2010 Rankings by Division

Your predictions are worth as much as anyone else’s at this point…

We’ll see how they turn out. I’m quite ready for it to be September 9.

We get Troy P. and Aaron Smith back on defense, something tells me that BB will only be out for the first four games, Dennis Dixon will win the “Starting” QB battle, and Mendenhall and Jonathan Dwyer will help carry the running game, and an upgraded OL with Pouncy at RG will help create large running lanes for our RB and give BB more time to run around like a Chicken with his head cut off while trying to find the open receiver. My prediction 10-6 or 11-5, win the Division, lose in the Divisional round

are you assuming that Farve will be back?

They will be at least a number 2 seed in the playoffs.
If they beat the Vikings in the season opener than they will be number 1 seeded.

You have the same exact teams from last year coming back in the AFC. I like the NFC changes but I think there will be at least one different team in the AFC that goes, the Texans or the Steelers for instance. Both are Playoff caliber teams, that I think made some pretty good adjustments. Big Ben should only be gone 4 games. Cushing being gone 4 will hurt. But he isnt as crucial to the Texans defense as Mario Williams being gone or Demeco Ryans. If the Texans split the Colts and the Steelers take at least 2 of the 4 games Ben misses. They should make the playoffs as wild cards.

to the football gods’ ears! I would love to see the Saints go 13-3 again this year in the regular season; starting with a victory in their home opener against the Vikes!

W-L records aside, I have most of the divisions playing out exactly as you do. Three exceptions:

a.) Kansas City finishes 3rd ahead of Oakland.
b.) Houston finishes 2nd ahead of Tennessee.
c.) Tampa Bay finishes 3rd ahead of Carolina.

For what it’s worth, I have the Saints winning the NFC South at 11-5, seeded below both Minnesota and Dallas going into the playoffs. I do have them advancing further than either of those two teams however, losing to wild card Green Bay in the NFCCG.

I would switch Washington and Philly as well as Houston and Tennessee. Good post.

You have no idea how many people fail to take that into account when posting predictions.

Let alone 16-3 world champs. Also who saw the Titans starting 0-8 and the
Steelers losing to the mighty Browns, Chiefs and Raiders. The great thing
about this game is the unexpected things happening.
Are the Saints the only team in both conferences to play 2 Championship games
in the last 3 or 4 years ? Just shows how the wealth is spread around this league.

Panthers’ fan here, and I’m not hear to talk about the predicted 5-11 record for my team, no comment on that one.

However, I would enjoy hearing the justification for the Saints to repeat 13-3 without Mike Bell and Scott Fujita.

Seems to me watching the NFC South all these years the major difference the Saints had last season was a running game to support Brees, now without your 2009 leading rusher honestly, I think you guys will still be dominant but the run game will take a serious hit. Is Reggie Bush really ready to step up that much?

You added Alex Brown, which was a great pickup… but I would be surprised if the Saints achieved the same W/L

I understand most people don’t have more than a passing familiarity with teams that aren’t their own, so as a Panthers fan I’ll fill you in on some stuff you got wrong.

You’re wrong we did nothing to replace Peppers. The Panthers spent a first round pick last year replacing Peppers with Everette Brown. Brown is in his 2nd year, has added 10 pounds of muscle, and is expected to be a fierce pass rusher. He showed flashes last year. This year, they also drafted pass rushing specialist Eric Norwood, who was the all-time leader in sacks and tackles for a loss at USC. Then, later, they drafted defensive end Greg Hardy, who was projected by Sports Illustrated to be the number 1 overall pick a year ago before injuries continued to plague him. When healthy, experts compare him to … can you guess? Julius Peppers, yes. Check out his CBS sports draft prospects page and a youtube video. That’s 3 draft picks in two years they’ve spent replacing Peppers. However, you can’t fully replace Peppers. He’s a one of a kind player. The best any team can do is try to find a quality starter. Saying we suck ’cause we lost Peppers is like the Union army having a fighter jet that broke down and the Confederacy saying they suck ’cause they did nothing to replace that jet. Peppers was a luxury, not a necessity.

As for the QB thing, Matt Moore pretty much dominated for 5 games against some good teams, but I’ll leave that one alone until he starts a full year. I guess a 5 game fluke is possible, but I wouldn’t count on it. Although, with Clausen and 3 drafted receivers, I’d be worried if I was you folks. The passing game has been the only thing holding the Panthers back for years. If that has been fixed, their offense will be one of the most potent in the league, as evidenced late last year.

Overall though, I just don’t see how you only have us winning 5 games. The NFC South has one of the softest schedules of any division this year. Even if the passing game is still below average, and none of our defensive ends can step up, the Panthers still have one of the top run games, linebacking groups, offensive lines, pass defenses, and of course Steve Smith. How does all that translate into losing 11 games? The Panthers haven’t lost 11 games since they went 1-15 in 2001 with George Seifert as the head coach.

My prediction, the Panthers win the division. The Falcons may do it, but I’m over 70% sure it’ll be the Panthers. No team has ever won back to back NFC South titles, so the Saints definitely won’t. I think you all may be depending too much on turnovers, and it’s about to catch up to you. NFC South anarchy must last forever!

Im all for us being at 8-8. i personally think we will get 10 wins and miss the playoffs, but i understand the logic.
I just dont understand how the Redskins get that big of a turn around. McNabb is good but he doesnt have a line of the same caliber in Washington, and he is to old to be making epic plays with his legs. Plus he still wont have anyone to throw to.

Now. I don’t know if you started randomly picking numbers or what. I don’t know what kind of research you have done. But I do know that this 5-11 prediction for the Panthers is dead wrong!

Its actually just as simple as abc. We don’t have Jake Delhomme (who does own your lives) anymore. Which means there won’t be 21 give aways this year. 2 game improvement from last years easy. We go from the 2nd hardest schedule to the 26th hardest. Another 2 games you could throw on that. So that would put us atleast at 12-4.

Which isn’t that hard for me to swallow. We lose to Peppers, Ravens, (pains me to say this) split with the Aints, split with the Falcons. We should sweep the Aints though. So color me personally 13-3.

At the very worst we lose the 4 as stated above and then to the Seahawks. And then to Cincy. And the Gmen get revenge. I highly doubt it. But that is worst case scenario…9-7(don’t want to hear it Bacon). Absolute worst case scenario. 9-7.

Now you have us getting swept by y’all yeah? And the Falcons? Splitting with TB? Falling to the 9ers and the Steelers? And the above scenario? No friggin way. Fox has NEVER lost more than 9 games. He isn’t goin to do it with the most talented unit he has ever had the pleasure of coaching.

You guys do know you should have been swept last year right? I know some of y’all are gonna get sour but honestly…we were down by 3 and approaching the 2 min warning in the 4th. We have the ball out by mid field. Jake the bum throws 3 friggin imcomplete passes in a row and turns the ball over on downs. Now I dunno if it was him or our retard OC that went with those 3 plays but it was stupid. You give Double Trouble 4 attempts at 10 yards and they will get it. I guess they wanted to push the ball up to around the 30 real quick.

Whatever…you guys get the ball and go 3 and out real quick…and then the most beautiful punt I have ever seen! Ball goes out at the 1! Then… then we run the ball!!! And Deangelo fumbles for the first time in like 300 carries. You guys recover for a TD. Without the timeouts and under 2 mins, this was an insurmountable lead.

Your team know they got out of their lucky…because it was business as usual at the Super Dome for the Panthers. I wouldn’t be confident at all if I were y’all. SB or not. Panthers own the Aints. It will be a long time before its even.

And that last game last year…you guys were playing our B and C squad as well.

get a room already.

Wish I hadn’t remembered to read it.

Apart from another epic Dan/CP road-to-nowhere argument.