East:
The Eagles will again win this division easily due to two teams in a rebuild
and three teams with new head coaches. They also fixed their holes at WR by
drafting two WRs in the draft and will get DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffery
back from injuries to add their great TE Zach Ertz on offense led by QB Carson Wentz.
They also now have a backup to plug in if Wentz misses time with them
drafting
Jalen Hurts in the second round and will use him in offensive packages
which will make their offense even better. They also still have a great defense
with players like DTs
Fletcher Cox,
Malik Jackson, S
Jalen Mills and offseason
acquisitions DT
Javon Hargrave and CB
Darius Slay. The
Cowboys finally fired Jason Garrett and brought in Mike McCarthy to
replace him so he can prove Aaron Rodgers wasn’t the only reason behind the
Packers previous success and maybe get this offense back on track. They also finally
signed QB
Dak Prescott to a franchise tag after the whole season-offseason talk
of if they will extend him so it will be his make or break year to see if he does
get all the money he wants.
Dallas so far has used the money on WR
Amari Cooper, RB
Ezekiel Elliott and three defensive players instead. They have lost
two key defensive players and their center this offseason which will put all
the pressure on Prescott to deliver because their strength will be their receiving
core of Cooper,
Michael Gallup and rookie
CeeDee Lamb. When things are perfect
for Prescott he seems to not deliver and that will continue this year with
things not being perfect. The
Giants
have a new head coach in Bill Belichick disciple Joe Judge and they hope it
works out since most former Patriots coordinators don’t work out, that he has
some special magic to help this rebuilding team.
They still have a bad
offensive line and a bad defense despite drafting an offensive lineman in the 1
st
round and a few defensive players in the draft. DE
Leonard Williams is the only
good defensive player which means it will be on 2
nd year QB
Daniel Jones to lead this team to wins and improve off his rookie season. The offense
is their strength due to their great skill players in RB
Saquon Barkley, TE
Evan Engram, WRs
Golden Tate,
Sterling Shepard and
Darius Slayton.
Washington also has a new head coach in
Ron Rivera who has been a winner everywhere he has been from his days in
Chicago as a player/a coach and Carolina as a coach that he will build a nice
culture in this rebuild plus help this young defense take that next step but it
will be an uphill battle from last place.
They drafted DE
Chase Young to add to
DE
Ryan Kerrigan, LB
Jon Bostic and S
Landon Collins. It will be a key year for
2
nd year QB
Dwayne Haskins as he will get the whole season to prove
he belongs in the NFL since last year they used backups instead of him for most
of the season, but will be difficult with one of the worst offensive lines. They
do have young promising WR in
Terry McLaurin but they cut RBS Derrius Guice and
future Hall of Famer Adrian Peterson, so it seems like they are setting him up
to fail and will try again with a new QB for Rivera.
South:
The Saints again will be the one of
the best teams in football on both sides of the ball and hopefully no miracles
passes and no passing interference calls or non passing interference calls
should stop them from reaching the conference championship game.
QB
Drew Brees
has mastered their ball control passing game with one of the best RB-WR combos
in all of football in WR
Michael Thomas and
Alvin Kamara plus supporting
players RB
Latavius Murray, QB
Taysom Hill and TE
Jared Cook. They also finally
gave Brees a second WR to help out Thomas in
Emmanuel Sanders and signed QB
Jameis Winston to be Bree’s backup. Their defense is still one of the best in
the game led by CB
Marshon Lattimore, DE
Cameron Jordan but added S
Malcolm Jenkins this off season and get a full season of CB
Janoris Jenkins to fill any
holes in the secondary, plus drafted an offensive linemen to compliment what is
already a top five offensive line. The
Buccaneers
had a QB throw 30+ TD passes but threw 30+ interceptions for a team with an up
and coming young defense under the tutelage of Todd Bowles plus have an
offensive line that could be top 10. That team finished tied for second place
at 7-9, imagine if they had a QB who has mastered the position to a science
where all he needed were good skills players-enter QB 43 year old
Tom Brady.
He
will get the skill players he has missed the past few seasons in WRs
Mike Evans,
Chris Godwin, TEs
OJ Howard,
Cameron Brate,
Rob Gronkowski out of
retirement, RBs
Ronald Jones,
LeSean McCoy and
Leonard Fournette. It will be a fun year in Tampa Bay for Brady
and Bruce Arians cooking up so many kinds of way to score with all of the skill
players they have, so see them in the wild card round. The
Falcons saved HC Dan Quinn’s job by going 6-2 to end the season but
everything on defense had to click perfectly and there is no guarantee that
will be the same since they again will rely again on young unproven players.
Most of their draft was heavy on defensive players and with no training
camp/preseason there will not be time for Quinn to work with all of them, so
look for another season of QB
Matt Ryan trying to carry the load.
Ryan was
running for his life last year due to having one of the worst offensive lines
in all of football which also affected the running game as they said goodbye to
longtime RB Devonta Freeman and welcomed in another injury prone in RB
Todd Gurley. They still have good WRs in
Julio Jones and
Calvin Ridley but lost
their starting TE Austin Hooper to Cleveland. This will probably be Quinn’s
last year as head coach as they will be on the outside looking in again. The
Panthers are in a rebuild with a new
head coach in former college HC Matt Rhule who will be without former MVP QB
Cam Newton and future Hall of Famer LB Luke Kuechly, but he will have QB
Teddy Bridgewater and RB
Christian McCaffrey to lead the offense.
The question will be how good
this young and unproven defense mostly drafted in this year’s draft beside LB
Shaq Thompson help support the offense so McCaffery doesn’t have to do it all
by himself to score. The hope is Rhule can craft a system for Bridgewater that
puts all of the undersized WRs in a position to succeed and newly signed WR
Robby Anderson, if not it will be a long year and maybe they get a high draft
pick for a franchise QB in the draft next year.
West:
The 49ers will once again be one of
the best teams in all of football and will be back in the conference
championship game due to being good on both sides of the ball. QB Jimmy Garoppolo should be sharper two seasons removed from his ACL surgery, they get
back RB Jerick McKinnon from injury, still have other RBs Tevin Coleman,
Raheem Mostert, FB Kyle Juszczyk, one of the best TEs in George Kittle, WR Deebo Samuel, drafted a WR in 1st round to replace Emmanuel Sanders,
and signed Jordan Reed to be the backup TE.
Their defense is still led by CB
Richard Sherman, DE
Nick Bosa in his second season and drafted a DT in the 1
st
round to replace Deforest Buckner. The offensive line is still top 10 in
football and they still have
Robbie Gould kicking for them. The
Seahawks will always be a playoff
contender because of one man who wills his team to victory by running the ball
or throwing a clutch TD pass from behind in a game, and that is QB
Russell Wilson.
They might have gone further in the playoffs if they didn’t lose all of
their RBs at the end of the season, so getting
Chris Carson back healthy and
bringing in
Carlos Hyde will help out Wilson. They also drafted an offensive
lineman to help one of the worst lines and signing TE
Greg Olsen helps out both
the offensive line and the receiving game as he can be a good short pass option
for Wilson. Their defense is still led by LBs
Bobby Wagner,
KJ Wright, CB
Shaquill Griffin and they brought in S
Jamal Adams plus brought back LB
Bruce Irvin. The
Rams no longer have RB Todd
Gurley, WR Brandin Cooks, LB Clay Matthews, DE Dante Fowler, K Greg Zuerlein and
S Eric Weddle to name some plus their defense coordinator Wade Phillips. It
will be another tough season of not making the playoffs for QB
Jared Goff and
HC Sean McVay as they will have to overcome a bad offensive line, a rookie RB
and a bad defensive unit as a whole.
Despite having DE
Aaron Donald, CB
Jalen Ramsey and LB
Leonard Floyd the defense will be a work in progress as it’s in a
rebuild with a new coordinator and unproven players coming in. Unless Goff and
McVay find that magic they had a few seasons ago with their receiving core of
Cooper Kupp and
Robert Woods they could finish in last place. The
Cardinals will be in year two of HC
Kliff Kingsbury and QB
Kyler Murray the reigning rookie of the year, so look
for them to take more steps forward as a team especially since they added a top
WR in
DeAndre Hopkins to give them a #1 WR.
They already had a good receiving core of
Larry Fitzgerald and
Christian Kirk so now it will be even better plus they resigned
Kenyan Drake who was unbelievable late last year. The real question will be how
much of any improvement the defense will be after ranking dead last this past
season even with LB
Chandler Jones, CB
Patrick Peterson and their 1
st
round pick leading them, leaving Murray to have to play from behind every game.
Also, their offensive line is one of the worst in football as well so the same
question goes for it as well. If everything
clicks it will not be a surprise to see them contending for a wild card spot.
North:
The Ravens have a chance to have the
best record in football and be in the Super Bowl this year because they are one
of the most well rounded teams in all of football as they are good at all three
aspects of football. They have QB Lamar Jackson coming off an MVP season but
will only get better because he is only 23, so the sky's the limit. He has a
top 5 offensive line, a good set of skill players in RB Mark Ingram, TE Mark Andrews, WRs Marquis Brown and Willie Sneed to name some including their second
round pick.
Their defense is also one of the best in football which is led by
CB
Marlon Humphrey, CB
Marcus Peters, new editions DEs
Derek Wolfe and
Calais Campbell, plus their 1
st round pick. Justin Tucker is one of the
best kickers in all of football and their coaching staff which is led by John
Harbaugh, one of the best coaches in football with a great offensive mind in OC
Greg Roman making the perfect offense for Jackson. The
Steelers get QB
Ben Roethlisberger back from injury which will
help them as they finished 8-8 just out of the playoffs because they went
through three QBs and their defense was keeping them in games. Their defense is
led by DE
Cameron Heyward, LB
TJ Watt, CB
Joe Haden and S
Minkah Fitzpatrick to
name a few and still have one of the best coaches in football in Mike Tomlin
who is one of the best leaders in the coaching ranks.
It also helps
Roethlisberger out besides from the good defense he has a good offensive line led
by C
Mauire Pouncey and has good skill players in WR
JuJu Smith Schuster, RB
James Conner and TEs
Vance McDonald and
Eric Ebron. They might sneak up on
teams that are counting them out because of the QB’s age and injury history but
they will be a wild card contending team. The
Browns had all the hype last year after all the moves they made and
guess what, it did not happen as they missed the playoffs again. They now have
a HC in Kevin Stefanski who will hold QB
Baker Mayfield accountable when he
makes mistakes on the field or his off the field actions are questionable, plus
they brought in journeymen QB
Case Keenum as motivation that he can take his
job. Their offensive line had issues last year so they drafted an OT and signed
one to fix that hole, drafted some more defensive players and signed TE
Austin Hooper. It gives Mayfield all the things he needs to succeed because he already
has a good set of skill players in WRs
Odell Beckham JR,
Jarvis Landry, TE
David Njoku, RBs
Nick Chubb and
Kareem Hunt.
The defense also still has DEs
Myles Garrett,
Olivier Vernon, DT
Sheldon Richardson and CB
Denzel Ward to lead
this unit. They will complete for a wild card spot this year and if not it
might be the end of Mayfield in Cleveland. The
Bengals are in a full scale rebuild mode with a rookie QB in
Joe Burrows and a 2
nd year HC in Zac Taylor. As we all know that it will
not matter how many wins they get it but it will be about setting a foundation
for the future in developing a winning culture.
They also get back WR
AJ Green from
injury which helps a rookie QB knowing he has an All-Pro guy to throw to and
they still have
Tyler Boyd,
John Ross III and a their 2
nd round pick
to throw it too. RB
Joe Mixon will also hopefully be healthy for a full a
season to relieve pressure on Burrow too since they have one of the worst
offensive lines and one of the worst defenses too.
East:
The Bills will win this division
because QB Josh Allen will take those next steps into becoming a QB you can
rely on to win you games and now they finally got him a real WR in deep threat Stefon Diggs, who will work great with him as he has one of the best arms in all of
football.
That pushes WRs
John Brown,
Cole Beasley and
Andre Roberts in
supporting roles and will help RB
Devin Singletary not have to be the main component
of the offense. Their defense again will
lead them to the playoffs as they still have S
Micah Hyde, CB
Tre’Davious White and LB
Tremaine Edmunds leading this talented unit. The
Patriots said goodbye to QB Tom Brady, LBs Kyle Van Noy, Jamie
Collins, WR Tony Dorsett and kicker Stephen Gostkowski to name some. They also
have a good amount of players opting out due to Covid19 like S
Patrick Chung
and without training camp/offseason any rookies they drafted as they did draft
a few defensive players, a few TEs and few offensive linemen, it will be hard
to integrate them. They also have to implement a new system or help QB
Cam Newton
fit their system and even then he hasn’t been healthy/the same player in years,
plus the lack of training camp/off season doesn’t help them out either.
Outside
of WR
Julian Edelman they don’t have anybody for Newton to throw to. It will be
a playoff less year for Bill Belichick despite defense being his specialty
because it’s going to be hard to overcome all of the departures/opt outs even
if you still have S
Devin McCourty and CB
Stephon Gilmore leading the defense. When
QB
Sam Darnold did not play last year the
Jets
looked lost and even when he did it was no guarantee they would win games
but they won 7 games despite locker room drama, a bad offensive line and a bad
defense.
Gone is Jamal Adams so their defense will again be bad and even though
they drafted a few offensive linemen it will not fix the whole line being bad.
RB
Le’Veon Bell showed he wasn’t the same RB he was before he sat out so they
drafted a RB and brought in
Frank Gore to put pressure on him to succeed. They
lost WR Robby Anderson in free agency so they had to draft one but even then
it’s a weak receiving core if
Jamison Crowder is your #1. If they do not have a
good season it might mean the end of HC Adam Gase because of how well the Jets
looked by just having Darnold under center. The
Dolphins rebuild set the world into a panic about what they were
doing and guess what, they played their butts off in every game and looked much
better in the second half. They used all of the draft picks they assembled on
protecting their young QB of the future in
Tua Tagovailoa on four offensive
linemen and added to their young defense.
The specialty of HC Brian Flores is
defense which is what he was building last year with CB
Xavien Howard and the
rest of the young players, so adding more young defensive players help out his
plan. They also added CB
Byron Jones and LB
Kyle Van Noy so they have impact
makers on defense. On offense they brought in RBs
Jordan Howard,
Matt Breida to
help Tagovailoa as their offensive line will be a work in progress even with
them adding veteran G
Ereck Flowers.
South:
The Colts have the best offensive
line in football, an improving defense led by LB Darius Leonard, a good set of
skill players and one of the better coaches in football. They had everything
finally in place for QB Andrew Luck but he abruptly retired last year and QB
Jacoby Brissett did everything he could but he has a ceiling. Enter veteran gun
slinging QB Philip Rivers who worked with Frank Reich for three years so they
are going all in with this team.
They
also traded then signed to an extension for
DeForest Buckner to pair with
Justin Houston on the defensive line and they drafted two WRs and a RB to give
Rivers even more weapons that include WR
TY Hilton, TE
Jack Doyle and RB
Marlon Mack already. They have the best all around team in this division and if it
doesn’t work out they already drafted a QB in this year’s draft in
Jacob Eason.
The
Texans still have one of the best
QBs in
Deshaun Watson who can lead a team to the playoffs himself but they
traded away his #1 receiver in Deandre Hopkins so how much help is he really
getting here? They traded away another draft pick to get injury prone WR
Brandin Cooks, signed
Randall Cobb, acquired both RBs in trades
Duke Johnson last year and
David Johnson last year in the Hopkins deal.
That does not bode
that much confidence in the skill players if
Will Fuller is your best WR when
he is also never healthy and their defense hasn’t been as good as it used to be
since DE
JJ Watt and LB
Whitney Mercilus never stay healthy either. The owner needs to evaluate why he made his
head coach the GM too, it doesn’t seem to be working out as they don’t have
enough draft picks to improve this team going further as they will be missing
the playoffs this year. The
Titans surprised
everyone by getting to the AFC championship team with QB
Ryan Tannehill coming
in to replace Marcus Mariota mid season and stayed healthy where he had the
best seasons of his career.
RB
Derrick Henry was sensational last year where he
was the real reason they had success. Teams were afraid of him getting yards so
it allowed Tannehill time to complete passes downhill to WRs
AJ Brown,
Corey Davis and
Adam Humphries. Their defense also was a reason they got far in the
playoffs as it still has S
Kenny Vaccaro, CB
Malcolm Butler leading them and
added LBs
Vic Beasley and
Jadeveon Clowney this offseason. Interestingly they
signed former Patriots kicker
Stephen Gostkowski to fix their kicking woes. The
Jaguars are trying to be bad as they
traded away CB Jalen Ramsey at the trade deadline last year; traded DE Yannick
Ngakoue recently, cut RB Leonard Fournette and let CB AJ Bouye leave in free
agency.
They are vying for the one of those two coveted QBs in next year’s
draft in Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields so they will be lucky to win more
than three games as they drafted twelve players this year, so look for some bad
games and Doug Marrone to be fired.
West:
The reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs will again be in the conference championship game this year
because their QB Patrick Mahomes is only 24 years old where he can only get
better and they still have the same core they had last year.
Their set of skill
players is one of the best in the league in TE
Travis Kelce, WRs
Tyreek Hill,
Sammy Watkins,
Mecole Hardman,
Demarcus Robinson and they drafted a RB in the 1
st
round. The defense which was an issue for most of the season till it clicked
towards the second half through the playoffs is still led by DT
Chris Jones, DE
Frank Clark and S
Tyrann Mathieu, but that will be their only weakness mostly
the secondary. The
Broncos are the
only real team with an upside that could challenge for the playoffs due to
their defense, skill players and QB
Drew Lock looking good at the end of the
season. John Elway drafted Lock three WRs like
Jerry Jeudy and signed RB
Melvin Gordon to add their core of WR
Courtland Sutton, TE
Noah Fant, RBs
Phillip Lindsay
and
Royce Freeman. They also drafted a center and signed another offensive
lineman to protect him plus signed CB
AJ Bouye to add to the defense.
That
defense still has LBs
Von Miller and
Bradley Chubb leading the defense so
everything is in place for Lock and they got him a good offensive mind in Pat
Shurmur to be his OC as HC Vic Fangio can just focus on defense. Don’t be surprised
if they make the playoffs as a wild card team. The
Chargers said goodbye to long time QB Philip Rivers, RB Melvin
Gordon and two of their key players are out for the season in WR
Mike Williams and S
Derwin James. The best case scenario is QB
Tyrod Taylor who worked under
HC Anthony Lynn before has all the pieces around him so he can finally succeed
and the make the playoffs as they have the skill players and the defense to do
it.
They still have a top WR in
Keenan Allen, RB
Austin Ekler, TE
Hunter Henry and they drafted a few skill players too. The defense is still led by DEs
Joey Bosa,
Melvin Ingram, CBs
Chris Harris,
Casey Hayward and brought in DT
Linval Joseph as well. If things do not go well like not making the playoffs they hope
their 1
st round pick QB
Justin Herbert the 6
th overall
pick is their franchise QB going forward. The
Raiders are in Las Vegas for their first season where it will be
the key year for QB
Derek Carr to see if in the new city if HC Jon Gruden will
move on from him and draft a QB or even sign another QB in the offseason.
The
offensive line improved to be close to a top 10 unit and they have good skill
players in WRs
Hunter Renfrow, 1
st round pick
Henry Ruggs,
Nelson Agholor, they also drafted two other receivers, TE
Darren Waller and RB
Josh Jacobs. The thing that might hurt Carr is his #1 WR
Tyrell Williams is out for
the year and that his defense is still bad so he will be playing from a deficit
all season. We might see QB
Marcus Mariota take his job at some point this
season if everything goes wrong.
