We are only a couple days from the start of the regular season, after months of an dramatic, over-publicized lock out, and it looks like football in the form we love it is finally about to begin. Today, I give you my predictions for each conference and division, and tomorrow I tell you who will win the Browns Bengals match up on Sunday.
AFC North Winner: Pittsburgh Steelers – too much quality talent and coaching there for them to lose.
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AFC East Winner: New England Patriots – Who’s going to realistically challenge them?
AFC South Winner: Indianapolis Colts – Houston is the sexy pick, but Peyton Manning is still too good.
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AFC West Winner: San Diego Chargers – There’s too much talent for another let-down this year.
AFC Wild Cards: Houston Texans and the Cleveland Browns….why? Cleveland is overlooked, young, and has the BEST fan base in America, while Houston is so high-powered on offense they will sneak in over the Ravens.
NFC North Winner: Green Bay Packers – they still own the Lions at multiple positions.
NFC East Winner: Philadelphia Eagles – Philly has just enough big name players to get there, but can they gel as a team, or is Philly a team made up of many players?
NFC South Winner: Atlanta Falcons – While New Orleans and Drew Brees look good, I don’t see them being a better team, especially on defense, as Atlanta
NFC West Winner: Seattle Seahawks – While not good last year, they found a way, which is what Pete Carroll is all about. I won’t jump on another NFC West bandwagon until Bradford, Kolb, or Smith lead their team past the defending NFC West champs.
NFC Wild Cards: New Orleans Saints and Detroit Lions. No second NFC East team because I think they are going to beat each other up and lose out on the wild card. Detroit has the Defensive line New Orleans the quarterback to get each to the playoffs.
AFC Champion: Pittsburgh Steelers – they are just too good, as much as it hurts me to pick them
NFC Champion: Atlanta Falcons – I like the offense a lot, and the defense is a year more experienced. I see them as finding a way past the Packers to get to their first super bowl in a long time
Super Bowl Champion: Atlanta Falcons – I think they will win it with a timely pass from Matt Ryan to Tony Gonzalez.
Tomorrow: How I see the Browns Bengals game shaking out.