ATLANTA -- I got to drop in on the NFC South on Sunday, and boy was that fun. The New Orleans Saints' 43-37 overtime victory over the Atlanta Falcons was about as 2018 as football gets. Quarterbacks, more protected than ever, airing it out. A rookie receiver dominating his matchup. The ever-menacing threat of a tie. And, in the end, Drew Brees still colder than ice when it counts.

The NFC South had three playoff teams last year. So far this year, only the 1-2 Falcons have a losing record, and their losses are to the Philadelphia Eagles and Saints. No other division has more than two teams with winning records so far. Which is why every game between two NFC South teams is must-watch, and every division win a huge relief.

"It makes the win that much sweeter when we know we have that much more room to grow," Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan said after Sunday's game. "We know we can improve, and we know we have to. Starting next week."

The Saints haven't played as well as they'd like to so far -- especially on defense. They talked last week about "diversifying" their passing attack, but 25 of Brees' 39 completions Sunday went to Alvin Kamara or Michael Thomas. Work still to do. But they're 2-1, and a road win in Atlanta is a big deal when you're forecasting a tight division race.

Carolina is also 2-1, with a Week 2 loss in Atlanta. The encouraging thing for the Panthers is that they've scored 31 points in each of their past two games. They need to get some things going downfield with their receivers, but the early success has Cam Newton buying into Norv Turner's offense, and the defense gets better in two weeks when Thomas Davis returns from suspension.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a surprising 2-1 even after getting knocked off at home by the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night, and it remains to be seen what happens with their quarterback situation. But the offense is clearly capable of big things, and they look like a tougher team to play than they were last year.

Sadly, the Atlanta Falcons may be cooked. Ricardo Allen's season-ending injury Sunday means they're now without both starting safeties (Allen and Keanu Neal) and middle linebacker Deion Jones. Dan Quinn's defense is built around the idea of funneling the other team's passing game up the middle and leaning on star players who can clean up that area. Those guys are all gone to injury, and in a division like this one there's little margin for error. That's why Sunday's loss hurt Atlanta so badly. Five touchdown passes from Matt Ryan, three to rookie Calvin Ridley and an offense that finally looks like it's clicking under Steve Sarkisian ... and now the defense is falling apart. Got to hit your windows in this league. They always shut before you expect them to shut.

Some other things Week 3 taught us:

The Seahawks don't want to give Earl Thomas a new deal, so the safety would like to be traded to a team that will. AP Photo/Elaine Thompson

The Seattle Seahawks really should trade Earl Thomas

Fascinating situation up there in Seattle. Thomas is no longer holding out, but does seem to be staging what Fox's Jay Glazer referred to Sunday as a "hold-in." Thomas admitted after Sunday's game -- in which he had two interceptions -- that he has been skipping practice because he wants to reduce the strain on his body and keep himself fresh for games. He said, "I'm invested in myself. If they were invested in me, I would be out there practicing."

Thomas, in the final year of his contract, wants a new deal. The Seahawks don't want to give him one, so Thomas would like to be traded to a team that will. It seems clear that a trade would be in everyone's best interest, since Thomas obviously doesn't want to be there and Seattle's coaches surely don't want one of their best players skipping practice and signaling to others on the team that such behavior is OK. The reasons not to trade him are (1) because you don't want to be perceived as giving in to a player's trade demand and (2) because he's going to help you win. But this year's Seahawks (Sunday's home-opener victory against a miserable Dallas Cowboys offense notwithstanding) don't look as though Thomas is going to make them a Super Bowl team. And as to the first point, what does pride really get you here? They have a guy who doesn't want to be there and would be of value to another team. Find out what that value is, max it out, and wish another of your franchise cornerstones well. It's rebuild time out there anyway, and you need draft picks for that.

Richard Sherman's injury is going to cost him

Speaking of former Seattle cornerstones, San Francisco 49ers corner Richard Sherman looks as though he'll miss two to three games with a calf injury. Remember when Sherman negotiated his own contract with the 49ers without an agent? Yeah, here's what that means now that he's hurt:

Sherman loses $125,000 in per-game roster bonuses for every week he's not on the 46-man roster. So if he misses three games, that's $375,000. His contract also stipulates a $1 million bonus if he plays in at least 90 percent of the 49ers' defensive snaps. If he misses two games, he's got almost no chance of doing that. He gets an additional $1 million for making the Pro Bowl (in the initial selection process, not as an alternate) and $2 million if he's first-team or second-team All-Pro. Not many dudes who play only 13 games get that kind of recognition. Oh, and his totally non-guaranteed 2019 salary includes a $1 million escalator that only kicks in if he makes this year's Pro Bowl (again, initially, not as an alternate). So if he makes this year's Pro Bowl (which he probably won't now that he's hurt), his 2019 salary would be $8 million instead of $7 million and would be injury-guaranteed upon that selection and fully guaranteed as of April 1, 2019. As it stands, without that escalator, the Niners can cut him free and clear after this year and owe nothing.

So a contract that was initially reported as three years, $39 million really comes out to one year, $8.625 million if he misses three games due to injury -- less by $125,000 for each additional game he misses.

Sherman argued at the time that he was in a low-leverage situation coming off an Achilles injury and having been cut by Seattle. And he's right. He wanted to try to negotiate his own deal without an agent, and that's his right. The point here is not to call Sherman a fool, which he is not. The point here is that an agent surely could have done better in terms of guaranteed money. San Francisco contract negotiator Paraag Marathe is one of the best in the business, but this surely was not his final offer. If this became a trend -- if players ditched agents and started negotiating their own deals -- teams would really, really enjoy that.