.

No team gained ground. No team lost ground. They will enter Week 2 on equal footing, but that is guaranteed to change with the division matchup between Atlanta and Carolina. There is plenty of time to discuss that matchup, however. For now, let's take a look back at the NFL's opening weekend.

Throughout the season, this piece will check in on the four teams in the division, tracking their performance and noting the standout players from each game. Teams will be listed in the order in which they appear in the division standings.

NFC South standings after Week 1

T-1: Atlanta Falcons (0-1)

T-1: Carolina Panthers (0-1)

T-1: New Orleans Saints (0-1)

T-1: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-1)

Atlanta Falcons

Last game: Lost 20-13 at Pittsburgh Steelers

Offensive standout: RB Bijan Robinson

The 2025 scrimmage yards leader touched the ball 29 times in Atlanta's opener and picked up 173 yards with a touchdown. It was the highest usage rate of Robinson's career, per Next Gen Stats, and the sixth-most scrimmage yards in an opening-day performance in Falcons history.

Defensive standout: LB Za'Darius Smith

Welcome to Atlanta, Mr. Smith! The veteran pass rusher logged a pair of sacks in his Falcons debut, and he did so on limited reps due to shoulder soreness he managed throughout the week. Smith said he wanted to reach 100 career sacks, and he's off to a nice start this year.

Telling quote: "Give credit to the Steelers. They did a nice job. Obviously, our guys fought till the end there, but really if you look at the penalties, the turnovers, including a defensive score for them, it's just hard to win on the road when you do those things. It's hard to win, period. It's real hard to win on the road when you do those things. Those are things that we feel like we can learn from; we can clean them up as coaches, as players, certainly." — Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski.

Carolina Panthers

Last game: Lost 59-37 vs. Chicago Bears

Offensive standout: WR Jalen Coker

The Panthers have been looking for a dynamic duo at wide receiver for quite some time, and Coker made a strong case that he could be a player to step up alongside top wideout Teteroia McMillan this season. The third receiver caught eight passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns during Sunday's shootout against Chicago. That's more than one-third of his entire yardage output from last season.

Defensive standout: DE Jaelen Phillips

Any time a team puts up 59 points, it's going to be hard to call anyone a defensive standout. In fact, my pick for this spot called that an "ugly, ugly score." But Phillips did well in his Panthers debut. The big-ticket offseason signing had a sack and three quarterback pressures on Sunday. His run defense was impactful, too.

Telling quote: "I wish I could sit here and tell you about the good things that happened, but that doesn't matter. We played a really good team. When you make mistakes, you make fundamental mistakes, it gets magnified against with players. That's something that we have to be able to look at and grow from as we go into this thing." — Panthers head coach Dave Canales.

New Orleans Saints

Last game: Lost 31-30 at Detroit Lions

Offensive standout: WR Chris Olave

Olave gained more yards than any receiver in the NFL in Week 1. He caught 10 passes for 182 yards against the Lions, and although he didn't reach the end zone, he made several big catches that put the Saints in position to score touchdowns.

Defensive standout: DT Vernon Broughton

After playing in just one game as a rookie due to injuries, Broughton, a third-round pick for the Saints in 2025, made a big impression in his second career appearance on Sunday. He had three tackles and three quarterback pressures, despite facing nine double teams, according to Next Gen Snaps. Broughton also had a very cool forced fumble and fumble recovery.

Telling quote: "Love the way our guys fought and battled, and we rode a little bit of a roller coaster in all three phases, I think, at times in this game. Gave ourselves a heck of a chance to go win this thing. And so, proud of the way our guys battled and competed and continued to keep going for it. There's a lot of stuff we got to clean up, a lot of stuff we got to get better at." — Saints head coach Kellen Moore

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Last game: Lost 33-27 at Cincinnati Bengals

Offensive standout: RB Bucky Irving

Irving was about the only consistent thing for the Buccaneers' offense against the Bengals. Cincinnati built a 24-10 lead at halftime thanks in part to three Tampa Bay fumbles in the first half, including one from Irving. That was his one mistake on the day, however, and he finished with 93 total yards and a touchdown while averaging 5.6 yards per carry.

Defensive standout: LB Josiah Trotter

What a debut for the rookie linebacker. The son of former Eagles great Jeremiah Trotter had 10 tackles, a sack, and an interception he returned for a 38-yard touchdown against the Bengals. According to the team's website, Trotter became the first player in franchise history with a pick-six in his debut and the only player aside from T.J. Watt in the last decade to have a sack, an interception and at least five tackles in his first game.

Telling quote: "Well, obviously you can't turn the ball over. We had four turnovers and lose by just one touchdown. But it wasn't just that, you know. We had some penalties, some false starts there. Defensively, I'd be interested to know how many tackles we missed, because we missed some chip-shot tackles." — Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles