2006 NFL Preview, Part One: NFC

With three days before the regular season kicks off, I’m coming through with this year’s NFL predictions.  But before we start with this year’s picks, let’s see how I fared last year.


NFC
Division     My Pick     Winner
East          Eagles          Giants
North          Vikings     Bears
South          Panthers     Bucs
West          Cardinals     Seahawks
Wild Card 1     Lions          Redskins
Wild Card 2     Rams          Panthers
AFC
Division     My Pick     Winner
East          Patriots     Patriots
North          Steelers     Bengals
South          Colts          Colts
West          Chargers     Broncos
Wild Card 1     Jets          Steelers
Wild Card 2     Chiefs          Jags
  

Not great, huh?  To sum up, I picked two out of eight divisions, and a big zero in the wild card and conference champ picks.  Well, the good news is that I’ve shined up my crystal ball this year and it’s clearer than ever.  Let’s move on to this year’s picks.  I’m doing it a little differently this year, as I’ll just list each division from top to bottom and then pick the playoff games.  Here we go.

NFC

East
3. Eagles
5. Cowboys
Giants
Redskins


North
2. Chicago
Detroit
Minnesota
Green Bay


South
4. Panthers
6. Bucs
Falcons
Saints


West
1. Seattle
Arizona
St. Louis
San Francisco
(Numbers are playoff seedings)

Notes:
You didn’t really think I’d pick someone other than the Eagles to win the East, did you?  Come now.  The Birds have absolutely stacked both the offensive and defensive lines, and we all know that you win games in the trenches.  Stay tuned, folks.  The defense is going to be very nasty.  I know the preseason means jack, but the Eagles’ starting D has allowed three points in eight series during the preseason.  And as far as offense goes, the acquisition of Donte Stallworth was huge.  He’s a number one guy that has tremendous speed and actually has some hands worth talking about.  Add the young guys (especially Reggie Brown) to the mix, and you’ve got what’s going to be an underrated wide receiver corps.  But I tell you, look out for them.  Donovan McNabb is in top form, and he’s got a tremendous offensive line in front to give him plenty of time.  The rest of the East could really shake out in any way.  Surely there will be two playoff teams in the division, and there’s no bad team from top to bottom, so who takes positions 2-4 is anyone’s guess.  It looks like I’m sleeping on the Redskins, but in truth I just put them in alphabetical order after Philly.  Just bank on the Birds reasserting themselves as the best.  (Oh—and while I’m on the subject of the NFC East, I can’t get away without mentioning that I’m absolutely delighted that Terrell Owens is in Dallas.  Jerry Jones, Bill Parcells and T.O. is a match made in Eagle fan heaven.  Just the fact that we get the chance to play a team associated with all three simultaneously is a gift.  The prospect of beating them?  It’s almost too much to think of.  And if both make the playoffs, show me a single Eagles fan that wouldn’t take a lower seed just to have a shot at ousting Dallas in the first round, and I’ll show you a wuss.  In fact, I’m changing my rankings.  Give the Eagles the fourth seed and the ‘boys the fifth seed, and we’ll see you in the first round.)

You will see that I put the Cardinals in the number two spot in the West.  Well, the West is bad enough, and the Cardinals did barely enough in the offseason, that I’ll put enough faith in them to make second place.  Notice, however, that neither they nor the Lions make the playoffs.  I am taking a hiatus from picking these teams until they prove that it’s actually possible for them to achieve anything.

After a regular season for the ages, here’s how the playoffs will look (winners in bold):

Wild Card Games:
(5) Cowboys at (4) Eagles
(6) Bucs at (3) Panthers

Divisional Championships:
(4) Eagles at (1) Seahawks
(3) Panthers at (2) Bears

Conference Championship:
(4) Eagles at (3) Panthers

In case you haven’t figured it out, I’ll always be picking the Eagles to win the Super Bowl as long as they’re anything resembling good.  And you’d better believe they’ll be good this year.  

You may also notice that I’ve got the 3rd and 4th seeds in the conference title game.  This isn’t because the Seahawks and Bears aren’t any good, because they’ll both be very good teams.  It’s the lack of quality in opponents that will set the teams apart.  I’m not saying the NFC South is going to be outstanding, but it’ll be the major league to the West and North’s minor leagues.  Not to mention the North and West play each other during the season, so they’ll barely get any quality competition inside the conference.  So there’s your NFC preview.  I’d do the AFC right now, but I don’t want to be overly long-winded.  So the AFC will come later this week (before Thursday, mind you).