AFC EAST
Buffalo: If you want any evidence whatsoever that the NFL is willing to go with the “shoot” best team, look at how fast and with how much expediency the Bills fired Matt Araiza, all but naming him guilty in the gang rape at San Diego State University. If you need a second piece of evidence: After the cuts to 53, the team then had NO PUNTER ON THE ROSTER. (They got one three days later.)
But one thing cannot be avoided: If you actually decided games on the field (with, of course, the natural poor assumption that injuries don't tear the mess in half), it is largely understood that Buffalo is the best team in the AFC (if not the entire NFL), and it's not that close.
You do have some questions, however, on at least how someone could not have, with the extensive player-vetting process, not realized what was going on. And if Buffalo gets screwed late in the playoffs or something, there's a pretty good guess what the league eventually found out in that regard.
If we don't end up with a Cincinnati situation, however, there's a very short list in the AFC, and Buffalo is at the top.
Miami: On the other end of the spectrum, you now have Daniel Snyder... err, Stephen Ross. Six of one and a half a dozen of the other, but you now have a “going concern” problem in Miami. Ross has all but certainly not only engineered one of the most blatant tank jobs in league history, but now he's out a mil and a half, a good part of the season, and his first round draft pick next year because he was trying to tamper Tom Brady onto the Dolphins AND a new coach!!
My forecast? Another report of Dolphins players trying to get out of this franchise this season.
New England: I will never confuse New England for being THAT GOOD. However, there is the delicious thought of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, One Time For All Time, Who Made Who, as both ride off into the sunset.
They don't suck. They'll definitely be in the wildcard chase, but the only way they get to Glendale is if their marquee quarterback is on the other team (along with other factors).
New York Jets: Injuries, and the fact that they're so far down the shitter... I mean, THINK (and the same exact thing can be said about the Giants in both counts!!!)... This is a New York metropolitan area team. You'd BELIEVE the NFL would actually want to push them. If there was a damn thing to push. I've long called for an investigation, multi-sport, into the New York sports scene. Something is very rotten in Rotterdam here, and it's going to be another long year for the Buttfumble.
Buffalo is a Super Bowl contender, but...
New England CAN, but only under certain conditions.
The Jets will probably be drafting in the first hour or 90 minutes of the 2023 Draft, and the only reason Miami won't is because they can't.
AFC NORTH
Baltimore Ravens: The question comes down to Lamar Jackson. His health, his motivation... Again, you win in the NFL, with the rarest of exceptions like the AFC's job-boy last year, with someone at the front with a Q-Rating. And this team's identity goes through Lamar Jackson.
Cincinnati Bengals: Speaking of the job-boys... And don't look now... They're always in the back pocket if they need to be. You definitely started hearing chirping of a new Q-Rating man in front when the league kinda had to push them with no other real options. Think of them, this year, as New England without the tie to the opponent. And if it goes “Services Rendered”...
Cleveland Browns: Hoo boy. If this goes as the NFL usually puts it, the Browns will go about 4-13 or so and will regret signing DeRapist Rapist as their new quarterback. There are a number of teams, I think, that very easily could be looking to November 8th (the midterm elections) as probably their best and brightest hope. It would be another month before they got Rapist back, but a Red Tsunami and enough wins from @CAR, NYJ, PIT, @ATL, LAC, NE, @BAL, CIN, @MIA, @BUF, TB (which probably means we'll know by about the end of Week 4, because this gets STIFF pretty quick after that), and the NFL actually could show how much it REALLY cares about women. Someone... please... put this cocksucker out of commission.
(Their last six: @HOU, @CIN, BAL, NO, @WAS, @PIT... Eugh. They limp to 4-7, 5-6 and have at least enough health.... Ewwww.)
Pittsburgh Steelers: The Steelers have pieces, but now lack any sort of name (and, before anyone asks, not just at the quarterback position, with TJ Watt going down with an injury at the last preseason game). I posit they will probably head to the 6-11, 7-10, 8-9 season and everyone in Yinzer Land will try to understand this is a building season.
Baltimore: Health is the issue.
Cincinnati: Another possible back-pocket job.
Cleveland: Call me in November.
Pittsburgh: At least Urinating Tree won't even have to feint the joke this time.
AFC SOUTH:
Houston Texans: Speaking of Urinating Tree, he has it right: They're so far down in the hole right now they will probably need those three firsts from Cleveland to even be discussable. Next!
Indianapolis Colts: The problem with them, to me, is that no. one. Cares. After Andrew Luck was basically booed off the field when he retired in a preseason game, let's just say the entire culture here is no damn good. You'd think they'd do better, but the fact is that when you lose a win and in game against the #1 draft team, that's a problem. And it's not just the QB or anything like that. You're in a shit division, all you really need is to approximate a pulse, and you can't do it.
Speaking of that #1 draft team:
Jacksonville Jaguars: The shine of All Elite Wrestling is finally beginning to come off.
(Bloggers Note: I wrote these first two previews last week. Nothing could've prepared for the cliff AEW may be about to fall off of.)
This team employed Urban Fucking Meyer as an NFL coach, when if we ever find out the truth about this piece of shit, they won't even allow him to watch a high-school game live! I mean, there is a Worst to First angle here, but WHY??? This really does look like a division where, if Tennessee awakens and the rest of the corps stagnates, you could see 12-5 for one and the rest struggling to get 12 between them.
Tennessee Titans: The question is not the division. The question is whether you have anything beyond that. At least you can regale in playoff football and an extra home game. From there..... And your top pass-rusher is now out for the year with an ACL!
Tennessee: By default.
The rest: Oh God...
AFC WEST
Denver Broncos: Russell Wilson is definitely a name move. The problem is you are in Flyover Country. This could be another team that looks at November 8th and wonders, because their own fanbase might not care for a Black quarterback, especially one who's been injury-prone and not producing to expectations of the last cult... err, fanbase he was at.
Definitely going to be an interesting year in Denver. Whether we add a Chinese flavor to that is important... They CAN do something, but there are also three other good teams (or at least comparatively good) who can do damage in this division.
Kansas City Chiefs: Britt Reid's DUI attempted-murder civil trial is now scheduled during the season. That's all you need to know. If there is a franchise which could've accomplished more with ANY SEMBLANCE OF LEADERSHIP WHATSOEVER (and I'm talking Andy “I'll let my kid die if he doesn't love football enough!” Reid here)...
That's THREE major runs which have been scuttled, one form or another, because Andy Reid only cares about the on the field and doesn't give a damn about the supposed men he has to get there.
Los Angeles Chargers: If there's a team ready to take the Arizona “You Don't Have Enough Fans For Us To Even Bother” Cardinals role from that Super Bowl with Pittsburgh, here ya go. There are a few who actually do still believe this team is good enough.
But then you realize that being a Super Bowl champion in a booked and rigged NFL is about far more than just the on the field. Seriously, do you think the NFL is going to make champion a team that, if they sell out half their home games, it's only because of the visiting fans???
I mean, if the NFL wants to completely cease getting ratings, make their conference title games Buffalo vs. the Chargers, and Arizona vs. … … have to think about that one a bit, but I know someone fits.
Las Vegas Raiders: There are three major problems with the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Davis Family, The Stain Jon Gruden Left On The Team, And Las Vegas Itself.
I believe, within two seasons, we will find out in vivid color how bad an idea it ever was to put professional sports in Las Vegas. It is clear that a number of Raiders could never handle the city, and a couple will rot in prison as a result! Just wait until the Super Bowl comes there.
I think it's clear that if ever find out what Jon Gruden actually did to this team, it could have ramifications about the level of if we ever see the Dan Snyder e-mails.
And, at some point, it DOES come down to the Davis Family. At some point, you have to realize you are in a precarious situation here and you need to do at least the bare minimum to be presentably valid as a representative of the National Football League. And you aren't.
I've had Raiders fans respond to me, reminding me Allegiant Stadium hosts the Super Bowl in 2024. I cringe at that concept for multiple reasons.
Good luck picking this division. This is the NFL's Group of Death. Any one of these four teams, under the right booking, could even be the #1 seed in the AFC if the situation breaks out right.
Unlike the NFC, the AFC does not have a clear strata of a top tier of playoff teams. Seven playoff spots, and there are probably, given certain conditions, at least ten teams who could do it, if the NFL doesn't shock us into more!
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