With the NFL pre-season upon us, I thought it appropriate to open a discussion on the NFL’s top up-trending and down-trending teams heading into the 2013 season.
After hundreds of hours of watching game film, analyzing the draft and watching free-agent movements as well as the injury and waiver wires, I pretty much pulled this list out of my butt, a la Brandon Moore. But I hope it’s a good launching point for discussion!
General Trends
First, I can’t stress enough just how thoroughly I think the NFC is going to dominate the AFC this year.
In my reading of things, the Broncos are the best team in football (no surprise there). But going down the list, before you get to my second-best AFC team (Houston), there are as many as eight superior NFC teams: Seattle, San Francisco, Green Bay, Atlanta, the New York Giants and possibly even Washington, New Orleans and St. Louis (although those last three are admittedly a stretch).
In this series, I’m going to go through the Top 4 up-trending and down-trending in each conference, but as you read the lists, keep the general “tide” in mind — the NFC as a conference is improving while the AFC, um, regroups.
If I had to venture a guess regarding NFL executives’ worst football-related nightmares, I would think they might go something like this:
Ravens’ fans can take heart that things won’t get that bad. Ozzie Newsome truly is one of the best GM’s in the business. He’s a fantastic talent evaluator and good with the draft and as he works to rebuild, it will be on a solid foundation of young talent.
Prediction: 8-8, tie for second place in the AFC North.