Early look at the NFC Conference

[Cowboyny]

Def could see Arizona sneak in.
Great draft and exciting young QB with very good QB tutor in KK.
I considered them but think the TB overall roster is just better this year.

I def have lower expectations for GB.
I don't see AR playing nicely nor Love being ready for a couple seasons.
They really have a sad WR corps in GB.

I have a hard time seeing SF fall all the way out with that defense and coaching and receiving weapons.


But all in all these are all teams I think will be in top 10 in NFC unless weird injuries or such occur.

Those Super Bowl losers, usually struggle the following season. I believe the Vikings fall back further then the Packers, mass changes throughout their roster.

 

[Rockport]

We'll see how the coaching change goes before labeling the Cowboys as serious contenders.

They are already serious contenders. Just a matter of seeing it on the field now.

 

[CowboyRoy]

So if it turns out that they don't make the playoffs then what? Having a Super Bowl hangover wouldn't have gotten to be such a popular saying if it didn't happen often enough.
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You used the word "disqualifies" AS in...………….they have ZERO chance of making the playoffs.

And its only popular when they don't make it.

 

[Cowboy4ever]

It's way to early but.

Dallas wins the East
Vikings win the North
Saints win the South
SF wins the west

Wildcards: Greenbay, Rams, Giants (the surprise out of no where team that makes the playoffs)

Eagles didn't do enough to get better - Dallas and Giants both had better off seasons
Bucs - I know the addition of Tom Brady is big but that team has a lot of holes, not just the QB
Seattle - hard not to include them but they are a one man show - but they were the most logical 3rd wildcard team but there is always one that surprises everyone, so i left them off.
ATL - just to up and down, never know which team is showing up. That tends to lead to 8-8 seasons, as we know all to well around Dallas

Anyway, there you have it.

 

[plasticman]

I don't like the new playoff format. If it had been implemented the last ten seasons, six more 8-8 teams would have made the playoffs. Definitely a watering down of playoff caliber teams. 44% of teams make the playoff?

They should have gone the opposite direction. Make the playoffs more exclusive. Eliminate the wild card round, no byes, only division champions make the playoffs. If they absolutely had to satisfy their greed, then expand to 18 games, eliminate two preseason games.

Besides needlessly including additional 9-7 or 8-8 teams that will typically fall in the wildcard round, they reserve a powerful advantage to only one team in each conference, that first round bye in the playoffs. This is too great an advantage for a situation where the separation between the #1 and #2 seed is quite often a tie breaker.

Most of all, the non-symmetry of the playoff pairings and the idea of a 17th regular season game starting in 2021 is obscene, geometrically speaking.

The NFL currently has the perfect mathematical structure:

A league of 32 teams (2 to the power of 5) divided into two conferences of 16 (2 to the power of 4), a conference divided into four divisions (2 to the power of 2), a division with four teams (2 to the power of 2), each team playing 16 games (2 to the power of 4).

The league can be perfectly divided into equal groups, the season can be perfectly divided into halves (8 games) and quarters (4 games).

The future structure of the NFL is like a sheet of paper with five corners.

 

[gjkoeppen]

You used the word "disqualifies" AS in...………….they have ZERO chance of making the playoffs.

And its only popular when they don't make it.

Yo you have me mixed up with someone else because I haven't used the word disqualifies in any recent comments, meaning several months, either that or you inserted that word in your mind after reading something else.
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[dfense]

I will never forget that post-season game between the Packers and Giants up in Green Bay where Farve looked so horrible. The cold weather at the end of a long season seems to expose the older QBs in a way that sends them to retirement of a new team. Brees has the dome and he plays in NO. Brady plays in Tampa. But if a cold weather team that plays outdoors can get them at home in the playoffs, I think Brady and Brees will both look old. Farve plays in GB. Your point about him is well taken. He also looked bad at the end of last year. The Packers have no choice but to play in the cold weather at home.

I remember thinking that exact thing.
Although their stats were comparable, Favre's helped by a 90 yard Driver score, Eli looked like he was fine. I was thinking Favre doesn't want to even be there. Third coldest recorded game played in GB. -23 wind chill.

 

[gjkoeppen]

I don't like the new playoff format. If it had been implemented the last ten seasons, six more 8-8 teams would have made the playoffs. Definitely a watering down of playoff caliber teams. 44% of teams make the playoff?

They should have gone the opposite direction. Make the playoffs more exclusive. Eliminate the wild card round, no byes, only division champions make the playoffs. If they absolutely had to satisfy their greed, then expand to 18 games, eliminate two preseason games.

Besides needlessly including additional 9-7 or 8-8 teams that will typically fall in the wildcard round, they reserve a powerful advantage to only one team in each conference, that first round bye in the playoffs. This is too great an advantage for a situation where the separation between the #1 and #2 seed is quite often a tie breaker.

Most of all, the non-symmetry of the playoff pairings and the idea of a 17th regular season game starting in 2021 is obscene, geometrically speaking.

The NFL currently has the perfect mathematical structure:

A league of 32 teams (2 to the power of 5) divided into two conferences of 16 (2 to the power of 4), a conference divided into four divisions (2 to the power of 2), a division with four teams (2 to the power of 2), each team playing 16 games (2 to the power of 4).

The league can be perfectly divided into equal groups, the season can be perfectly divided into halves (8 games) and quarters (4 games).

The future structure of the NFL is like a sheet of paper with five corners.

Here's some known problems with your idea of changing things. Starting with cutting 2 preseason games will anger all the coaches. They rely on those games to evaluate players under real game situations. Most players who just joined the team as drafted or free agents won't like that they will have fewer chances to impress during real game situations. Starters play very little in preseason and the most action they see is playing a full half in the 3rd preseason game. Starters need to get some live action too to get ready for the season but with only 2 preseason games that means that the coaches will only have 1 1/2 games to evaluate non starting players in live action situations. Teams bring 90 players to training camp and subtracting the 22 starters that leaves 68 players that need to get evaluated in live action game situations in 1 1/2 games.

Then adding 2 more games to the season the league will look like hypocrites. They constantly talk about player safety but then for monetary reasons they would make the players play 2 more games Not to mention how to handle the pay of the players who have existing contracts when they would make the jump to 18 games when the players contract was based and negotiated on a 16 game season. You can't just set some arbitrary amount per game because some would make more for those 2 games while others would make less for those 2 games.

I agree that only the number 1 seed getting a bye is to much of an advantage over the number 2 seed especially when they both could have the same record for the season and just because the number 1 seed beat the number 2 seed during the season shouldn't get them the only week off. I also think that expanding the playoffs to 14 teams now out of 32 teams is getting awfully close to giving out participation trophies and I agree with you it just water down the playoffs.
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[Flamma]

If we added a playoff team over the last 10 years.

9-7 = 8 teams
10-6 = 5 teams
8-8 = 5 teams
9-6-1 = 1 team
8-7-1 = 1 team

So basically 75% of this field is the usual trash. All depending on what you think about the 9-6-1 team. None of these teams won a division so what's the logic in giving an 8-8 or 9-7 team a playoff spot? They haven't done a thing to deserve being there.

 

[plasticman]

Here's some known problems with your idea of changing things. Starting with cutting 2 preseason games will anger all the coaches. They rely on those games to evaluate players under real game situations. Most players who just joined the team as drafted or free agents won't like that they will have fewer chances to impress during real game situations. Starters play very little in preseason and the most action they see is playing a full half in the 3rd preseason game. Starters need to get some live action too to get ready for the season but with only 2 preseason games that means that the coaches will only have 1 1/2 games to evaluate non starting players in live action situations. Teams bring 90 players to training camp and subtracting the 22 starters that leaves 68 players that need to get evaluated in live action game situations in 1 1/2 games.

Then adding 2 more games to the season the league will look like hypocrites. They constantly talk about player safety but then for monetary reasons they would make the players play 2 more games Not to mention how to handle the pay of the players who have existing contracts when they would make the jump to 18 games when the players contract was based and negotiated on a 16 game season. You can't just set some arbitrary amount per game because some would make more for those 2 games while others would make less for those 2 games.

I agree that only the number 1 seed getting a bye is to much of an advantage over the number 2 seed especially when they both could have the same record for the season and just because the number 1 seed beat the number 2 seed during the season shouldn't get them the only week off. I also think that expanding the playoffs to 14 teams now out of 32 teams is getting awfully close to giving out participation trophies and I agree with you it just water down the playoffs.
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You make some good points. However, I am adding two games to the regular season and reducing games by three.
How? I am eliminating two preseason games as well as the entire wildcard round of the playoffs in which 12 teams would participate. The wildcard round is relatively worthless anyway. Only 4 wildcard teams have reached the Super Bowl in the past 40 seasons.

Preseason games are not as important as they were in the past. The current sophistication of college programs combined with the NFL offseason programs and minicamps make 4 preseason games entirely unnecessary. There is also the team scrimmage. Perhaps they could replace that scrimmage with a structured scrimmage against another team.

Coaches pretty much know who they are going to keep before the preseason games, it would only take a half to confirm it on the field. Veterans need only about a half to re-acclimate. Besides, it will reduce injuries in the preseason to key players if there are two preseason games.

with only three rounds of playoffs and if there is no two week period between conference championships and teh Super Bowl, perhaps the Super Bowl can actually be played in the year of the applicable season instead of the January of the following season. The Super Bowl would be a great addition to celebrating the New Year.

 

[gjkoeppen]

You make some good points. However, I am adding two games to the regular season and reducing games by three.
How? I am eliminating two preseason games as well as the entire wildcard round of the playoffs in which 12 teams would participate. The wildcard round is relatively worthless anyway. Only 4 wildcard teams have reached the Super Bowl in the past 40 seasons.

Preseason games are not as important as they were in the past. The current sophistication of college programs combined with the NFL offseason programs and minicamps make 4 preseason games entirely unnecessary. There is also the team scrimmage. Perhaps they could replace that scrimmage with a structured scrimmage against another team.

Coaches pretty much know who they are going to keep before the preseason games, it would only take a half to confirm it on the field. Veterans need only about a half to re-acclimate. Besides, it will reduce injuries in the preseason to key players if there are two preseason games.

with only three rounds of playoffs and if there is no two week period between conference championships and teh Super Bowl, perhaps the Super Bowl can actually be played in the year of the applicable season instead of the January of the following season. The Super Bowl would be a great addition to celebrating the New Year.

First off a couple years ago when the talk first started about dropping 2 preseason games several coaches were interviewed and ALL said the best evaluation of players is the live action that the preseason games give them. The off season program is just another name for workouts. In fact teams can not run any on the field organized "practices" during the off season program. The off season program isn't even mandatory. The 3 day mini camps are there to walk through the plays in the playbook and there isn't any hitting done in those.

Your idea that the coaches know before any preseason games are played who will make the team is BS. If that were true, under the current 4 preseason games the last one is referred to the bubble game because players on the bubble have one last chance to impress and every year there are players who many thought wouldn't make it but did well in the bubble game and ended up making the team If they are so sure on who's going to make it why don't they just have a big cut before the preseason games start and get down to say 60 players and let those 30 other player just go.

I really don't have a big problem with having 2 wildcard teams per conference. I can't remember a time when both didn't have winning records. The wildcard teams were started because there were a team that was like 13-3 win the division and another team in the same division had a 12-4 or a11-5 yet one of the other division winners could have a 10-6 record and thinking it not fair for a 10-6 team go to the playoffs and a 12-4 team not.

The two week layoff between the conference championship games and the Super Bowel is there so any little nagging injuries have some time so we, the fans get the best possible game. I could care less if the Super Bowl is played in December or February like it has for the last 16 years.
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[Diehardblues]

The Cowboys are clearly one of the top 7 teams in the NFC. It would be a huge disappointment if they didn't make the playoffs. Even bigger than last year. But they will and they should win in postseason, possibly (if not probably) several games.

That’s about where they were picked by most analysts last year. Anywhere from 4th -7th.

And most picked the Egirls to win the division. We finished fairly close to where many predicted.

 

[Diehardblues]

Until proven otherwise, I have the Cowboys in that 6th or 7th spot, which should make the playoffs. If they don't make it, going to be a lot of angst in Mudville with this coaching change. McC wasn't hired to win later.

Every team has ?'s but I think NO is the class of the NFC going in. SF has that D and run game but will the SB hangover haunt them? GB fired a shot across Rodgers' bow, if they stumble, that could be the story of the year. PHL is dependent on a QB they've not been able to depend on. SEA might be the most QB dependent in the NFC. There are always surprise teams in the NFC, could that be ATL, AZ, CAR, TB or WAS this year? ATL is so on again off again, they can't be counted out.

We all assume it will be DAL and PHL fighting for the East but I wouldn't count the Skins out, they weren't that bad last year and just need some improved QB play.

I do not like the playoff format. It favors the 1 seed too much and will allow for a team with a .500 or losing record in the playoffs. If they can't win better than half their games, they should be sitting and watching better teams play.

That’s a fair analysis and reasonable expectation for the Cowboys. Similar to where we had them last year with a 1st place schedule.

 

[Diehardblues]

Not sure why we wouldn’t place these teams ahead of the Cowboys? LA is only one arguable IMO.
SF
NO
Sea
GB
Minn
LA

That leaves Dallas and Phi fighting for the 6th and 7th slot.

Other potential teams making a push. Tampa, Chic

 

[Diehardblues]

I’m excited about having our new coaching though. We can finally look to give more credit to them Or blame on the talent.

 

[CouchCoach]

One thing we need to consider are the circumstances under which teams will have to prepare for this season. Which teams have the most changes to deal with? CAR, NYG, WAS and DAL have new coaching staffs and DAL and NYG are installing a new offense. CAR and TB have new QB's.

Good teams, with the fewest changes, have a better inside track for this season because the lack of prep time should benefit NO, SF, SEA, MIN, GB and PHL. We also might see changes in the preseason games because of the lack of prep time for teams with changes.

I also think teams with the most solid lines will have a leg up because this could be a keep it simple season for many teams. Getting the timing down will be a challenge so teams that can run the ball might be an advantage.

The other issue besides injuries is absent players because of the virus. I do expect that to have impact on more than one team this fall.

I can't think of any season in the past with all of these unknowns and that is why I am going with what I know from last season. And I am already assuming I am wrong.