NFC South Cutdown: Atlanta Shed Its Holding File, Carolina Signed a Roughing the Passer Record

Cutdown in the NFC South split along a clean line. Two teams shed flags. One team signed some. And one rebuilt its receiver depth by releasing most of it. The transaction wire treats these identically. The foul column does not.

Atlanta

Fourteen out, and the ledger’s loudest departure in the division. Wanya Morris was released carrying twelve flags across the last three seasons, and the top foul is offensive holding in every single one of those years. Eight of the flags came in 2024 alone. When one player’s signature foul survives three seasons and a team change, that is not scheme. That is the player.

Channing Tindall also departs with holding calls in back-to-back seasons. Coming in: Gervon Dexter from Chicago, whose sheet leans roughing the passer, with Clark Phillips III going the other way. Cornerback Darren Hall lands on injured reserve. Atlanta cut its holding file and traded for a pass rush flag profile instead. Different foul, different downs, different cost. The ledger will tell us if it was a good trade of habits.

Carolina

Ten out with barely a flag among them, and one signing that brings the division’s most specific habit. Bobby Okereke arrives with a sheet that reads roughing the passer at the top in both of his flagged seasons, six flags for 49 yards in 2023 alone. Roughing calls are fifteen yards, automatic first down, and the single most argued-about flag in football. Panthers fans should get familiar with the rating slider now. Kyle Trask was among the cuts.

New Orleans

Fifteen out, three to injured reserve, and the shape of it is a receiver purge: Bub Means, Ronnie Bell, Jalen Moreno-Cropper, and Brock Rechsteiner all released or waived in one weekend. The IR list stings more: Jordyn Tyson, Ty Chandler, and Moliki Matavao. The arrivals are corners, Michael Davis and David Long Jr., neither carrying more than a single recent flag. The Saints’ cutdown thinned the offense and quietly re-stocked the secondary.

Tampa Bay

Thirteen out, and one departure with a genuinely odd sheet. Chris Braswell was released carrying five flags over two seasons, and last year’s leading foul was defensive offside, four times. Offside is the most coachable foul in football; it is also the fastest way out of a rotation. Quarterbacks Jake Browning and Connor Bazelak were both among the departures, and Deshawn McKnight goes to injured reserve.

Watch Carolina’s roughing count this season, and rate the calls when they come. That is the foul where the crowd disagrees with the crew most, and now the division has two more players who draw it.