A lot can and will happen during the course of an NFL football season but here’s how ScottsPicks.com sees the season unfolding.
Biggest disappointment of the season: NY Jets
Expectations for this team are simply too high. They barely made the playoffs last year then, yes, did go on a “magical” run – mainly because nobody took them seriously and they played over their heads. They aren’t the most talented team in the league and it’s very unlikely they’ll be able to play all out, 100% sell out football on every play of every game this season. They will miss the playoffs.
Honorable mention to the Vikings – Favre is very unlikely to repeat his amazing year of last season and with Chester Taylor gone will AP have the stamina to be great all season long when he’s picking up blitzes on 3rd down all season?
Biggest positive surprise of the season: San Francisco 49ers
Another year of experience for Alex Smith, an arsenal of weapons around him and a solid defense in a weak division makes the 49ers a likely playoff contender.
Honorable mention to the Oakland Raiders – Jason Campbell is no star QB but he’s a big upgrade at the position and Oakland has some RBs to throw out there.
So who wins it all you ask?
Let’s start in the divisions:
AFC East Champion: New England Patriots – Remember them? They still have Tom Brady last time we checked.
AFC North Champion: Baltimore Ravens – A very impressive offense to go with that D – we like that!
AFC West Champion: San Diego Chargers - Chargers by default here. Raiders will challenge so could KC or Denver.
AFC South Champion: Indianapolis Colts – A bit by default again, Titans have a change to make some noise as does Houston if they ever play D.
AFC Wildcards
Tennessee Titans – Not entirely sold on Vince Young as a solution but they have many weapons.
The 2nd WC is wide open – we’ll lean to Cincinnati beating out the Jets, Bills, Steelers and Texans in a weird tie-breaker.
And in the NFC……
NFC East Champion: Dallas Cowboys – They simply have too much talent not to win the slightly down division. Although watch out for Washington!
NFC North Champion: Green Bay Packers – They won’t likely lose at home so only 4-4 on the road gives them 12 wins and the division.
NFC West Champion: San Francisco 49ers – Arizona will fall hard this year, St Louis a few years away and although Seattle might make some noise the Niners have the most balance in the division.
NFC South Champion: New Orleans Saints – Don’t want to say by default here because they Saints are an excellent team but only Atlanta has the potential to challenge and we aren’t sold on the Falcons.
NFC Wildcards
This could be jumbled mess as we see a lot more bad teams in the NFC than AFC which means about 6 teams could be challenging for 2 spots here…..Eagles, Giants, Redskins, Vikings, Falcons, Panthers.
We’ll look for Minnesota and Philadelphia to emerge.
The Championship Games
Green Bay over New Orleans (in Green Bay) – The in Green Bay factor will be significant here.
Baltimore over New England – The Ravens are the most balanced team in the AFC and it will show in a hard fought win to go the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl Champ
Green Bay Packers over Baltimore Ravens – Defense wins championships, right? Yes but what many will expect to be a low scoring will not be but ultimately Aaron Rodgers as Super Bowl MVP gets it done.
NFL Week 1 Picks coming soon! And stay with ScottsPicks.com all season for football picks!
