To avoid being too long-winded here, I'll just give you a few thoughts in each division and then my prediction for who will win each division, who gets the wild card spots, and who wins the conference.
East: This should be an interesting division to watch. You just can't not pick the Patriots here. I mean seriously, how can you go against them? But watch the Jets, for example. The Jets are an afterthought a lot of times, but after a picking up Laveranues Coles and Doug Jolley, they'll be a force if Curtis Martin can perform like he did last year. The Dolphins are a year or two away, but it'll be interesting to see what Ricky Williams can do after a year of touring the world on his own personal "Up In Smoke" tour. As for the Bills, they'll keep it close, but I can't see them keeping up with the Jets and Pats. J.P. Losman has a shot there, and Willis McGahee is an absolute beast, so they'll be there in a couple of years. This will be a pretty solid division this year, and a really good division in a couple. Pick: Pats.
North: It's a two-team race in the north, with the Steelers and Ravens leading the pack. Romeo Crennel has cleaned house in Cleveland, but there's no quick fix for the Browns. They should be pretty bad this year as the rebuilding begins anew. Cincinnati will probably continue to wallow in mediocrity, though Marvin Lewis has done a pretty good job getting that franchise out of the bottom of the barrell. The big question, contrary to Lewis' M.O., is the defense. The offense figures to be pretty doggone good if Carson Palmer can continue his improvement and Chad Johnson can let his play talk louder than his enormous mouth. The Ravens will talk the talk (you'd better believe it with Deion Sanders and Ray Lewis on the same team), and the defense will be very good. But I can't see Derrick Mason being the guy that puts the Ravens' offense over the top. The offense will be better than last year, since Kyle Boller will be a year better and Todd Heap should be back, but when you match them up with a still-very solid Steelers defense and offense, I've got to go with Pittsburgh. Pick: Steelers.
South: Unless the Jags can put something together on a consistent basis on the offensive side, the Colts will run away with the division. The acquisition of Corey Simon from the Eagles will help, but it'll take more than him to put their defense over the top. He missed the entire preseason and was rotated in and out a lot last season with the other DT's, so if you're asking me, his value is a little inflated. Will he prove me wrong and be able to bring the Colts to glory? I suppose we'll see. The Titans and Texans pose no threat to Indy this year barring some sort of injury to Peyton Manning and all of his receivers, and your guess is as good as mine as to why Steve McNair came back this year. If it's just to play more football, that's great. If he thinks the Titans have a chance, well...I just don't see how they do. Pick: Colts.
West: The Chiefs finally made some personnel changes on defense this year, and it should show. After picking up Kendrell Bell, Sammy Knight and Patrick Surtain, I'm expecting a turn for the better. The question is, is it too late? This offense has been very explosive over the past few years and the defense has squandered countless games. Can the offense keep up what they've done, or are they done? I think they can keep it up enough to contend for the division. The Raiders look good on paper...kind of, but even with Randy Moss Oakland still has Kerry Collins, the interception machine. Also if your defense is anchored by Warren Sapp (whose bark is waaaaay worse than his bite at this point), you're not going to be as good as you think. Losing Doug Jolley is also going to hurt them. I can't see them getting more than eight wins, and they'll be lucky to get that many. I can't figure out what I think of the Broncos for the life of me. That's what happens when Jake Plummer is your quarterback. He can singlehandedly win and lose games, and has done so countless times (unfortunately he usually loses them). The questions for Denver are consistency on offense and whether their defense can bail out the potentially inconsistent offense. Can they? I'm not going to act like I have any idea. I don't see them contending with a strong Kansas City and also a strong San Diego. Speaking of San Diego, they have the chance to be scary good. They're getting back underrated Reche Caldwell from an injury last year, they've still got the best back in the game in LaDanian Tomlinson, Drew Brees will continue to resurrect his career, and the defense is completely solid. Despite a run by Kansas City, I think the Chargers win the division fairly handily. Pick: Chargers.
Wild Card: I'm seeing a tight race like last year for the wild card spots. I think the Jets make it in, but for the second spot I'm just not sure. It'll be between the Ravens, Jags and Chiefs if I'm thinking right. At this point I can see any of the three squeaking by with the second spot. But for the sake of not copping out on a pick, I'll go with the Chiefs. The AFC West will be a tough division, but the Jags need to show they can be consistent and the Ravens need to do something on the offensive side of the ball. I think the Chiefs have done enough on defense to squeeze into the playoffs. Picks: Jets and Chiefs.
Conference Winner: For me it comes down to this: Can anyone beat the Patriots? Well, that all depends. If New England gets homefield, it'll be very tough (which is stating the obvious, given the past few seasons). I can't see a wild card team playing three games on the road against this conference's division winners and beating them all, so let's take them out of the picture right now. While I think the Pats will go deep and probably will end up in the conference title game, I'm seeing San Diego pulling out the conference title. You heard it here first. Pick: Chargers.
9 years ago
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