Schedule was released last night.
We already know that the Redskins will win the NFC East.
Why? Because they’re playing the Cowboys in Week 17.
Sorry to disappoint you, Higgs and Brain.
^ Giants will continue to suck this year, so as long as the Eagles don’t win the Super Bowl, I don’t care who wins what.
The talk that happens around this time each year is completely worthless. Teams change so much it’s impossible to say how tough a schedule is. That said, I expect the Chiefs to go 10-6. They’ll beat the teams they should and steal one from either the Pats or 9ers. We’ll still probably get swept by both Denver and San Diego though.
And I expect the Cowboys to go 8-8 and lose their de facto playoff game in Week 17 to the Redskins.
Go Broncos! Peyton wins and retires on top a la Elway.
Since Sean Lee is out for the season, I can go ahead and concede the NFC East to Higgs or Brain.
Instead of losing the NFC East on Week 17, they will be out by week 14.
I think the Eagles still win the NFC East by default. They’re not going to be as good as they were last year and will lose again in the first round, but I still think they’re better than the 'Boys, the 'Skins or my G-Men. I wouldn’t be shocked if the Eagles win at 8-8.
I’d allow this if it meant getting Manning out of my division.
I think the Eagles will be better than they were last year. Everyone is so concerned about losign DJax, and while I agree he is a loss he is not the team. The team has been playing under theri new head coach for a whole additional year, which helps. This is especially true on defense, which was a complete disaster following the Juan Castillo debacle. I think the defense, while not even good, will at least be passable this year. Last year they were 32nd (about 300 yds/game) in pass yards given up and 29th in total yds. Even a modest improvement on that will make a big difference should they make it to the post-season.
Also, the Eagles lead the league in rush yards last year, and this year they added Sproles who should be a good complement to Shady.
The running(Mccoy)/short pass(Sproles) game will be lethal.
Right? It’s like everyone forgot they picked up Sproles because he’s 30. I just checked his stats and in 2013 he rushed for just 220 on 53 attempts, but he caught the ball 71 times for 604 yards. True, it doesn’t make up for DJax who had like 1,300 yds on 80 catchs, but that was a career year for him. Sell high (I wish they got some kind of value for him). Also, Maclin is back this year and he has averaged close to 1k yds per year before his injury, and he was never a true number 1 during that time.
I like how low the expectations are, but I’m expecting some good things this year.
The Eagles will play a harder schedule this year and they were 1-3 against playoff teams last year (1-4 if you count the actual playoffs and the 1 was against GB with no Rodgers). Sproles was a nice pickup, but he doesn’t stretch the field the way Jackson did and Maclin is coming off an injury that everyone in history except AP has required 2 years to fully recover from. Also, his career average is actually south of 900 yards per season. The main reason I don’t think they’ll be as good though is that there is no way Nick Foles puts up the kind of numbers he did last year (anyone who thinks he will should call Joe Montana and tell him he’s no longer the greatest of all time).
That being said, they’ll still win the division because Dallas, NY and Washington all suck that bad.
The Eagles will only have 2 different opponents than the rest of the teams in their division. Given that the 3 other teams won’t finish above .500, it doesn’t matter.
^ As I said, they might win the division at 8-8.
That is no longer an anomaly. The Seahawks won their division at 7-9 a few years ago.
Just wait until the NFL adds 2 (possibly 4) new playoffs teams. Making the 4th wildcard at 6-10 won’t be impossible.
^ That’s the only time a division was won with a losing record. 8-8 has only won a division a handful of times before that, so I’d still call it an anomaly.
Personally, I don’t like the idea of adding more playoff teams. In the NBA, 16/30 teams make the playoffs. The playoffs should be for the best teams, not just the top 60%.
And WRT NFL football, I would add a stipulation that if you do not go at least 8-8, you will not be allowed to go to the playoffs. Your playoff spot should be given to the next team as a “third wildcard”. If you can’t win at least half your games, you don’t deserve to play in the postseason.
What’s worse that an 8-8 team making the playoffs, is if they did it by winning their division they get to host a playoff game against an opponent that likely had a (much) better record. Happens every year. Happened to the Chiefs last year against Indy in the game that shall not be mentioned.