12 NFL teams who will be playoff contenders in 2015-16
By Will Osgood
With free agency and the draft past us, here are the 12 NFL teams who look like playoff teams in 2015.
With the entirety of the NFL offseason roster transformation now complete, one thing is certain: parity reigns in the National Football League.
With the New England Patriots losing their top three corners and presumably set to miss Tom Brady for at least a couple games due to “Deflategate,” the AFC looks a bit more wide open. In fact, it could be said the 2015 version of the Pats looks to be more vulnerable than ever.
The Miami Dolphins and New York Jets, who both added significant talent to their rosters from a year ago, look to benefit, but only one figures to be able to overcome the champs in the AFC East.
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The NFC looks to be as challenging as it was a year ago, and yet it’s almost impossible not to argue that the playoff field will see a major overhaul of teams.
The NFC North is stacked, which means the teams will batter each other into a stalemate—with the exception of the Packers, who will go mostly unscathed in what is traditionally thought of as the Black and Blue Division. On the whole, the Pack look like the best team in all of football at this juncture of the offseason.
The NFC West figures to backslide, with the San Francisco 49ers taking an obvious step backward. Likely benefactors will be the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals—who figure to have an easier track than last season at returning to the postseason.
The NFC South was terrible last year, sending the 7-9 Carolina Panthers to the playoffs as division champs. This despite the fact that they were -35 in point differential and the division’s second-lowest scoring club (Tampa Bay).
Then there’s the NFC East, always the most interesting division in football, which has two teams ready to spread their wings and fly to greatness (that analogy really only fits for one team in the division, but you get the point).
Here are the teams who look like playoff contenders in 2015-16 right now.
Next: First, the NFC