NEW ORLEANS — Is it always pretty? It is not. But football's not supposed to be a beautiful game; that's the other football.

So for the Panthers and Saints, and the rest of the NFC South, the fact that everyone might not share a high opinion of the division at the moment matters not.

Because no matter what, one of them is going to the playoffs.

"I mean, it's a dogfight every year," said veteran of the NFC South wars Brady Christensen. "It might not be the top dog, but it's a dogfight."​

And make no mistake, a division with four teams with three wins each might not be ready for Westminster, more like Wild West, or perhaps the Dirty South. But no matter what you think about being 3-5, it's also a fact that the Panthers are in first place heading into today's game at the Caesars Superdome.

When Panthers head coach Dave Canales called them up for one of the first meetings of the season, he told the Panthers to "win the first championship first," meaning the NFC South.

So while a lot of pundits might be making fun of the division and its four sub-.500 teams at the moment, those who have been around it know there's something to be said for this kind of fighting-in-a-phone-booth that prepares one for greater things.

Christensen was here in 2022, when a 1-4 start led to a coaching change, which led to the unlikeliest playoff push of them all.

"We were like one and something, came all the way back and almost made the playoffs," Christensen said. "So each division game is a dogfight because no one's out of it ever. And so I think that makes it hard. I think guys across the league always play hard, but you have that extra gear when you know you're fighting for a conference championship or a division championship.

"I think all that we care is that we're still in it and we're tied for first right now, and so we control our destiny, and that's about it. You'd have a little more confidence at 7-1 for sure. Even in your workday, when you're 3-5, it gets a little grimy out at practice because everyone's busting their ass, because you don't feel good about yourself, and so I think you're trying to find that extra gear. Where if you're 7-1 maybe you cruise a little bit on the Wednesday practice or whatever, where you can't when you're 3-5, so you do sense that difference; I think that's fair."

Of course, if you're not down there in the mud with the Panthers and Saints and Falcons and Bucs, it's easy to laugh. And plenty of people are having their fun with this division at the moment.

But most players take on the insular posture of not worrying about anything beyond the border.

"I don't care; I don't care at all," defensive tackle Derrick Brown said with a dismissive shake of his head. "I don't know, man. I know a lot of things are said, people who don't understand it like I do, so I'm not worried about it, to be honest.

"I don't (hear it). I don't do social media and all that s---, so I don't hear it or see it."

Likewise, quarterback Bryce Young, Mr. Control-What-You-Can-Control, just shrugged when asked about the perception of his division.

"The NFL is the NFL," he said. "I don't know what; I haven't seen or heard all that stuff. Obviously, I understand records and stuff. But again, that's not for me to comment on or care about. We want to go 1-0 this week. That's all that matters. That's our focus."

Veteran long snapper JJ Jansen knows this better than any of them.

He's been around this division since 2009, so he's seen the days when the quarterbacks were Cam Newton and Drew Brees and Matt Ryan and the NFC South had  three 10-plus-win teams at a time (and the Panthers both were and were not one of them at different times). And he's seen years like 2014 and 2025, when the Panthers won the division with 7-8-1 and 8-9 records. And he was here in 2022, the last time Carolina left the Superdome with a win. And he's been around for the last five years, when the average difference between first place and third place in the division is 1.6 games, including last year's three-way tie at 8-9. So he knows it's usually tight,

"I think it numbs you to the anxiety of this game means something more," Jansen said. "So we talk about it all the time like, 'Hey, it's just another game.' You get deeper in the season, and it feels like players are always saying, 'Well, it's just one more game,' and early in the season players are saying stuff like 'We've got to treat every game like it's a Super Bowl,' right? So you're trying to normalize early in the season to late and kind of put it in perspective.

"So when you're dealing with a hotly contested division or a race for a wild card position or whatever, where every week means something because everything's so tight, I do think that if you are the team that survives the race, you are very well prepared to go into the playoffs when the game's absolutely everything. So I think it just prepares you in the sense that you are used to this game on Sunday meaning a lot.

"If you are a team that runs out to a big lead in the division and you know you're going to the playoffs, then each week doesn't really hold the same kind of weight, whether you win or lose, and then all of a sudden you get to the playoffs, it's like, well, if we don't win today, we're going home. I think the team that's been in those races longer, I'm not saying that they will always win, but they are certainly more comfortable in that environment."

Jansen said that even in 2015, when they cruised into the playoffs with a 15-1 record, they were pushed almost to the end because the Cardinals finished 13-3, and the Panthers wanted those games at home. So that's its own kind of pressure, but having lived through years where everyone's scratching and clawing for the one playoff berth and the No. 4 seed is different.

"If the risk is not making the playoffs, it goes up," he said. "When you're in a tightly contested division like we are right now, in all likelihood, this division's only getting one team in the playoffs. So you've got to win your division, so you become very aware of the ramifications this week. I know we're still a ways away from that, but I mean you'd be silly if you didn't think it.

"I think you're aware of where you are in the division."

And for the Panthers at the moment, that means first place — no apologies necessary.