The NFC South was not a very good division last year.
In fact, the division as a whole Football Outsiders' adjusted sack rate for offensive line's, the Panthers had the league's 27th highest adjusted sack rate at 9.1%. The league average was 6.6%.
The Panthers also ranked just 24th in Adjusted Rushing NEP per play (-0.04) in 2014, further suggesting a boost to the offensive line would be beneficial.
Carolina did attempt to bolster their offensive line this offseason with the acquisitions of Michael Oher and Jonathan Martin. But both of those offensive tackles are probably coming in on a try-out basis with the team, with Oher signing a two-year deal and Martin being claimed off of waivers.
That means the team is still desperately in need of a left tackle and may look in that direction at 25th overall.
Potential Picks: OT Andrus Peat (Stanford), OT Ereck Flowers (Miami)
New Orleans Saints
Biggest Need: Linebacker
The Saints had the worst defense in the NFL in 2014.
New Orleans finished last in Adjusted Defensive NEP, allowing 153.37 points above expectation, and Adjusted Defensive Rushing NEP per play, allowing 0.11 points above expectation on each carry. Plus, they ended the season 29th in Adjusted Defensive Pass NEP per play (0.18). That's pretty putrid.
The Saints' struggles translated into traditional stats, as well, and they gave up the league's second most yards per rush attempt (4.8) in 2014. The defense needs help at all levels, but the linebacker position is the most glaring need on their roster.
Fortunately, New Orleans has two first-round picks, their 13th selection and the 31st overall selection (from Seattle), which means they have plenty of available draft capital to shore up a defense that was gashed for 2.48 points per drive last season.
Potential Picks: OLB Bud Dupree (Kentucky), ILB Eric Kendricks (UCLA)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Biggest Need: Quarterback
Hypothetically, you could list quarterback as a need for about five to eight teams every single year.
According to our data, the Buccaneers are certainly atop the list of teams that need to improve their quarterback play dramatically in 2015, as second-year man Mike Glennon and veteran Josh McCown finished 31st and 35th respectively in Passing NEP per drop back among 37 qualified signal-callers last season.
If the Buccaneers do draft a quarterback at number one overall, whomever they select will land in a fairly advantageous spot in terms of wide receiver talent. The aforementioned Mike Evans finished 17th in Reception NEP per target last year despite shoddy quarterback play.
Ultimately, the Buccaneers' decision will come down to Florida State's Jameis Winston or Oregon's Marcus Mariota. As our own Dan Pizutta mentioned, whoever drafts Winston is going to have to overlook his high interception rate and focus on his positive on-field attributes.
While Mariota didn't have as many directly transferable NFL snaps as Winston did, he did post an insane 11.5 adjusted yards per attempt in his Oregon career which was good enough for the sixth best adjusted yards per attempt in NCAA history.
Potential Picks: QB Jameis Winston (Florida State), QB Marcus Mariota (Oregon)