Ooooh, lemme take a crack at this. I don't tend to predict records anymore (I felt like a jinx doing that, so I stopped), but I looked at some of the schedule releases and think I got a solid bead on it... (I don't, but I'm gonna be staying at a Best Western soon, so... yeah, I'm prob full of it)
AFC East
NY Jets - I think they put it together this year. It's Rich Eisen's year and they'll make it to the playoffs.
Miami - Until they can figure out how to win in Dec/Jan, they're stuck as an also ran
Buffalo - They lost their most consistent and productive weapon and Von Miller is eating massive cap
N. England - Rookie QB with almost no weapons and a competitive division
AFC North
Baltimore - They're regular season juggernauts and only got stronger
Cincinnati - If Joe Burrow stays healthy all year, they could win the division
Pittsburgh - 2 QBs = none and Steeler fans will miss Pickett, that's how bad it'll be
Cleveland - Cleveland jumps Pittsburgh if Deshaun Watson ever gets back to form
AFC South
Houston - The Strouds are already very good and ascending
Indianapolis - Indy is looking strong
Jacksonville - Trevor Lawrence doesn't have enough support yet
Tennessee - Titans without Derrick Henry... Yeah, I'm not seeing it
AFC West
LA Chargers - Harbaugh with that personnel will be a tough out
Kansas City - Schedule designed to fail. Roughest I've ever seen. End of season is schedule is abysmal for aging team
Denver - Bo Nix is the real deal and I legit think he wins the OROY
Las Vegas - Dumpster fire continues to burn...
NFC East
Philly - Well put together team that removed the cancer that is Matt Patricia
Dallas - Solid regular season team should finish 2nd
NY Giants - Won't make playoffs, but will be a tough out
Washington - Way better roster than their record, but that's been the rule for over a decade now
NFC North
Green Bay - Jordan Love is the real deal and the D should be improved over last year. Scary team
Detroit - Offense is very good and they've addressed the D, but regression looks likely
Chicago - Only reason they don't finish last is because Minnesota is gonna be bad
Minnesota - Yeah... SkolNation is gonna be blowing a sad Gjallarhorn
NFC South
Atlanta - With Arthur Smith gone, it's their division to lose
Tampa - Mayfield in his second season in the O with one of the better WR rooms in the NFL. They find ways to lose
N. Orleans - If not in this division, this is maybe a 5 win team
Carolina - They gonna have the first overall pick again
NFC West
Los Angeles - Stafford/Kupp healthy. AD loss, big, but Shula will have young D FLYING. Schedule isn't bad
San Francisco - Maybe 2nd worst scheduling behind KC. Any injuries and they're gonna suffer.
Seattle - Solid team that would win the NFC South running away. 3rd place in NFC West
Arizona - Murray can't be dumped until next year /w $63M dead cap hit. I expect a top 5 2025 draft pick
That's how I see it, anyway.
In the NFC, I see the top teams being the Rams, Eagles, GB, Detroit and SF. Moreso than in many years, I think injuries and schedule will have an outsized effect this year which is why I've dinged the two roughest schedules so badly. I still think we win the division over SF for a few reasons, but KC... holy shit that schedule is bad. 9 away games... 8 of those games are in pairs... so they've got 4 back to back games and the winning percentage winning the 2nd of two games is under 30% league wide and I don't think any team has a record over 50% in the Super Bowl era. Worse for them, THREE of those games with the low winning percentage are DIVISION games with the last one being Carolina, so it's entirely feasible they could go 2-2 or even 1-3 in those games. Also, they play a Sunday/Saturday/Wednesday three game stretch at the end of the season... Just BRUTAL.
SF plays 4 teams coming off of a bye. They have an aging roster and once again have the most travel iirc (it's always gonna be someone from the NFC West with so many East coast teams). As well, their away opponents are rougher than ours by a fair bit. They've also lost a lot of DL talent and haven't replenished much.
Our schedule is pretty dang favorable and new D installs don't take nearly as long to gel. Yes, we lost AD. And we've had our best defensive draft in a really, really long time. All of our defensive draftees look like they could be STUDS and the 2nd year guys in limited footage look downright savage. And... if anything, this frees up Shula to do some really different things which teams won't have film of. This will make this year the BEST year for disguised coverages and blitzes. This D will have breakdowns, but it also has the potential to be extraordinary and if Chris Shula makes this a top ten unit... he's gonna be interviewing... and unlike many, I think it's if not likely, at least pretty possible we do have a top 10 unit. I really do.
GO RAMS!!! Super Bowl BOUND!!!
