It's a Crazy Year

[vmax]

Banks spells it out...

 

What you did last year routinely means little in the NFL, but this is ridiculous. Seven of the eight division champions from 2010 are currently at .500 or below through four weeks, with only AFC East co-leading New England bucking that trend at 3-1 (and the Patriots lost to the Bills, so Buffalo at the moment holds a tiebreaking advantage).

In the NFC, Philadelphia is in last place in the East at 1-3, Atlanta is in third in the South at 2-2, Chicago's in third in the North at 2-2, and Seattle's tied with Arizona for second at 1-3.

The AFC has Indianapolis dead last at 0-4 in the South, Pittsburgh tied for second (or last) with Cleveland and Cincinnati at 2-2, and Kansas City tied for last with Denver at 1-3. Of that entire seven-team group, only the Steelers and Falcons are within one game of first place in their divisions.

• The inverse of the trend detailed just above is that nine teams that missed the playoffs last season currently own or are tied for first place in their division. So it has the makings of a huge year on the turnaround team front.

Tampa Bay (3-1), Washington (3-1), the Giants (3-1), Detroit (4-0) and San Francisco (3-1) are all at least tied for first place in NFC divisions, despite missing the postseason a year ago. In the AFC, Buffalo (3-1), Houston (3-1), Tennessee (3-1), and San Diego (3-1) all fit the same bill.

Of those nine teams, the Bills, Lions, Texans, Titans and Redskins have worst-to-first potential, given that they finished at least tied for last place in their division in 2010.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/don_banks/10/04/comebacks/index.html?sct=nfl_t11_a0

 

Never saw this comming.

Usually there is turnover in the playoff teams, but if 75% of this holds up then it will be a huge turnover. It's great for football and fans who haven't sniffed the playoffs in a long time.

The next quarter should show us if there's still some fight left in the "Old Dogs".

[papasmurfbell]

Well Det, SD and TB are not completely unforeseen. I still want to see more to see things settle out some. The spread O thing is all great until it gets cold and windy.