INDIANAPOLIS — When Bryce Young and Michael Penix stood toe-to-toe in the season finale, trading haymakers in a 44-38 overtime classic, it might have been more than just an entertaining game to punctuate a frustrating season for a couple of non-playoff teams.

It might have been a sign of a more competitive future for the NFC South as a whole, with the young quarterbacks hoping to make things a little more balanced in the division.

While all the attention at the combine will be on quarterbacks Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders today when they make the media rounds and Saturday, whether they work out or not, the NFC South will likely be looking elsewhere. The division is accounted for at the position this year, with Tampa Bay and New Orleans rolling with veterans Baker Mayfield and Derek Carr, and the Panthers and Falcons with young ones they like.

And the finale between the 23-year-old Young and the Falcons rookie who is actually older than him might have been a sign that things are getting better, and also tougher.

"That was exciting, but it was also pretty scary, you know," Panthers head coach Dave Canales said of the last time his team took the field. "Just kind of seeing Michael Penix step up and make those plays and just really going drive-for-drive, battling that way.

"It was an exciting feeling to come off of that field for sure because we won but also because you could just feel the sense of like, all right, here's what we have to look forward to. Here's the challenges that we have to meet. So, it does add to the urgency for all of us. It starts with our division, and there's some really good teams in our division."

Of course, the records of recent years don't point to that exactly, as the NFC South has been in a bit of a struggle with itself.

The division as a whole hasn't posted an over-.500 record since 2017, when Cam Newton, Drew Brees, and Matt Ryan were at the helms of their respective teams and all three went to the playoffs. The NFC South hasn't put two teams in the playoffs since 2020, the first year of the expanded seven-team-per-conference format.

And lately, a division that was once one of the league's toughest hasn't been particularly strong. The four teams in the division were a combined 28-40 last season, 27-41 in 2023, and 29-39 in 2022.

Tampa Bay has been to the playoffs for five straight years and won four straight division titles (including in 2022, with an 8-9 record, edging out a surging Panthers team). And Bucs general manager Jason Licht acknowledged this might be getting tougher in a landscape where the Panthers and Falcons appear to have young quarterbacks to build around.

"Yeah, we've been talking about this a lot," Licht said this week. "You know, in Carolina, Bryce Young really came on this year and showed why he was such a coveted pick. We think Penix is a really good quarterback, a dynamic quarterback. He's got a really good arm and is a smart guy, so it's keeping everybody on their edge. We have to continue to not just remain competitive, but try to stay ahead.

"Planning-wise, well, you're always trying to get better. You're always trying to improve in all areas. There isn't a year where you think, 'Well, the quarterbacks in this division aren't any good, so we don't need to do anything.' You're always trying to stay ahead because there's always the other teams in the NFC that you're trying to compete with."

For the Falcons, the decision to start Penix the final three games of the season was a dramatic one, less than a year after giving Kirk Cousins a four-year, $180 million deal. While his future is uncertain (they've said they're comfortable keeping him as a backup), the Falcons made their stance clear here this week.

General manager Terry Fontenot and coach Raheem Morris both said they view Penix as the future of the organization, making the switch from Cousins complicated but one made with long-term stability in mind.

"You just have to make sure when you see a quarterback that you can be a future franchise player; you have to do it," Fontenot said. "That's the vision for that, and that's how you have to operate."

He also acknowledged, as Canales did, that the season finale could have been a sign.

"I think it's competitive," Fontenot said of the NFC South. "I mean, you look at the teams in the division, and you just said that Bryce Young—you look at every team. When you play those games, those in-division games are hard games. Those teams know you well, and those are tough, competitive games."

Like Licht, Panthers general manager Dan Morgan said the makeup of the division doesn't change the way he thinks about roster-building, but he also knows things are changing.

"I can only speak for us; I feel like for us our goal every year is going to be to win the division, to get a home playoff game, and then to make a run," he said. "And that's going to be the goal every year as long as I'm the GM. In terms of the other teams in the division, I'm not so much concerned about them. I'm concerned about getting our roster right and making ours the most competitive in the NFC South.

"You can't be naive to that, but at the same time, you really have to focus on who you are and your philosophy and building the team the way that we want to build it."

And it's clear that after the second half of last season, the Panthers are confident that Young is the one to lead them forward.

When Canales talked about what Young showed them last season, the list of qualities was long.

"Just toughness," he began. "Mental toughness, emotional toughness, physical toughness, you know, he took some good shots there and showed he can just stand in there and play good football. And just watching the weekly progression of it, that's kind of just what we talked about a little bit there was watching as we finished each week. There was improvement each week, and if you can imagine, if you could just get one week better for a long time, how good you could become.

"So I got a lot of excitement, a lot of appreciation for the way that Bryce just took a leadership role in this too, and really made statements to his teammates in that locker room, and you can feel the respect. I'm sure all of you around the team, you know the guys started to feel that, like this guy's real, and so I'm excited to go into this offseason knowing we have this quarterback. Now let's start building this team and let's become the 2025 Panthers."

When they packed up for the offseason after that Atlanta game — in which Young threw for three touchdowns (including the epic no-look job to Tommy Tremble) and ran for two more — Canales and Young discussed that future together and what it might hold.

It's similar to what they're thinking in Atlanta, as both franchises are hoping for a brighter future and the chance to push the Buccaneers for the division title. As Canales considered building around Young and a couple of rookie receivers like Xavier Legette and Jalen Coker, shepherded by Adam Thielen for another year and adding in tight ends Ja'Tavion Sanders and potentially free agent Tremble, he sees the potential.

"Leaving the season talking to Bryce and the excitement that we both felt," Canales said, "I think there was just a mutual respect about going through something really challenging and coming out on the other end together. And growing something together because, again, like we talked about even a year ago, this offense will look like Bryce Young.

"However we've got to do that, we're going to find what that is, and I'm going to throw a bunch of stuff at him and see what sticks. And see what starts to emerge, and that certainly is not just about Bryce, it's the emergence of Xavier, it's Thielen coming back to us and Bryce finding a way to throw to him. It's Jalen Coker and what he brings to us, JT showing up, Tommy certainly.

"So it's all those guys really fleshing it out that we could end the season saying, hey, that Atlanta game was pretty fun, right? That's a pretty good starting point for us."