some delusion here AFC North best division in football

http://www.baltimorebeatdown.com/2015/6/28/8851871/the-afc-north-is-the-best-division-in-football

Saying NFC west is just trendy offenses, acts like there is no defense. ( note to author check out the top defenses last few yrs. )

Despite the fact that the article was written by an idiot, he's probably correct by accident.

The AFC North probably is the toughest. If Denver and New England regress this year as expected, then you could argue that the AFC's three best teams are all in the AFC North. The Steelers, Ravens, and Bengals all finished ahead of the Colts in DVOA last year.

In the NFC West, the 49ers are probably going to be a 5-11 joke of a team. The Cardinals feel like a team that could fall apart at any moment (they had a NEGATIVE DVOA last year of -6.4% (!) ), and the Rams are still the Rams until Nick Foles proves to be a transcendent QB.

If you take the Seahawks out of the equation, the NFC West was actually a below average division last year by DVOA.

They will be good teams no doubt. The main point of contention would be toughest defenses reside in the North. The West has had the best defenses for some time. Arizona may fall back to earth Frisco has lost some players the Rams have the parts still to be a pain, my thought is most of that falloff will be offensively. He's looking forward to seeing the Ravens come up against this gimmic offense, me too who ya gonna stop and Marshawn hits as hard as most defenders. The rest of the division could very well slug most of their divisions offenses in the mouth as well.

It doesnt shock me. Certain writers/bloggers are always going to try and pump up a division their favorite teams play in. Especially if a legacy team like a Pissburgh or *allas plays in said division.

kearly":5flx5a0q said:

Despite the fact that the article was written by an idiot, he's probably correct by accident.

The AFC North probably is the toughest. If Denver and New England regress this year as expected, then you could argue that the AFC's three best teams are all in the AFC North. The Steelers, Ravens, and Bengals all finished ahead of the Colts in DVOA last year.

In the NFC West, the 49ers are probably going to be a 5-11 joke of a team. The Cardinals feel like a team that could fall apart at any moment (they had a NEGATIVE DVOA last year of -6.4% (!) ), and the Rams are still the Rams until Nick Foles proves to be a transcendent QB.

If you take the Seahawks out of the equation, the NFC West was actually a below average division last year by DVOA.

Click to expand...

DVOA has it's value but luckily they actually play the games rather than white room theorize the season. Especially given the fact that Arizona, San Francisco and St . Louis are all dangerous teams that can punk any team until actually in game are proven different.

Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh are solid teams but every last one of them have huge weaknesses on a level none of the NFCW have.

I expect the niners to take the gas pipe this year and Arizona to fall back a bit.
I think the Rams can take a step forward but their weakness is their head coach.
I think the Hawks win this division get home field advantage and take home the 2nd Lombardi, barring serious injuries, and boneheaded play calls in critical moments by the OC of course.

The NFC West this year has three teams which could go 8-8 without surprising anyone.

Or , put another way, I think it would be a major surprise if one of the WC teams doesn't come from the AFC North, and there's a couple teams competing for that privilege.

I wouldn't be that surprised if there wasn't a WC team from the NFCW this year.

Not a bad pick for best division, as it was the only division last year that had three teams 4+ games over .500............and three teams in the playoffs.

No reason to think those same 3 teams won't be 10+ win teams again. But I know, feigned anger!! RABBLE RABBLE SEAHAWKS NFC WEST SOMETHING SOMETHING!!!

Whoa whoa whoa.

I live in Ohio so I had to deal with this nonsense last year. The AFC North played the AFC South and NFC South - the two worst divisions in the NFL last year, by far.

In those two divisions combined, there was ONE team over .500

That one team was the Colts, who went 4-1 (including the playoffs) against the AFC North. 3 of those games were in Indianapolis, and all 3 were pretty much beat downs.

For the Rams last year, replace the Chargers/Chiefs/Broncos/Raiders with the Colts/Jags/Titans/Texans, and the Cowboys/Eagles/Giants with the Panthers/Falcons/Saints.

We likely go from 2-5 against those 7 teams to 5-2, which would have put the Rams at 9-7 with a backup QB.

The NFC West is still the best division in football. And I would put the AFC West at 2nd.