NFC in 2014

[WizardHawk]

There has obviously been a power shift to the NFC in recent years. We know these things go in cycles and the AFC may again take back some ground, but for now it just feels like the major power of the league is in the NFC.

Obviously the NFC West has blown up from a division that just a couple of years ago had a 7-9 division winner to one now with 3 viable playoff quality teams and a 4th not that far off. Arizona got screwed out of a post season due to a few of the other big teams in the conference. And it feels like it is only going to be better next year.

Green Bay. If Rogers didn't go down that team was likely a lot more potent in the post season and who knows. I don't think anyone believes that team won't be playoff quality next season.

Eagles. The emergence of Foles was one of the biggest stories of the year. It was Kelly's first season in the pros and you could see some of his growing pains, but also moments of brilliance. I have no idea if Foles can keep it up in his sophomore season, but you just feel like we have not seen the ceiling on that teams potential.

Saints. Brees and Payton are not done yet. They haven't all been back to reunited for all that long. Not sure if they are SB quality this coming year, but should be considered a threat for sure.

Panthers. That's one nasty defense they have down there. No idea if Cam is the real deal, but they aren't far off from a team with enough pieces to make a run at it.

Seahawks. If they can keep the band together and find a way to keep that chip on their shoulders they used to motivate themselves who can say they can't return?

49'ers. Were one bad pass removed away from maybe making their second trip to the SB in a row. For all of the knocks on Kaepernick, you can't argue with their string of seasons making it to the NFCCG or better.

Cardinals. Another crazy scary defense. Not sold that Palmer is the guy to win a SB, but anyone not taking them seriously is going to find themselves looking around on the field for their bottom lip.

Behind those teams are a few others not that far off and possibly only a few smart FA or draft choices away from being dangerous. Lions? Falcons? Rams?, maybe someone else? But someone will emerge this year to fight for their division against those other favorites.

Is the top 2-3 teams in the league all in the NFC? How imbalanced is the overall power between the conferences? How many teams from the NFC do you see having the potential of being strong enough to make a deep playoff run next year?

 

[BusSport]

There has obviously been a power shift to the NFC in recent years.

There has been no such thing.

The Baltimore Ravens, an AFC team, won the Super Bowl last year.

Top-to-bottom, the two conferences are very even.

The NFC-AFC record this year is 130-126 in favor of the NFC.

A difference of 4 games out of 256 is not "an obvious power shift."

 

[RoboticDreams]

Here's how I would rank the top 10:

1. Seattle
2. San Francisco
3. Carolina
4. Denver
5. New England
6. New Orleans
7. Arizona
8. Green Bay
9. Philadelphia
10. Indianapolis

 

[WizardHawk]

There has been no such thing.

The Baltimore Ravens, an AFC team, won the Super Bowl last year.

Top-to-bottom, the two conferences are very even.

The NFC-AFC record this year is 130-126 in favor of the NFC.

A difference of 4 games out of 256 is not "an obvious power shift."

I would no more say the balance of power is in the NFC this year simply because Seattle won the SB than to say it was in the AFC last year for the same reason. I also said it is cyclical, but from my vantage there are more teams either already built to go deep in the playoffs, or close in the NFC than the AFC. You don't agree? Then give us your list of teams in order of dangerous from 1 - 10. I've got no problem with others not seeing it the same way I do.

As for 'obvious power shift'. I think it is a fairly wide spread belief that had SF been in the SB they too would have won by a sizable margin. Of course that is a best guess and could be wrong, but we are talking about perceptions and not facts as no one knows the facts of next season yet.

How far is the power shift? I don't know, but it feels like the NFC is clearly ahead of the AFC right now to me and that's all I can say.

 

[Ties5o11]

The NFC has a much bigger "axis of power" than the AFC right now- as in 7 or 8 of the top 10 teams are probably in the NFC. But the NFC also has the NFC East, so it sort of evens out.

 

[BusSport]

I would no more say the balance of power is in the NFC this year simply because Seattle won the SB than to say it was in the AFC last year for the same reason. I also said it is cyclical, but from my vantage there are more teams either already built to go deep in the playoffs, or close in the NFC than the AFC. You don't agree? Then give us your list of teams in order of dangerous from 1 - 10. I've got no problem with others not seeing it the same way I do.

As for 'obvious power shift'. I think it is a fairly wide spread belief that had SF been in the SB they too would have won by a sizable margin. Of course that is a best guess and could be wrong, but we are talking about perceptions and not facts as no one knows the facts of next season yet.

How far is the power shift? I don't know, but it feels like the NFC is clearly ahead of the AFC right now to me and that's all I can say.

Again, 130-126. That's almost no difference.

 

[WizardHawk]

So you quote unbalanced interconference results as proof of what exactly?

 

[RoboticDreams]

So you quote unbalanced interconference results as proof of what exactly?

That's what I'm trying to figure out.

 

[Clayton]

Again, 130-126. That's almost no difference.

Really its the NFC West that separated from everyone else. 30-10 against non divisional opponents. 7 of the 10 losses were against playoff teams. The other 3 were all from the Rams I do believe.

Its a division with the 2 best teams in football, a legit playoff contender and a rebuilding team with a ton of assets.

 

[WizardHawk]

Maybe the focus of this thread would be better served to simply talk about who the likely power players from the NFC will be next year and leave the discussion of NFC vs AFC for another thread.

What we saw this year was a ton of great defenses in the NFC. I'm not sure that this notion of "you can't play defense with these rules anymore" is true, but to play good defense now takes more than just raw power. Maybe the league is just adapting and finding a way to bring defense back after those rules stiffed it a bit, but I don't see enough talent in the gene pool to create that smothering defense on every team.

The reason for the thread is when you consider that the Eagles were working under a first year HC and started the year with Vic only to end it with Foles going freaking crazy, just what is their ceiling next year? With GB having Rogers out so long what kind of season can they have that they didn't this season? Sure, they may need a piece or two, but they aren't far away are they?

So when you add those to what is already some young and powerful teams that are likely to at least still be dangerous, what does that mean for the overall conference?

We could have the top 5 teams in the NFC and still lose the SB. We saw just how easy it is for good teams to not be good for that game.

 

[RegentDenali]

That's what I'm trying to figure out.

Ditto. That made me go....

 

[tzorn10]

I think its really hard to say. There's just so many factors. Green Bay will be around for sure. Lacy is awesome and gives Rogers a weapon he hasent had before, but their defense doesnt exactly install the fear of God into anybody. The Bears have a lot of nice pieces on offense as does the Lions, so who knows how thats going to go. The NFC East really doesnt scare anybody. The Eagles are still questionable and they barely snuck into the playoffs and really didnt deserve to be there. Can Atlanta rebound from all of those injuries? I think so. Saints are always tough and we all know the Panthers seem to have just as a good a defense as anybody right now. The West is just going to be brutal with each team beating the snot out of each other. The Cardnials made huge strides last season, but I feel that its almost been wasted. Palmers 34 years old. How much more blood are they going to get out of that rock before they have to start over? I still see it being whoever survives between Seattle and SF for right now. Its going to be a few years before the rest catch up in my opinion.

 

[RegentDenali]

Green Bay still needs a lot of attention on defense to get deep playoff caliber. They helped themselves by getting a run game last offseason, but they still need to get crackin on that D if they want to get back to the big show.

 

[Mondio]

The Packers D did suck, horribly, but I don't they are that far away from being pretty good either. They need a piece or two and they need to stay healthy.

I don't buy into this new rage that you "defense wins" again. Not taking anything away from Seattle, they destroyed the Broncos. I felt badly for the Broncos but I love watching those types of defenses. I had goosebumps the whole game and I fucking hate Pete Carroll and Golden Tate. Watching them win like that was awesome and sickening at the same time. I had more conflicting emotions that game than I should have for not having a team in the game

But it just so happened that a very good Defensive team played arguably one of the best defensive games of it's life and the other just showed up to play a game at a time when the whole nation was watching. So, what happens after that? Well obviously everyone blows up into, Defense wins championships and why do you pay QB's when Defense wins and on and on and on.

If Tavaris Jackson is your QB, I hate to tell you, but Seattle probably doesn't even play in the SuperBowl let alone win it. And Seattle does have a "franchise" QB, they just don't have to pay him like one yet. He didn't have to do a ton in that game, but he escaped some pressure at times and threw strikes for HUGE first downs and kept their offense on the field. Turnovers and 3 and outs have a way of opening things up for the other team and that's one thing Seattle had the luxury of never having to deal with that night.

anyway, i'm rambling.

Back to GB, I think they need another safety and he may already be on the team in Hyde. They need another Dlineman because I think Picket and/or Raji are gone this year. I think the LB'ers could use an upgrade or 2, but if they just stay healthy, I'd be happy. I know injuries happen, but we had way too many guys that shouldn't be on the field for anything but special teams playing full time and using linemen as linebackers because we had ran out of guys to use.

But if they don't address some of that or stay healthy, GB will never do more than make the playoffs

 

[bksballer89]

The NFC is beast but Carolina will struggle next year to make the playoffs IMO. It will get back to being the Falcons & Saints in the South. I don't believe in Cam.

 

[bksballer89]

The Saints will be really good this year. What people forget about the Saints is that we were missing 3 out of our top 5 defensive backs late in the year. Robinson got hurt in week 2, Greer got hurt in the SF game (our best CB), and Vaccaro got hurt in the 2nd Panthers game. All missed the rest of the season after their injuries

 

[cdumler7]

Too much changes from year to year in the NFL making it very difficult to tell which conference will be better moving forward. Throw in I would say the AFC had a lot of key injuries to top tier players that the NFC did not seem to deal with as much. Guys like Gronk and Von Miller are both considered top 10 players in the NFL but were not available a majority of the season.


Now I will say I do think the NFC will be stronger next year but the year after that when both San Fran, Carolina, and Seattle will have huge contracts to dish out could easily switch the balance back to the AFC. This is the joy of watching during the Cap Era of the NFL in it doesn't take long for a bottom dweller to make their way back to the top.

 

[WizardHawk]

I did say the balance of power swings and there is no doubt it will go back to the AFC at some point, but the purpose of this thread was just thinking about all of those dangerous teams from this year in the NFC and considering that most of the top teams were still looking likely to keep going with what they do best and there are a couple of other teams that were close that should be better and how scary that is.

There are some teams with some flat out bad ass defenses in the NFC, but not all of the power in this conference is pure defense. GB and the Saints are two that can pile up scores and I don't care what anyone else thinks about the Eagles, that team is pretty close as well. If Foles keeps up last years production that team is going to be difficult to stop on that side of the ball.

I know there are questions about Cam, Palmer, and Kaepernick specifically, but people still question Wilson as well. Seems many of our most feared defenses are not nearly as feared on the other side of the ball and yet they are all winning games. Someone questions if defenses can win without an offense and I say they can, but that doesn't mean offense heavy teams cannot also win and be dangerous. That's what makes this league so fun to watch.

 

[BusSport]

So you quote unbalanced interconference results as proof of what exactly?

You claimed that the NFC is "obviously better" than the AFC.

In fact, what is obvious is that wins and losses show that the two conferences are virtually equal.

 

[sonnyblack65]

Here's how I would rank the top 10:

1. Seattle
2. San Francisco
3. Carolina
4. Denver
5. New England
6. New Orleans
7. Arizona
8. Green Bay
9. Philadelphia
10. Indianapolis

List looks good imo just would move Carolina down