New Orleans badly want one more victory when it closes regular season against Panthers

Atlanta Falcons: The future of defensive coordinator Marquand Manuel is in limbo in the wake of the unit's subpar performance that sees it tied for 25th in scoring defense (26.1 points) and 27th in total defense (381.3 yards) heading into Sunday's finale against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Manuel, who is in his second season as defensive coordinator, feels there is nothing wrong with his job performance. "I know one thing, I've coached this defense to the best they've had in 20 years," Manuel told reporters. "With that being said, everyone is evaluated, which is a part of why we do this job. And things of that nature will take care of themselves, as they always will." Manuel was referring to the 2017 campaign when the Falcons finished in the Top 10 in both scoring defense and total defense for the first time since 1998. This season, Atlanta played nearly all of the season without two Pro Bowlers -- safety Keanu Neal (knee) and linebacker Deion Jones (foot) -- as well as safety Ricardo Allen (Achilles).

Carolina Panthers: Wideout Devin Funchess could be playing in his final contest for the team when the Panthers face the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. The 24-year-old Funchess said he wasn't overly concerned about his contract ending as he has experienced worse things in life while growing up in Detroit. "I've been evicted, I've been out on the streets," Funchess told reporters. "I'm getting a check and I'm blessed to be alive, you know what I'm saying? I get to take care of my family. I'm not going to worry about stuff like that I can't control." Funchess has 44 receptions for 549 yards and four touchdowns this season, a significant drop from last season's output of 63 catches for 840 yards and eight scores. Plus, his playing time has decreased over the second half of the season. "It's hard because, to me, coming into the season I figured we were going to go to the Super Bowl," Funchess said. "But it didn't turn out that way."

New Orleans Saints: The No. 1 seed in the NFC is wrapped up but New Orleans badly wants one more victory when it closes the regular season against the Panthers. A 14th win would be historic. "No. 1, it's our job," Saints coach Sean Payton told reporters. "We've got a chance to win more games in the regular season than any team in Saints history. No. 2, it's not like when you're playing in the preseason. You have 90 players and you begin to look at how you want to sit all these different players. You can't do that. You have 46 on game day, coming out of your 53. So any time you line up to play, and any time we prepare to play, there's really only one way to go about doing that." The Saints have won 13 games twice before, including the 2009 season in which they won the Super Bowl.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: The status of receiver DeSean Jackson (Achilles) will be determined later in the week. Jackson missed Wednesday's practice and Tampa Bay coach Dirk Koetter didn't offer much in terms of insight. "We'll just have to see how it goes this week," Koetter told reporters when asked about Jackson. "They followed up with all the stuff. They do that with everybody. No matter how minor it might seem, they're checking on all of it." Jackson was injured when he was stepped on during last Sunday's contest against the Dallas Cowboys. It was Jackson's first contest after sitting out three games with a thumb injury. Jackson will likely not be back with the Buccaneers if Koetter is retained as coach after the two clashed last month prior to Jackson being sidelined with the thumb injury.