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It was a big year for offense in the NFC South. The New Orleans Saints set all sorts of records. The Carolina Panthers lit up scoreboards and, when the Atlanta Falcons were on, they sometimes were spectacular.

That made for some difficult choices, but here’s my All-NFC South offense.

Tackle: Jordan Gross, Panthers. He’s getting along in years, but Gross is still the best tackle in the division.

Tackle: Jermon Bushrod, Saints. This was a really tough call because Tampa Bay’s Donald Penn seemed destined for this spot, but his play slipped as the Bucs collapsed and lost their last 10 games. I refuse to put any offensive lineman from Atlanta on this team, so I’m going with Bushrod almost by default. I know he made the Pro Bowl, but I’m not convinced Bushrod is anything more than an ordinary left tackle. But he’s better than any other tackle the NFC South had to offer.

Guard: Carl Nicks, Saints. He might be the best guard in the NFL.

Guard: Jahri Evans, Saints. If Nicks isn’t the best guard in the NFL, then Evans is.

Center: Ryan Kalil, Panthers. He’s becoming a Pro Bowl regular and might be the best center in the league.

Wide receiver: Steve Smith, Panthers. Rookie quarterback Cam Newton came along and revitalized Smith’s career. But I also think Smith deserves a lot of the credit for Newton’s success.

Wide receiver: Marques Colston, Saints. I went back and forth on this one between Colston and Atlanta’s Roddy White and Tampa Bay’s Mike Williams also got some consideration. I’m joking. Williams didn’t get one bit of consideration. White’s numbers were slightly better than Colston’s in terms of catches and receiving yards. But Colston missed a couple games with a broken collarbone and still had very nice numbers in an offense where there are a ton of other options. White had nice numbers, but he didn’t look like the dominant receiver he was a year ago. White led the league in drops.

Tight end: Jimmy Graham, Saints. This one was easy. Atlanta’s Tony Gonzalez had a very nice season and is the best tight end in history. But Graham had one of the most prolific seasons ever by a tight end in only his second season. Graham should only continue to get better and, if he stays healthy, he could eventually pass Gonzalez as the best tight end ever.

Fullback: Jed Collins, Saints. In his first real NFL season (Collins was with Cleveland in 2008), he emerged as a steady role player in the league’s best offense. Collins didn’t have much in the way of numbers, but his blocking was a key factor in the offenses’ success. If Atlanta’s Ovie Mughelli hadn’t gotten injured, he’d be in this spot. But Collins is a worthy replacement.

Running back: Darren Sproles, Saints. Sproles ended up with an NFL record for all-purpose yards. Out of the backfield, he contributed as a runner and receiver and created enormous matchup problems for opposing defenses.

Running back: Michael Turner. Yeah, I'm going with two running backs because it's my team, I can want and there are two guys that deserve to be on here. Turner looked slow for most of the second half of the season. But he still rushed for 1,340 yards and 11 touchdowns. That's not a bad season by any measure.

Quarterback: Drew Brees, Saints. He threw for a league-record 5,476 yards and also passed for 46 touchdowns. Brees has been great for a long time, but he took his game to another level. He’s the reason the Saints won 13 games without a defense.

Defense wasn’t a strength in the NFC South in the 2011 season. In fact, it was a big problem for the New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers and only an occasional strength for the Atlanta Falcons.

But there were some solid individual performances. With that in mind, let’s roll out the All-NFC South defense.

Defensive end: Charles Johnson, Panthers. He got his huge contract in the summer, but didn’t take the money and disappear. Johnson came through with nine sacks and also played the run fairly well.

Defensive end: Adrian Clayborn, Buccaneers. Yes, I’m taking the rookie over Atlanta veteran John Abraham. I know Abraham ended up with 9.5 sacks, but 3.5 of them came against Jacksonville and rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert. Abraham was ordinary most of the season and was on the field for only 13 percent of Atlanta’s defensive snaps. Clayborn finished with 7.5 sacks. He also was on the field for about 80 percent of Tampa Bay’s defensive snaps, showed he can rush the passer and played the run well. Not much went right for the Bucs in the 2011 season. But they hit on their first-round draft pick.

Defensive tackle: Corey Peters, Falcons. He started in 2010, but was only a run-stuffer then. Peters emerged into a complete defensive tackle in his second season and showed signs he can generate a pass rush in the middle.

Defensive tackle: Brian Price, Buccaneers. Off the top of my head, I was preparing to go with Atlanta’s Jonathan Babineaux or New Orleans’ Sedrick Ellis. Then I looked at their statistics and I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I’m going with Price, who quietly put together a nice season. He finished with three sacks and was one of the few Bucs who played the run well. More importantly, Price made a nice comeback from surgery on his pelvis and played through the pain of an ankle injury for most of the second half of the season.

Linebacker: Curtis Lofton, Falcons. In a year in which Carolina’s Jon Beason was hurt and New Orleans’ Jonathan Vilma slowed down, Lofton emerged as the NFC South’s best middle linebacker.

Linebacker: Sean Weatherspoon, Falcons. The second-year pro might now be the division’s best all-around linebacker. Weatherspoon is a playmaker and plays with an attitude that the rest of Atlanta’s defense needs to copy.

Linebacker: James Anderson, Panthers. With Beason and Thomas Davis going down early, Anderson was the bright spot in Carolina’s linebacker corps.

Cornerback: Jabari Greer, Saints. He often gets overlooked, but this guy is the best cover corner in the division.

Cornerback: Chris Gamble, Panthers. Gamble got benched by coach John Fox at the end of the 2010 season and his career appeared to be on the downside. But Gamble got a fresh start with coach Ron Rivera and bounced back with a strong season.

Safety: Malcolm Jenkins, Saints. He didn’t make as many big plays as I think he’s capable of, but Jenkins is an enormous talent. If the Saints can add a pass rush, the big plays will flow for Jenkins.

Safety: Thomas DeCoud, Falcons. He was benched briefly early in the season, but DeCoud seemed to get the message that he needed to play better. He finished the season with four interceptions and 86 tackles.

It’s time to unveil my All-NFC South team for the 2011 season. We’ll have selections for the offense, the defense and a post that includes division-wide honors and bests and worsts. The offense and defense will come later Tuesday and the honors and bests and worsts will come Wednesday.

But, for now, let’s start with the special teams.

Kicker: Matt Bryant, Falcons. He missed only two field goal attempts all season. New Orleans’ John Kasay also had a fine year. But if the game is on the line, Bryant’s the one kicker in this division I want on the field.

Punter: Thomas Morstead, Saints. If San Francisco’s Andy Lee didn’t have one of the best seasons ever by a punter, Morstead probably would have been in the Pro Bowl. He also does a nice job kicking off.

Return man: Darren Sproles, Saints. Was dangerous whenever he touched the ball as a running back, receiver or a return man.

Long-snapper: Joe Zelenka, Falcons. There’s probably a fair amount of you who have never heard of Zelenka. That’s one of the best things you can say about a long-snapper. It means he’s not making mistakes.

Holder: Michael Koenen, Buccaneers. I usually don’t include a holder on awards for special teams. But I’m making an exception here. It’s a rare chance to give Tampa Bay representation on the All-NFC South team. I’m still debating a couple spots on the offense and defense and it’s looking like Tampa Bay may have one or two other representatives or Koenen might be the only player from the Buccaneers.

The season might be over for the NFC South teams, but we’re not done here.

The NFC South chat will be held Friday at 1 p.m. ET and there’s plenty to talk about. We’ve got Tampa Bay’s search for a head coach and New Orleans’ search for a defensive coordinator. We also can talk about Atlanta’s recent hires of offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter and defensive coordinator Mike Nolan. We also at least begin talking about who the Panthers and Buccaneers might take with their top-10 draft picks, and anything else you want to discuss.

Also, as I’ve been recovering from an illness, I’ve been giving lots of thought to my All-NFC South team. I haven’t scheduled an exact date for it yet, and we might spread it out over a few days, with teams for offense, defense and special teams, and an all-encompassing division awards post. But that will appear sometime next week.

I’ll be revealing my midseason Most Valuable Player for all four NFC South teams Wednesday. I’ll also have my midseason All-NFC South team a bit later in the week.

I’ll be writing the MVP package at some point later Tuesday and I’ve still got a couple of tough calls to make.

I just took a look back at your voting for MVPs for each team last week.

For the Saints, Darren Sproles won the voting pretty easily over Drew Brees. For the Falcons, Michael Turner was the runaway winner.

Ronde Barber won by a big margin for the Buccaneers. Carolina’s Cam Newton had the biggest landslide of all.

I’m not going to give away anything here, but I’ll tell you I’m going the same way on at least two of those votes. On the other two, I’ve still got some thinking to do.

We've already presented the offense, defense and specialists on our All-NFC South team. Now, it's time for some division-wide awards.

Coach of the Year: Mike Smith, Atlanta Falcons. There was strong temptation to go with Tampa Bay's Raheem Morris here. He did a fantastic job, but I'm also trying to spread things out. I'll go with Smith. Forget the debacle in the playoff loss to Green Bay. The Falcons won 13 games, and they did that by playing disciplined, smart football.

General Manager of the Year: Mark Dominik, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With the league's lowest payroll and a slew of injuries, the Bucs managed to win 10 games. Dominik pulled some rabbits out of a hat by finding some impact players late in the draft, off the waiver wire and off the practice squads of other teams.

Rookie of the Year: Mike Williams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Exhibit A of Dominik's success. Williams was a fourth-round draft pick, but he immediately was Tampa Bay's No. 1 receiver.

Coordinator of the Year: Greg Olson, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Atlanta offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey and New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams are bigger names. But I'll take Olson just on this season. With Josh Freeman in his first full season as a starting quarterback, a bunch of young guys playing at receiver and running back, and an offensive line that was hit hard by injuries, Olson still made this the most entertaining offense in franchise history.

Defensive Player of the Year: John Abraham, Atlanta Falcons. This was probably the hardest choice on this list. It was not a banner year for defense in the NFC South. I narrowed the list to Abraham and New Orleans' Jonathan Vilma and Malcolm Jenkins. Vilma might be the most consistent and best overall defensive player in the division, and Jenkins probably has the most upside. But Vilma didn't make a lot of big plays, and I'm hesitant to give Jenkins this honor in his first full season as a starter. Abraham had 13 sacks and made more big plays than any defensive player in the division.

Offensive Player of the Year: Roddy White, Atlanta Falcons. Yes, Drew Brees, Matt Ryan and Freeman got consideration here. So did Atlanta running back Michael Turner. All those guys are good. But when you look at their production this season only, can you really make a case that they were the best in the league at their position? I think you can do that with White, and that's why I'm going with him.

Special Teams Player of the Year: Eric Weems, Atlanta Falcons. He did it all for the Falcons, returning kickoffs and punts and also helping out on the coverage units. He became a big-play guy as a return man, and that's why he's going to the Pro Bowl.

Breakout Player of the Year: Malcolm Jenkins, New Orleans Saints. He moved from cornerback to free safety, and even made a brief return to cornerback when injuries piled up. He made some huge plays and showed signs he could become a force for the long term.

Equipment Manager of the Year: Jackie Miles, Carolina Panthers. Hey, I had to get the Panthers involved somehow, and there really wasn't a legitimate case for any of their players, coaches or executives. But the one guy with the Panthers who is the absolute best in the league at what he does is Miles. He might not be an owner, player, coach or general manager, but there are times you watch Miles do his thing and you feel like you are watching Ted Williams (the baseball player, not the guy with the big voice) taking batting practice.

Most Valuable Player: You'll have to wait a bit. That's going to be announced in a column that is to appear Friday afternoon.

We continue our All-NFC South team now with the offense.

Tackle: Donald Penn, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He got his big contract at the start of training camp. Penn then went out and showed he deserved the big money. While the rest of Tampa Bay's offensive line was going through a bunch of injuries, Penn did a great job of protecting Josh Freeman's blind side.

Tackle: Jordan Gross, Carolina Panthers. It's hard to put anyone from Carolina on this offense because the Panthers were so dismal on offense. I might be giving Gross a pass because of his reputation from past seasons. But show me another tackle in the division who's better than Gross.

Guard: Carl Nicks, New Orleans Saints. One half of the best guard tandem in the league.

Guard: Jahri Evans, New Orleans Saints. The other half of the best guard tandem in the league.

Center: Todd McClure, Atlanta Falcons. New Orleans' Jonathan Goodwin and Carolina's Ryan Kalil got strong consideration here, but the Saints already have strong representation on the offensive line, and I couldn't bring myself to put more than one Carolina player on this offense. Atlanta's offensive line was too good as a unit to not have someone on this list. McClure's the veteran anchor of this line.

Tight end: Kellen Winslow, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It's a very close call between Winslow and Atlanta's Tony Gonzalez. Their numbers were very similar. I'm going with Winslow. Gonzalez already has received enough attention throughout his career. Winslow was infamous in his Cleveland days, but he's been on his best behavior and has been productive since coming to the Bucs.

Wide receiver: Roddy White, Atlanta Falcons. Had a monstrous season and now has to be considered one of the best receivers in the league.

Wide receiver: Mike Williams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A fourth-round draft pick, Williams was instantly dominant at a position where it often takes players a few years to develop.

Running back: Michael Turner, Atlanta Falcons. Had some ups and downs, but still is the most dependable running back in the division.

Running back: LeGarrette Blount, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Went from being cut by Tennesee in the preseason to becoming Tampa Bay's feature back. He didn't fully get put in that role until close to midseason, but he still rushed for 1,000 yards.

Fullback: Ovie Mughelli, Atlanta Falcons. Did a great job blocking for Turner and protecting Matt Ryan.

Quarterback: Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints. This wasn't his best season, and Ryan and Freeman got strong consideration for this spot. They're also getting strong consideration for the division's MVP award and Offensive Player of the Year, which will be announced Friday. But, at least at quarterback on the All-NFC South team, I had to stick with Brees. He threw too many interceptions. But he also led the division in passing yards and touchdowns.

We'll continue to unveil our All-NFC South team for the regular season. This time, let's turn to special teams.

Kicker: Matt Bryant, Atlanta Falcons: Easy choice here. Bryant missed only three field goals in the regular season. After going through tough times in his personal life, Bryant has bounced back and put his career on very solid ground.

Punter: Thomas Morstead, New Orleans Saints. His 45.9-yard gross average and 38.4 net were tops in the NFC South.

Return man: Eric Weems, Atlanta Falcons. He went from being a steady performer to suddenly making some huge plays. That's why Weems was selected to the Pro Bowl.

The 2010 season will not be remembered for great defense in the NFC South. That’s mainly due to the fact the Saints and Falcons each had massive defensive collapses in their playoff losses.

But put that aside and there were some strong individual performances during the regular season. We’re going to highlight some of those performances as we begin to unveil our All-NFC South team for the 2010 season. We’re going to start it off with the defense.

Defensive end: John Abraham, Atlanta Falcons. A lot of people thought he was washed up after a disappointing 2009 season. But Abraham bounced back in a big way. He finished the season with a division-high 13 sacks.

Defensive end: Charles Johnson, Carolina Panthers. After Julius Peppers left for the Chicago Bears, everyone wondered where the pass rush would come from. It ended up coming from Johnson, who produced 11.5 sacks. That number is even better than it sounds when you consider the fact the Panthers seldom were playing with leads and opposing teams didn’t have many games where they were trying desperately to catch up and throwing a lot.

Defensive tackle: Jonathan Babineaux, Atlanta Falcons. Quite simply, he’s easily the best defensive tackle in this division. He also should get more recognition on a league-wide basis. Babineaux plays the run well, which is the main job of any defensive tackle. But he also generates a strong pass rush from the interior, which makes him something of a rarity.

Defensive tackle: Sedrick Ellis, New Orleans Saints. He stayed healthy enough to play in all 16 games for the first time in his three-year career. Ellis produced a career-high six sacks and played the run pretty well.

Linebacker: Curtis Lofton, Atlanta Falcons. Emerged as the unquestioned leader of an Atlanta defense that was good during the regular season. Started to show he can make some big plays, although there is room for more of that in the future.

Linebacker: Jonathan Vilma, New Orleans Saints. Probably the best all-around linebacker in the division. He did a little bit of everything – making tackles, forcing fumbles and making some plays as a pass defender.

Linebacker Jon Beason, Carolina Panthers. It was a strange season for Beason. He left his position in the middle to go outside when Thomas Davis went down with an injury before the season. After Dan Connor suffered a season-ending injury, Beason jumped back to the middle. It was a disastrous season for Carolina in many ways, but Beason was a major reason why the defense was somewhat respectable.

Cornerback Brent Grimes, Atlanta Falcons. Atlanta went out and spent a ton of money to sign Dunta Robinson. His presence helped the secondary, although Robinson didn’t put up huge numbers. Having Robinson on the other side prompted teams to challenge the undersized Grimes. But Grimes responded with five interceptions.

Cornerback: Aqib Talib, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He appeared in only 11 games due to a one-game suspension and a late-season injury. The second cornerback spot on this team came down to Talib and New Orleans’ Jabari Greer, who might be the best cover corner in the division. But Greer produced only two interceptions. Talib had six in a short season.

Safety: Malcom Jenkins, New Orleans Saints. In his first season as a full-time starter and his first season as a safety, Jenkins emerged as perhaps the best defensive player on the team. He moved back over to cornerback when Greer and Tracy Porter were dealing with injuries. Jenkins made plays all season. But his real value might have been most obvious in the playoff loss. He had to sit out with an injury and the Saints were lost without him.

Safety: William Moore, Atlanta Falcons. Much like Jenkins, he was in his first season as a full-time starter. He showed an ability to make big plays. He and Thomas DeCoud should give Atlanta a nice safety tandem for the next several years.

Over the next few days I will unveil our All-NFC South team for the 2010 season.

I’m just beginning to sort through everything now, but my plan is to begin Wednesday and continue through Friday. I haven’t set an exact order yet on what we’ll roll out on what days, but I’m planning to do a post each for offense, defense, specialists and another post on season-ending awards, such as Coach of the Year, Executive of the Year and Rookie of the Year. On Friday, I'm planning a column on the NFC South's Most Valuable Player.

Stay tuned.

Our final installment of the All-NFC South team covers the coaches and general managers.

Coach of the Year: Sean Payton, Saints. Can there really be any other choice? Forget the last three games of the season, for now anyway. Payton realized in the offseason his team had to get better on defense and at running the ball. He made that happen and that’s called growing as a coach.

Defensive coordinator of the Year: Gregg Williams, Saints. Yes, things got kind of dicey late in the season and the Saints head into the playoffs with some serious questions on defense. But, early in the year before all the injuries set in, Williams had this unit playing very aggressively. There’s no way the Saints win 13 games if Williams wasn’t around. We'll throw out an honorable mention to Carolina's Ron Meeks, whose defense came on strong in the second half of the season.

Offensive coordinator: Pete Carmichael/Payton, Saints. Carmichael officially has the title, but Payton is heavily involved in the offense on every level and he calls the plays. I’m trying to be overly fair and not give every award to the Saints. But, looking around the rest of the NFC South, I can’t even come close to saying any other offensive coordinator had a good season.

Special teams coach of the Year: Richard Bisaccia, Buccaneers. Here, we finally got to an award that doesn’t involve the Saints. Bisaccia, who may be leaving the Buccaneers for the college ranks, had a tremendous season. The Bucs had huge problems everywhere, except on special teams, where they were very good. This roster wasn’t loaded with talent and there were issues with the kickers and the punters. But Bisaccia got the most out of what he had to work with.

General Manager of the Year: Mickey Loomis, Saints. Just like with Payton, there really can’t be any other choice because the results on the field speak for themselves. Loomis deserves tons of credit for the gutsy move to trade up and draft punter Thomas Morstead. It didn’t go over well with fans at the time, but it worked out brilliantly. Loomis also signed free agents like Jabari Greer and Darren Sharper and had the foresight not to get desperate and sign Edgerrin James or give up too much to draft Beanie Wells.

Time to talk about special teams as we continue to unveil the All-NFC South team for the 2009 season.

Kicker: John Kasay, Panthers. This one’s not even close. In a year when just about every other NFC South kicker suddenly got old, bad or injured, Kasay was the model of consistency. Kind of sums up his career.

Punter: Thomas Morstead, Saints. Kind of a tough call here because Carolina’s Jason Baker actually had slightly better punting stats than Morstead and Atlanta’s Michael Koenen. But Morstead and Koenen both kicked off and did it very well. I chose Morstead, the rookie, in a very close call over Koenen.

Long snapper: Jason Kyle, Saints. You’ve probably never heard of him, but that’s the best thing you can say about a long snapper. In my eyes, this guy is the best in the business and has been for a long time.

Return man: Clifton Smith, Buccaneers. Yeah, I know he got hurt and missed significant playing time. But this guy still ended up leading the league in kickoff return average and wasn’t bad on special teams.

Just wanted to let you know that the All-NFC South offense will be posted soon -- probably in an hour or so.

The All-NFC South defense and special teams will follow in the coming days. I won’t lock into exact days yet because my schedule is a little crazy this week. I’m in Pennsylvania right now to attend a funeral and will be working around that. But I’ll have the entire All-NFC South team items posted within the next few days.

Also, we won’t be able to do the NFC South chat this Friday because I’ll be traveling back home and will be in the air at the time we were scheduled to go. If you have something you want to talk about, hit the mailbag. I’ll be answering mail this weekend.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- I’m about to begin the trek back home to Tampa and I’ll be keeping an eye out for Bill Cowher all the way.

So far, it’s been a quiet Monday on the NFC South coaching front, although I’m still not totally convinced Tampa Bay’s Raheem Morris and Carolina’s John Fox will be staying with their teams. We should know more on both situations soon enough.

I’ll have the cell phone handy and will check in if anything breaks while I travel.

In other programming notes, we’ll have our season wrap-ups coming Wednesday. I also plan to do my annual All-NFC South team. Haven’t decided on an exact date for that yet, but it will probably come somewhere toward the weekend.

Posted by ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas

Now on to the specialists and coach for your NFC South all-decade team.

Kicker: John Kasay. There were a lot of votes for Morten Anderson, Matt Bryant and John Carney. But I asked you all to be fair and make sure we got the guy on here that truly deserved to be here. By putting aside your team allegiances and voting for Kasay, you made the right choice. The guy was in the division all decade and made an awful lot of big kicks.

Punter: Todd Sauerbrun. The Odd Couple lives again. For much of the decade Kasay and Sauerburn worked together in Carolina and nobody could figure out how two polar opposites thrived. It didn't matter. They worked great together.

Return man: Reggie Bush. There were some votes for Steve Smith, but he didn't qualify because he hasn't been a true return guy since early in his career. Tampa Bay's Clifton Smith got some votes after a nice rookie season, but let's see him do it again. There also were a few votes for Michael Lewis, but Bush was the easy winner here.

Coach: John Fox. This one was very close. Fox nudged Jon Gruden by six votes. Gruden won a Super Bowl, but Fox got his team to two NFC Championships. Fox also was starting on a lower level, taking over George Seifert's 1-15. Gruden got a Super Bowl team in Tampa that just needed some tweaking.