NFC South

Division lineups

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

Division champions

Wild Card qualifiers

Total Playoff Berths as members of the NFC South

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

Season results

Asterisk (*) Denotes Current Year

Schedule rotation

Oddities and facts

• 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 strength of victory 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 strength of victory 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 to 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.
• 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. Before 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 when 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. Carolina also 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).
• On September 21, 2025, the Carolina Panthers shut out the Atlanta Falcons in a dominating 30-0 performance, marking the second shutout against the Falcons since Carolina's 38-0 shutout on December 13, 2015.
• In the 2017 NFL season, three of the NFC South's teams (Carolina, New Orleans, and Atlanta) qualified for the playoffs. This was also the first time that two NFC South teams met in the playoffs, as 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 in the regular season and win 4 consecutive division titles. In the playoffs, they would then lose to the eventual Super Bowl champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
• In 2022, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the fourth team in NFL history to win its division and advance to the playoffs with a losing record (8–9). The 2010 Seahawks, 2014 Panthers, and 2020 Washington Football Team previously accomplished this feat.
• In 2024, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers tied with the New Orleans Saints for the most division titles (7) and most consecutive division titles (4). The Buccaneers also broke the record for most consecutive playoff appearances, with 5.
• In 2025, Carolina, Tampa Bay and Atlanta finished tied for first place in the division, each with a record of 8-9. The season ended with an Atlanta-New Orleans game that, due to the NFL's 3-way tiebreaker rules, would decide whether Carolina or Tampa Bay would win the division (Atlanta would win the game, sending Carolina to the playoffs).

References

References

1. (2018-01-11). "NFC South Remains NFL's Most Competitive Division".
2. "Super Bowl LV – Kansas City Chiefs vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – February 7th, 2021".