by Ben Huh » Wed Jun 19, 2013 5:00 pm
Bill Belichick hasn't won a SB since 2004 for the primary reason that he has vastly changed the makeup of the Patriots. Even though it is a passing league now, how many pass heavy teams with bad defenses have won a SB lately? The Saints in 2009 might be the only one. Defenses still win SBs in the NFL and BB was winning them with the Pats when they were still an all around good team on both sides of the ball. BB is overrated at this point. Hasn't properly evaluated defensive talent in almost a decade. Tom Brady is now finding out why Peyton Manning has a 10-11 record in the NFL - piss poor defense.
Might as well toss out some very early predictions.
AFC North - Bengals
AFC South - Texans
AFC West - Broncos (easiest schedule in NFL based on last season's records)
AFC East - Patriots
NFC North - Packers
NFC South - Atlanta
NFC West - 49ers
NFC East - who knows, is a toss-up every year
Other predictions: Steelers finish at best 3rd in AFC North. A very young team in transition; they'll compete, but I doubt they even taste second place in teh division. Ravens won a SB while being a fairly average team that got hot at the right time, like a lot of SB winners have been doing recently. I see them taking second as they still have enough veteran talent to compete, however since they were already only average with superstars on their team, cutting a lot of them may make them worse. Browns are still the Browns - new coach, new offensive and defensive systems. As a Steelers fan, have to say that I am not at all bother by the Brown's ownership only giving coaches 2 years to turn their franchise around. Maybe one day they'll realize that making a team a consistent competitor takes time.
..."if the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of a divine reward, then brother, that person is a piece of shit."