Category: NFL

We conclude the AFC portion of our season preview with the AFC North. Often a closely fought division, we’ve seen every team except for Cleveland win twice in the last six years. Pittsburgh looks to repeat as division winners once again this year amidst a contract holdout from Le’Veon Bell. These disputes always seem to work themselves out in time so it would be a shock to see the Steelers start the season without him on the field. Let’s take a look at the predictions:

AFC North

Quick Hits:

• The Steelers join the Patriots as the only unanimous division winners among the staff for the AFC.
• This also was the first division that everyone agreed on the placement of teams.
  • All four put the Ravens at 9-7 despite the uncertainty behind Joe Flacco to start the season.
• Cleveland looks to be one of the biggest come-back teams of the year according to our writers — improving upon their franchise worst 1-15 season last year.
• Looks like this is the end of the road for Marvin Lewis, who has avoided being fired despite not being able to get one win in the playoffs since he was hired in 2003.

Day 3 of the Season Preview series brings us to the AFC West. Dominated by the Broncos between 2011-2015, the AFC West was snatched by the Kansas City Chiefs last year for only the second time in 13 years. The Raiders made a strong push to take the division but sputtered down the stretch when their star QB went down with an injury. Let’s take a look at the outlook for the upcoming season:

AFC West

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Quick Hits

• Split in half here: Allen and Tyler seem to think the Chiefs will repeat, while Kevin and Danny are pushing for the Raiders to bring Oakland a division championship before moving.
• Everyone agrees that the AFC West will produce two double-digit win teams, likely meaning one of the wild-card spots will be snatched up in this division.
  • Kevin is the only one who believes there will be 3 double-digit win teams.
• Looks like the Chargers move to LA will not be an exciting one to watch — the highest prediction for them here is 6 wins.

Day 2 of the season predictions kicks off with the worst division in football lately — the AFC South. The Texans and Colts have been the only winners of this division since 2008, when the Titans went 13-3 to take first place. The Titans seemed poised to snatch the throne from two time defending champion Houston, with their young core starting with QB Marcus Mariota. Let’s take a look at the picks:

AFC South

“Put the Browns in the AFC South and you have a 10 win team.” – Danny

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Quick Hits:

• Only Danny has the Texans repeating as division champs — everyone else is betting on the Titans to finally reach their potential and snatch the division crown.
• Everyone agrees the Texans remain an above .500 team even with the question mark at QB after shuffling through 3 last year.
• Kevin likes the Colts to finish above .500 while the other three are looking at a grim 6-10 finish and likely firing of Chuck Pagano.
• Everyone likes the Jaguars to improve upon their 3-13 record in 2017. Blake Bortles faces a ton of uncertainty in what will be a huge year for determining the future of the Jaguars.

Since this is the first week with football back, we figured it’d be best to start our predictions for the 2017-2018 NFL Season.We’re going to break it down by division daily but here is our not-so expert prediction for the AFC East.

 

 

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AFC East 

 

• • “16-0 — never been more sure of anything in my life” – Kevin

 

Quick Hits:

• No surprise that the Patriots fell on top of everyone’s list — seems to be a consensus that the reigning SB champs have bolstered their lineup and are ready to take the AFC East for the 14th time in the last 15 years.
• Kevin is the only one who thinks first year coach Sean McDermott leads the Bills to a second place finish — bold prediction there.
• Seems that nobody thinks a second AFC East team will make an appearance to the playoffs — only Kevin & Tyler have another team above .500.
• Looks like it’ll be a tough year for the dumpster fire known as the Jets organization.