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Looks well thought out, at least. My overall problem with your rankings is that they don't change from last year enough. By my count, only San Fran, Cincy, the Giants, Dallas, Philly, and KC are going to have a significantly different result. I'm trying to keep people in suspense about my rankings, so I'm not going to get into individual issues, but in today's NFL, there is a lot of change from season to season. But it's not like I expect you to pick this season's Saints, Jets, Bucs, or Redskins. And if 3 AFC teams pull off 14-2, that will be impressive indeed.

Sorry, this is too big for one comment.

I don't agree with some of those because many of the teams that got worse or only a game or two better should be three or more games better. As well as some teams getting better than the year before when realistically they should be a game or two worse (such as you saying the Bears will go 14-2, when most are saying they will be worse or not even in the playoffs; personally I feel they will be two games worse than they were last year). Same with Green Bay, they should have a better record not worse (your prediction: 6-10), they should again be 8-8 or maybe a game above or below. I also disagree with the Vikings being 5-11. They are going to be at least 7-9 or 6-10 possibly better. The Lions...well...I won't go there.

I agree completely with the AFC East.
I disagree a lot with the AFC North. The Ravens will be division winners, but not the only team with a winning record in the division. They also won't go 14-2; most likely 11-5 to 13-3. The Bengals have improved, while not dramatically improved they improved enough to at least be 9-7 or better. The Steelers will go 7-9 to 8-8 and the Browns will still have a losing record, but not far away from .500 (I'd say at least 7-9).

I agree almost completely with the AFC South except that the Jaguars will be better than 7-9. Most likely 8-8, maybe 9-7 and challenge for that Wild Card. I also don't see the Titans going to the playoffs after getting rid of just about every playmaker on the offense.

The AFC West is somewhat hard to predict, but we all know the Raiders will improve slightly (maybe a game or two as you predicted) and will still be at the bottom of the division. Meanwhile, the Chiefs shouldn't be 5-11. They will probably have about the same record as last year, though the aging offensive line and the fact that Will Shields just retired means they will slip by a game or two. The Chargers will definitely win the division, but probably won't win 14 games; 12 or 13 is much more reasonably seeing as they lost all the important coaches (Schottenheimer, Cameron, and Phillips). Denver will definitely be better than 8-8, I would say more like 10-6 or 9-7 at worst.

Second part.

As a Redskins fan and more importantly someone disliking a lot of your predictions, I completely disagree with the NFC East predictions. No way Dallas will go 12-4 in the NFC East...especially with the aged receivers, weak offensive line (they have Gurode, but the others are iffy especially since they might release Rivera and Davis was ineffective in Arizona and Colombo is quite average), and the coaching changes; as well as the defense still most likely being weak at defending the deep ball (Hamlin and Williams are pretty much the same type of safety). But my prediction for them is 8-8 to 10-6 at best but most likely 9-7. Now, I do agree with the Giants being at the bottom of the division so I'll move onto the Eagles. The Eagles, depending on McNabb could be better or worse than your prediction. So I don't really know what to predict...though 8-8 seems a fair prediction. Now for my 'Skins: the Redskins made strides in the offseason, shipping away Archuleta and replacing him with Landry. The LBs will be solid (Washington, Fletcher, McIntosh). Campbell having experience can only help his confidence and abilities as well as practicing with the first offense as well as having another year to learn Saunders unbelievably long playbook. With Portis, hopefully, healthy at the beginning of the season and Betts backing him up we'll have a great running game. I think the Redskins will go at least 8-8 maybe a game better.

Onto the NFC South. The Saints prediction is right on, so we'll move on. I say the Falcons might be worse if Vick is suspended. Even if he isn't the receivers aren't very good even with the addition of Joe Horn. The Panthers will most likely be 8-8 maybe worse or better, but who knows. The Bucs...yeah, why not.

The NFC West is off a bit. The 49ers will not go from 7-9 to 10-6. My reasoning is because 1) Turner left; 2) they haven't improved enough in the secondary. The safeties aren't the best deep ball safeties, they are really the kind of safeties that play the run. They also are kind of weak on the offensive line, but it is sufficient. So I'll say they go 8-8 or 9-7 and get a Wild Card. The Rams should be much better than 6-10 because of the great running and passing game. The defensive rush will be improved with some of the addition on the defensive lines and they have a solid group of linebackers. The Cardinals, could go either way, so I'll let that alone. The Seahawks should win the division again but barely, so I'd say 9-7 or 10-6.

Well, I'm finally done........

At least you have some reasoning behind your rankings. Dude, you did a lot of work! I'll give you my rankings after the season is over. ;)

Are you saying I did a lot of work or he did? And who had reasoning, him or me?

Just curious, anyone know if 4 teams have ever gone 14-2??

NO

Well, technically no. The closest that we've ever gotten is:

Chicago (14-2) and New York Giants (14-2) in 1986
Atlanta (14-2), Minnesota (15-1), Denver (14-2) in 1998

Thanks to all for the comments.

I'll see what I can post up about my picks, and attempt to explain them. I didn't throw it in this blog...figured it was long enough as it was. Look for something on either the NFC East or NFC North next.

Quick Comments, before I set to work on that, though:

Yeah, three 14-2 teams in the AFC looks odd. But both the Chargers and the Ravens have very easy schedules. The Patriots two loses come at the hands of Baltimore and San Diego. When I was trying to pick them they were more or less a coin flip, I see those games playing very tight this year. Also, all three play Indy this year. See my blog on the AFC South that I posted yesterday as to why I think Indy will begin to fall this year., But if Indy wins one or two of those games, you lose a couple of 14-2s and end up with a bunch of 13-3s.

I don't see my people are so down on the Bears. (Other than the whole myth that the losses of the Super Bowl always do bad. I know it almost always happens. I still think it???s a myth. Just because A, B and C happen A+B does not necessarily =C)They play in what I think is a weak conference. Green bay hasn't improved much and I don't see Farve playing well the whole season...I???ll go into details why on the blog about the NFC North..., the Lions still don't get you need something besides WRs to win, and I???ve haven't been sold on the Vikings since Culpepper started playing in Miami. Although, if the three team trade that Dan TM mentioned in his blog were to happen, I???d definitely have to rethink their schedule. I have the Bears winning 5-6 NFC North games this year. They also play Oakland, the Giants, Denver, and the Redskins, which I am pretty confident will be wins. Seattle and KC will be closer, but should still be wins. I do have them winning against NO, SD, and Dallas, and I can definitely see one of those being a loss, maybe two. SD is the one I was most Iffy on, but I gave it to em because I thought they would be playing much harder to get the bad taste of the SB loss out of their mouths. I don't care that it will have been nearly 8 months, I still think it would be motivation.

Anyways, i've type alot more than i planed to... I'll get started on some blogs explaning why I picked the way I did.

Eh one more note. No disrespect to your Redskins, Big Ben, when i said i thought the Bears should have an easy win over them. They may do a lot better than i think, but I just have not seen anything that impressed me a whole bunch. I do wathc alot more AFC than NFC so my thought on the NFC could be way off. But I couldn't just pick AFC records...i tried...and then ended up withrecords that were just plain wrong to a bunch of NFC Teams.

Maybe if you worked together with someone else (i.e. Dan TM or myself, or all three of us) we could make records that would be most appropriate for all the teams...just a thought. I would also like to see ALL the reasoning behind your predictions before I go and make another two to four comments worth of text...that was a lot of writing.

Five of my boldest predictions...

-There is no way the Steelers and Bengals will miss the playoffs this year they are not even that bad.

-The Niners will win their division after showing significant improvement in the secondary and wide recivers. Though, I'll admit they didn't show enough improvement on the D-Line.

-The Detroit Lions won't be bad enough to go 2-14, but they will still be a horrible football team. 4-12 or 5-11 seems more reasonable. The Chargers won't be 14-2 again. They will be 12-4 or 11-5.

-The Titans will NOT make the playoffs this year. They just haven't shown any improvement on defense to me

-My super bowl picks this year... For the AFC it will be the San Diego Chargers. For the NFC it will be the San Francisco 49ers. Your Super Bowl champions will be the 49ers

I love wasting my time with these things.

Every year the NFL seems to have a team or two pop out of nowhere and I am guessing that the Detroit Lions will be that team this year. I think they might come real close to the playoffs. They are definitely not going 2-14. Their offense started to come alive last year but was inconsistent (they sometimes looked unstoppable when Kitna was on). Their defense was terrible but I don't see it getting any worse.

The Bengals and Steelers are both going to finish well below .500? Take another hit, junior.

The reason you all seem to want will come...i apprently made the mistake of thinking that including all of that along with the selection would make it too long. Don't think that there isn't reason behind these...there really is...promise...its just not writen down. And a guy can only type so much at a time.

Oh and on the Titans, I've just seen the nes that Keyshawn Johnson is supposedly going to annonce his retirement..or has retired...the timeline is confusing. Knowing that, my projection for the Titans would/will drop, barring some trade for a #1 receiver...which probably won't happen. Defensively they were better if Reynoldo Hill was off the field, and with a true #1 receiver, I thought they had a chance. Without one, the Jags will pick up a game, are contend for the now vacant wild card slot. Probablyy either them or maybe the Broncos.

I'll probably do another of these towards the end of preseason play. Take into account what happens at mini-camps and what not.

DWare I would begin listing reasons why the Dallas O-Line will be somewhat weak, but my laptop is not functioning properly and I am currently on my Wii typing this. Believe me...it is very difficult to type a lot of stuff without a keyboard as I am doing now. But good day to and hopefully I can commant tomorrow.

No they don't...no one on their team can catch (except Horn and Crumpler, but Horn will probably be gone for half the season with injury and Crumpler is a tight end and can't be the number one receiver).

Way to go putting alot effort into this but I do not feel that you are correct. I will get back with you later on my standings, I have to go to work right now....

i have some problems with these picks to. I do believe that the NFC East will be one by the cowboys but with a slightly worse record (maybe 9-7). The Bears are going to win their division not with a 14-2 record, they have a good defense but their offense is highly questionable. I can see the saints taking their divison. I really believe that the Seahawks can take their divison this year and the 49ers taking the wild card but that divison will be a hard fought battle with those two teams for the entire yr. Obviously the Pats are going to win the AFC East especially when Brady now has Randy Moss who probalby has some excellent yrs left in him. Everything looks pretty good from there, good job with the picks

ARe you kidding??? Ravens at 14-2???? wow...

Lions will not lose that many this year.