Nice thread.
AFC East -- Wide open but I'll go with Miami. Im predicting NYJ's Pennington will have to deal with the 2nd year jinx. And as far as NE, Im not sold on Brady and Smith as their main offensive ingredients.
AFC North -- Pittsburgh. Cleveland made some mistakes in the offseason and Baltimore didnt really do much to improve.
AFC South -- Indy or Tenn. Leaning towards Tenn because they are so stellar at home.
AFC West -- Totally Wide open just like the East. Definitely gonna come down to who stays the healthiest. Takin a gamble and gonna say SD.
NFC East -- Philly. They have great depth behind those starters on both sides of the ball. They also have a great coach. Knows how to get the most out of his players.
NFC North -- Im pretty much stuck with taking GB and Favre. Just cant see Chicago doing anything with Kordell as their QB although I do like their Defense.
NFC South -- 3 solid teams in NO, TB and Atl. This ones a toss up IMO. Going with Atlanta based on a pure hunch.
NFC West -- I really like SF but I hate their choice of coach to replace Steve M. Erikson has done nothing at the NFL level and as much as I like SF's personnel, I have to go with St.L simply because I believe they are better coached.
AFC Champ -- Gotta go with the Steelers. Of course, Im biased but I really do believe they have worked on fixing the problem that caused them to lose 3-4 regular season games last year and that disappointing playoff loss to Tenn.: Their secondary. I truly believe that teams picked on Lee Flowers at safety. He was just not good in coverage and teams finally exploited him. He couldnt adapt to what the coaches wanted him to do so they let him go. In comes the Safety they drafted in the 1st round or Mike Logan who is way better in coverage then Flowers (but what safety isnt?). The loss of Flowers will not hurt their run D simply because the Steelers have the best linebacking core in the league, bar none. Porter, Gildon, Bell, Farrior. How do you run on these guys? Especially with three 300 pound lineman shedding blocks for them. Their offence? The best I have seen from the Steelers in the 15 years I have been following them. Best WR core in the league. Not necessarily the best WR's individually but Ward, Burress and Randle-El form the best 3 WR tandem for sure. Combine that with Tommy Maddox getting to play a full year and Im really excited. RB? Jerome Bettis or Amos Zeroue? Either or is my opinion. Both can step in and be a starter on 22 of the 32 teams in this league. You dont lose with either one of them in there and appearanlty Bettis has showed up in the best shape of his career. The only possible problem could be at OL with Smith moving to Left tackle from Right tackle and Oliver Ross being thrust into the starting lineup at Right Tackle.
NFC Champ -- Admittedly, I dont follow the NFC nearly as close as I follow the AFC so a detailed analysis I cannot give. But based on offseason incoming and outgoing player changes, I see no reason why Philly cant take it. Then again, with the wide open style that the NFC plays, its a total toss up. If one of those passing-dominant teams gets hot around playoff time like St.L or SF or even Atlanta then it totally changes everything.
Super Bowl -- Of course Im going with Pittsburgh. But Ive been saying (hoping) that for about 12 of the last 15 years (they had a 3 year re-build a couple years ago and I was not very hopeful) so heres to hoping on lucky #13.
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