NFC South

Place cursor over year for division champ or Super Bowl team.

(NFC South records since the division's creation in 2002)

Asterisk (*) Denotes Current Year

• From 2003 to 2009, the team that placed last in the division the previous year would improve enough to reach the playoffs, usually by winning the division. Tampa Bay almost continued this trend in 2010, stopped only by losing a tiebreaker to Green Bay.
  • Carolina finished last in 2002 (7–9) and finished first in 2003 (11–5).
  • Atlanta finished last in 2003 (5–11) and finished first in 2004 (11–5).
  • Tampa Bay finished last in 2004 (5–11) and finished first in 2005 (11–5).
  • New Orleans finished last in 2005 (3–13) and finished first in 2006 (10–6).
  • Tampa Bay finished last in 2006 (4–12) and finished first in 2007 (9–7).
  • Atlanta finished last in 2007 (4–12) and finished second with a wild-card berth in 2008 (11–5).
  • New Orleans finished last in 2008 (8–8) and finished first in 2009 (13–3).
  • Tampa Bay finished last in 2009 (3–13) but despite finishing third in 2010 with a 10–6 record, did not make the playoffs, due to Green Bay holding the wild-card tiebreaker.
  • Carolina finished last in 2010 (2–14) and was eliminated from playoff contention in Week 14 of the 2011 season after going 4–9, becoming the first NFC South team to have a losing season after placing last in the division.
• From 2002 to 2009, no team in the NFC South earned back-to-back playoff appearances. In Week 16 of the 2010 season, New Orleans clinched a wild-card berth, becoming the first NFC South team to earn consecutive playoff appearances. New Orleans earned three consecutive playoff appearances in the 2009, 2010, and 2011 seasons and four in a row from 2017-2020. Atlanta also earned three consecutive playoff appearances, in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and Carolina in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Tampa Bay made it three consecutive years of playing in the post-season in 2020, 2021, and 2022. They were the only team who brought home the Lombardi Trophy during their playoff stretch.
• Each team has won the division at least four times and made a playoff appearance at least five times since the division's formation.
• Each team has finished last in the division at least twice since the division's formation. Prior to 2012, no team has finished last in the division in consecutive seasons. Tampa Bay became the first team in the division to place last in the division in consecutive seasons.
• From 2002 to 2011, there was an outright last place finisher in the division (i.e.: tiebreakers were not necessary to determine who finished last). That streak came to an end during the 2012 season, when Carolina, New Orleans, and Tampa Bay all finished at 7–9. This happened again in 2013, where both Atlanta and Tampa Bay finished 4–12.
• In 2014, Carolina became the first team to defend the NFC South title. No other team in the division has managed to do so until New Orleans defeated Tampa Bay on December 9, 2018 and clinched the division for the second straight season.
• In 2014, Carolina became the second team in NFL history to win its division and advance to the playoffs with a losing record (7–8–1). The first team to accomplish this is the 2010 Seahawks, who won the NFC West with a 7–9 record and beat New Orleans in a Wild Card game.
• With Atlanta winning the 2016–17 NFC Championship, the NFC South became the first division since the 2002 realignment to have all four of its teams represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. (Tampa Bay 2002 and 2020, Carolina 2003 and 2015, New Orleans 2009, Atlanta 2016).
• In the 2017 NFL season the NFC South had three of its teams qualify for the playoffs (Atlanta, New Orleans, Carolina). It was also the first time where two NFC South teams met in the playoffs, when New Orleans hosted and defeated Carolina in the Wild Card playoffs.
• In 2020 the New Orleans Saints became the first team to sweep the entire division as well as win 4 consecutive division titles. They would then lose to the eventual Super Bowl champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in the playoffs.

• Falcons–Panthers rivalry
• Falcons–Saints rivalry
• Buccaneers–Panthers rivalry
• Buccaneers–Saints rivalry