Ranking NFLs most vulnerable division winners from 2019 Patriots suddenly susceptible after losing Tom Brady | Entradas de portal | Foro

The NFL prides itself on its parity. It doesn't take long for teams to engineer remarkable turnarounds so long as they hit on their draft picks and make smart upgrades in free agency. It doesn't much for teams to suffer staggering stumbles down the standings -- one or two bad drafts combined with natural regre sion in a few areas is more than enough to inflict significant damage. The 2019 NFL season saw three of the eight division winners fail to repeat as division champions, with the in the NFC North, the in the NFC West, and the in the NFC East getting usurped by the , , and in their respective divisions. It's incredibly difficult to find sustained succe s in the NFL, which is why the ' run over the past two decades with Bill Belichick, who has guided the Patriots to 17 AFC East titles in a 20-season span, is a marvel. But the Patriots could be in trouble in 2020 in the aftermath of Tom Brady's decision to depart Boston for Tampa Bay. As the 2020 NFL season approaches and now that free agency and the draft have come and gone -- only a few notable players remain free agents -- we decided now would be an appropriate time to take a look at the eight reigning division champions and rank them by their level of vulnerability. The team ranked eighth is the team that is the least likely to get usurped by one of the other three teams in their division. The team ranked first is the team that is most likely to get usurped by one of the other three teams in their division. Before we begin, it's worth noting that as much as these rankings are about the eight teams and their outlooks in 2020, it's as much about their level of competition within their divisions. As an example, you'll find the 49ers listed on the top half of the list even though they were the best team in the NFC a season ago and remain one of the league's most talented teams. The reason? They're stuck in the toughest division in all of football. All it'll take is mild regre sion combined with one of the three teams taking a step forward for the 49ers to surrender their crown. Ranking the 49ers as high as I did is not me saying the 49ers are the fourth-worst team on this list. It's me saying their road to the NFC West crown is far more treacherous than the Eagles' road to the NFC East crown because the Eagles only have to fend off one team as opposed to three. On that note, we begin in Kansas City with the defending AFC West and Super Bowl champions. 8. (AFC West) Since Andy Reid arrived in Kansas City, the Chiefs have won four division titles in seven seasons. All four have come in the past four seasons. Two came with at https://www.bearsglintshop.com/Prince-Amukamara-Jersey quarterback. The other two came with , inarguably the best player in football right now. At this point, it's impo sible to take anyone other than the Chiefs to win the AFC West. While the and both made substantial improvements this offseason, both teams are a long ways off from competing with the Chiefs, who by the way, are 11-1 against the AFC West over the past two seasons. The Raiders still haven't solved their long-term problem at quarterback, even if gives them a decent insurance plan in the likely event struggles, once again, to make the leap in 2020. The Broncos are still a huge unknown with at quarterback after he flashed promised during his rookie season, but ultimately hasn't shown enough in only five starts to be deemed a franchise-caliber quarterback. As for the , their defense should be improved after they added in free agency, but they'll be starting either , a fringe NFL starter, or , a rookie who exhibited clear flaws during his college career, at quarterback. Neither should be expected to keep pace with Mahomes. In the end, it comes down to the Chiefs having Mahomes and Reid. It makes placing the Chiefs on this list rather easy. Nobody should expect Kansas City to regre s in 2019. 7. (AFC North) The Ravens were the best team in football a year ago during the regular season, winning 12 straight games after starting 2-2, with capturing MVP honors. They weren't at all lucky to win as many games as they did with an offense that and . They outscored their opposition by 249 points over the course of the season. Don't let their disappointing performance in the playoffs fool you: The Ravens had an incredible 2019 season, and and in the first round of the draft, they're primed to https://www.bearsglintshop.com/Nick-Kwiatkoski-Jersey sustain their succe s in 2020. Even if they do take a step back -- it's extremely difficult to win 14 games two years in a row -- they can still win the division with 10 or 11 wins. While the should be improved without and under center, they're counting on -- at the age of 38, , and -- to elevate them above the Ravens. The are still the Browns, talented, but flawed -- until they demonstrate they're a playoff-caliber team, it's best to avoid picking them to make the playoffs (says the guy who picked them to do exactly that a year ago). As for the , while their long-term future is bright with , they were able to pick Burrow first overall for a reason: They're not any good. It comes down to how much you think the Ravens will regre s after a 14-2 season and how many wins Big Ben is worth. While I think the Ravens will win closer to 10 games than 16 games, I also don't think the Steelers will improve as much as we think just because of Big Ben. Remember, defensive succe s tends to fluctuate on a year-to-year basis, and the Steelers rode their defense to eight wins. That same defense racked up a league-high 38 takeaways, which also tends to fluctuate on a year-to-year basis. What I'm trying to say is that the Steelers' defense could very well regre s in 2020, which means it'll be up to a 38-year-old quarterback coming off major surgery to lead the Steelers past a team that went 14-2 a year ago. I'll take the Ravens, a suming Jackson stays healthy, of course. 6. (NFC South) Tom Brady's arrival in Tampa Bay has certainly made the NFC South more competitive than it was a year ago, when the Saints won 13 games and second place belonged to the 7-9 and 7-9 , but the NFC South is still very much the Saints' division. They're bringing back most of their important contributors, most notably . Their biggest lo s was , their backup quarterback who won all five of his starts filling in for Brees a year ago, but they managed to replace him with , giving them the. Over the past three seasons, with so many of the components that compose the Saints' current core, the Saints have gone 37-11. A suming the Saints will win anywhere between 11-13 games, as they've done over the past three years, the question then becomes if you think Tom Brady and are worth 4-6 wins. For as good as that duo was together in New England, I'm skeptical. While Brady, who will be 43 when the season begins, didn't have much help a year ago, he graded out as a fairly average quarterback by the advanced metrics ( ). Meanwhile, Gronk clearly wasn't operating anywhere close to his peak the last time we saw him in 2018. I don't want this to come acro s as an overly negative a se sment of the Buccaneers' outlook. I think they're going to win 10 games and make the playoffs. I think their defense remains supremely underrated ( a year ago). I just think the Saints are the better team. For as well a Brady as aged, Brees is aging even better. At this stage in his career, he's better than Brady. The two defenses are comparable. And unlike the Buccaneers, the Saints won't have to undergo any major transitions on either side of the ball during a truncated offseason. They'll have continuity. For all those reasons, the Saints are well positioned to fend off the Buccaneers in the NFC South. 5. Philadelphia Eagles (NFC East) The Eagles are not better than the four teams they're ranked above. But they're listed at No. 5 because they only have one team to worry about in the NFC East in the Cowboys while many of the teams listed below have two or three teams hot on their heels. But the Eagles have reason to fear the Cowboys, which is why they're ranked below the the aforementioned three teams. For one, the Eagles simply weren't that good a year ago, winning only nine games and outscoring their opposition by 31 points. For the sake of comparison, the Cowboys, who went 8-8, outscored their opposition by 113 points. Two, the Cowboys are coming off an offseason that saw them get rid of their biggest weakne s in coach Jason Garrett and . Like the Saints, the Cowboys have a great insurance plan behind their starting quarterback in . As for the Cowboys' starting quarterback, , he's still supremely underrated. In 2019, he played at a near-MVP level, . With the addition of , who gives Prescott a legitimate third weapon in the pa sing game alongside and , the Cowboys might have one of the best offenses in the entire league in 2020. Three, the Eagles might have a huge problem at left tackle with still unsigned and . But the Eagles are at least well positioned to fight off the Cowboys. Their biggest i sue a year ago was their health at receiver. A suming and enjoy better injury luck in 2020, contributes as a rookie, and gives another vertical threat, the Eagles' offense should improve. Defensively, they lost , but is the shutdown cornerback their defense was lacking a season ago. The Eagles and Cowboys are neck and neck in the NFC East. I can see it going either way. I think it'll come down to their head-to-head matchups. The division could very well be decided by a tiebreaker. 4. San Francisco 49ers (NFC West) The 49ers should've won the https://www.bearsglintshop.com/Allen-Robinson-Jersey Super Bowl. To lose to the Chiefs, While that's obviously a ma sive disappointment to the franchise, it's also a sign of how close the 49ers are to winning a championship. They're only a few bounces away. As of May, before preseason and training camp injuries can wreck a season, the 49ers are either the best or second-best team in the NFC (the Saints might not have the same caliber of defense, but they have the edge at quarterback). So, it might come as a surprise to see them listed fourth here. This is le s about the 49ers and more about the competition they'll face within the NFC West. A year ago, the came . They still have , who is good enough to make up the gap in talent between the Seahawks and the superior 49ers. The Rams are coming off a disappointing season, but so many people seem to forget that the Rams still won nine games a year ago. The idea that they're suddenly bad is misleading. They were a break or two away from making the playoffs. The are coming off a 5-10-1 season, but they also have in quarterback and they just added in a trade that -- not to mention by drafting in the first round. They probably won't go from five wins to dethroning the 49ers in the span of a single season, but they're going to be far more dangerous. The point being, the 49ers are stuck in the league's toughest division. For as good as they were in 2019, they were a yard away from being a wild-card team, which would've made their journey https://www.bearsglintshop.com/Anthony-Miller-Jersey to the Super Bowl far more treacherous. That said, there are also some internal reasons to suspect the 49ers could be due for some regre sion. They sending to to the in exchange for a first-round pick, which they turned into Buckner's replacement in . While Kinlaw is both younger and cheaper than Buckner and has the potential to become as good as Buckner, he's not as good as Buckner yet. That'll be a tough lo s to survive. Similarly, the 49ers drafted to replace , but while Aiyuk has loads of potential, it can take some time for young receivers to find their footing in the NFL. In short, the 49ers have lost some key pieces. Combine those lo ses with the competitive state of the division and the 49ers could be a division winner that fails to repeat in 2020. That said, it'd be shocking to see the 49ers completely fall flat on their face. I think they'll be really good again in 2020, just not quite as good as they were in 2019. Not to mention, they'll have to deal 3. Green Bay Packers (NFC North) The Packers went 13-3 a year ago and , but by expected win total, the Packers were really projected to win 9.7 games. They were a good team, just not as good as their 13-3 record indicated. The easiest way to offset regre sion is to improve your roster in free agency and the draft. That's what makes the Packers' offseason so disappointing. They didn't just lose right tackle and linebacker in free agency. They failed to upgrade their biggest area of need (receiver) even though their biggest area of need also happened to be the deepest position group in the draft (arguably ever). Instead, they drafted a quarterback in the first round to sit behind for at least two seasons, an old-school running back who seldom catches pa ses in the second round, and an H-back in the third round. The Packers didn't use any of their nine picks on a receiver. It's indefensible. If Love ends up becoming the next Aaron Rodgers or Brett Favre in the long term, nobody will care about the Packers' inability to add reinforcements in the short term, but the chances of a developmental quarterback becoming a franchise quarterback are slim. If we're only looking ahead at the 2020 season, which is the very purpose of this article, it's impo sible to defend the Packers' draft. The good news for the Packers is that the rest of the division didn't capitalize on their failure. While the did well to add plenty of talent in the draft, those rookies are being asked to replace established veterans like , , and . It's not reasonable to expect them to fill their voids in 2020. It typically takes time for rookies to acclimate to the NFL. The Bears, meanwhile, added even more weapons to a stacked defense, but by trading for , they didn't at quarterback over . Finally, the are still the Lions -- they're more than one offseason away from seriously challenging for the NFC North title, unle s everything happens to break their way. The Packers are still very much alive in the fight for the NFC North crown. It should be close. But their inability to addre s the biggest holes on their roster after a 13-3 season that wasn't as good as their win total indicated could cost them in 2020. 2. New England Patriots (AFC East) If Bill Belichick wasn't still their coach, the Patriots would rank first on this list. But Bill Belichick is still their coach and he has a long history of surviving the lo s of his starting quarterback -- whether it's winning the Super Bowl in 2001 with his backup quarterback after Drew Bledsoe went down with an injury or going 11-5 with when Tom Brady went down with an injury or posting a 3-1 record with and during Brady's Deflategate suspension in 2016. If anyone can survive the departure of Brady, it's Belichick. But if you were to examine the talent levels of all four rosters in the AFC East, you wouldn't say the Patriots have the most talented roster. That honor belongs to the , even if there are legitimate questions about quarterback . Even the , who should benefit from improved injury luck, and the , who made ma sive improvements in free agency and the draft, should be able to compete with the Patriots. It's never been more difficult to make predictions about the AFC East. The biggest question in all of this is . By not signing Andy Dalton or Jameis Winston and by declining to draft in the first round and in the second round, Belichick has expre sed confidence in Stidham, a fourth-round pick a year ago who seldom saw the field in 2019. When he did step in under center, and the Patriots put Brady right back into the game to close out their win. But Belichick knows more about Stidham's ability than any of us. If he has confidence in Stidham, I have some confidence in him too. The problem is, even if Stidham ends up being good and Belichick coaches up the defense like he always does, the Patriots could still lose the division to a 10-win Bills team with a nasty defense and an offense full of playmakers now that Stefon Diggs has arrived via trade. It's going to be close. As of May, it's simply too close to call. Without knowing just how good or how bad Stidham is, it's nearly impo sible to predict how the AFC East will shake out. When's the last time we've been able to say that about the AFC East? 1. (AFC South) Having means the Texans have the best quarterback in the AFC South, which gives them an advantage over the Colts, , and Jaguars. But the Texans can't get out of their own damn way. Instead of trying to make Watson's life easier, . The latest example is their decision to trade away DeAndre Hopkins -- their best player not named Deshaun Watson -- in an indefensible move. In return, the Texans did not get a first-round pick from the . Instead, the Texans settled for 28-year-old running back , who hasn't been a star player since 2016 -- when was still the quarterback at Clemson -- but is , plus a 2020 second rounder and a 2021 fourth rounder. The Texans also sent a fourth-round pick to the Cardinals to sweeten the deal, because, well -- the truth is, The truth is, Watson is well used to covering up the Texans' flaws, from their leaky offensive line to their unimpre sive defense. Don't expect the Texans to suddenly suck without Hopkins. While Hopkins is one of the best receivers in football, Watson is still one of the best quarterbacks in football. He's capable of dragging this team to the top of the AFC South. The problem is, while the Texans got worse this offseason, the rest of the division got better -- not including the , who are entering the beginning stages of yet another https://www.bearsglintshop.com/ rebuild. The Colts, who won seven games last year without a starting-caliber quarterback, added . The Titans, who finished the season on a 7-3 tear and journeyed all the way to the AFC Championship Game after making the switch from Marcus Mariota to , managed to bring back most of their core in free agency (with the notable exception of ) before adding Conklin's replacement in the draft and bolstering their secondary by taking in the second round. Those three team should be in a tight race for the AFC South trophy. While the Texans have the best quarterback of the bunch, a suming Tannehill fails to sustain his ridiculously great level of play from the second half of last season, they have the worst overall roster of the bunch, making them susceptible to both potential usurpers.