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Which NFL Teams Listed Are Contenders Or Pretenders For 2018


Mike75
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I put the winningest teams so far in this discussion. The only 2-2 teams i included where both in last years Super Bowl Pats/Eagles and also included the Chargers.

 

 

So who are Contenders and Pretenders in this list below and tell us why for your choices....

 

 

 

 

Kansas City: 4-0: Mahomes looks unstoppable and Chiefs fans look like they got their next franchise QB for the next dozen years or more. Only weak link the defense and this weeks first major test the first ranked Jax defense then the next week vs Patriots. Overall the Jags,Pats,Rams,Ravens,Chargers and Broncos are hardest games left.

 

 

L.A. Rams: 4-0: The Rams offense looks unstoppable as well and they beat the Vikes and Chargers recently. Denver,Green Bay,New Orleans,Kansas City,Chicago and Philly are hardest games left.

 

 

Tennessee: 3-1: The Titans have won three straight games including the AFC runner up Jax and Super Bowl winner Philly and both were hard fought games. Baltimore,L.A. Chargers,New England and Jax are hardest games left for the Titans.

 

 

Jacksonville: 3-1: The Jaguars have won three games the only loss vs Tennessee. The Jags have the NFL's best defense and their hardest games left are Kansas City,Philly,Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

 

 

New Orleans: 3-1: The Saints are one of this years best teams with only one loss so far. After their bye in mid October they will start facing some good teams among them are Baltimore,Minnesota,LA Rams,Philly,Cincy and Atlanta all in one stretch. Then they play the divisions toughest team Carolina twice in final three games.

 

 

Baltimore: 3-1: The Ravens lit a major fire under Flacco's ass when they drafted Lamar Jackson and he has responded in a fashion that says no one will be taking his job soon. They face New Orleans,Tennessee,Carolina and Pittsburgh all in one stretch in October.

Then toward the end they play Atlanta,Kansas City and the LA Chargers thats a lot of tough opponents.

 

 

Chicago: 3-1: No team has surprised more than the Bears and that Khalil Mack trade is looking mighty damn good for Chicago right now. After their bye they face Miami and New England back to back. Then in November and December their toughest games are the LA Rams,Green Bay and Minnesota all in December.

 

 

Cincinnati: 3-1: The Bengals just beat the Ravens,Panthers and Falcons all are good teams. They must face Miami,Pittsburgh and Kansas City before the bye. After they face New Orleans,Denver,Baltimore,Pittsburgh,LA Chargers. A rough slate but so far they have proven to be doing well.

 

 

Miami: 3-1: Miami beat a beat up Tennessee team without Mariota,the Jets and Raiders an easy 3 game stretch. They were pounded hard in their first test New England. They face Chicago,Cincy and Green Bay before a mid November bye. Then Indy,Minnesota,Jacksonville and New England after the bye. Honestly i picked them to be bad and while they won't be real bad i still think they might hover around .500 or 8-8 once the season done.

 

 

New England: 2-2: Starting off slow is something the Patriots have been known to do. So dont count em out yet. They must face Indy,Kansas City,Chicago,Tennessee,Green Bay before the bye, After they face Minnesota and Pittsburgh in a schedule thats much easier in December..........

 

 

Philly: 2-2: The Eagles have had a tough schedule so far losing to the Titans/Bucs and beating Atlanta/Indy. Wont get easy the next three are Minnesota,Carolina and Jacksonville. They also must face New Orleans,LA Rams as well as Dallas and Washington twice.

 

 

LA Chargers: 2-2: They lost to the NFL two undefeated teams the Rams and Chiefs and beat the Bills and 49er. In my honest opinion i think they could make the postseason. They face Tennessee in London then the slate gets rough in the final months with Pittsburgh,Baltimore,Kansas City,Denver.

 

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Cratering offensive line threatens to ruin Dolphins' strong start

 

 

Ryan Tannehill took hit after hit, wincing and limping back to the huddle. He got bent backward awkwardly on a hit when Sunday's game against the Patriots was out of hand. Dolphins coach Adam Gase saw enough to pull Tannehill for Brock Osweiler in the fourth quarter to preserve his first-string quarterback's health.

 

This was already a team relying on its continuity and team chemistry to overcome some of its talent dearth. Injuries have devastated the Dolphins in the season's first four weeks, and no position group has been hit harder than the interior offensive line. Top free-agent signing guard Josh Sitton, team-captain center Daniel Kilgore and veteran reserve guard/center Jake Brendel are all on injured reserve already.

 

The losses of Sitton in Week 1 with a torn rotator cuff and Kilgore last Sunday with a torn triceps are devastating because they were the two new starters brought in to change the production and perception of Miami's offensive line.

Ironically, the Dolphins traded for Kilgore to replace released longtime center Mike Pouncey because of health-related issues. Now they are without either, and reserve Travis Swanson is the next man up at center. Swanson had some expected struggles on Sunday, allowing a sack and playing a central role in several blown-up plays.

 

Veteran reserve Ted Larsen, who replaced Sitton, has also struggled in the last few weeks to create running lanes up the middle. He also allowed some heat on Tannehill.

 

 

http://www.espn.com/blog/miami-dolphins/post/_/id/27773/cratering-offensive-line-threatens-to-ruin-dolphins-strong-start

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Contenders:

Rams- Best Team By a lot

 

Jax- Best D, Improving Offense

NE- Until they're eliminated, they're a contender

NO- Their D is adequate enough to not knock them out of contender status

Carolina- Solid

Baltimore- The AFC's Carolina.  

Chicago-Top 3 D, improving O, very dangerous

Chargers- Very solid, and dangerous when Bosa comes back

Philly- Right on the outer Fringe of Contender, but will probably improve as Wentz gets his sea legs

 

Pretenders:

Chiefs- I'm probably overly critical of my team, but their D is so pathetic, it will prevent them from true contendership 

Miami- Exposed for what they are last week

Tenn- Just not talented enough 

Cinn- Marvin and Andy will do what Marvin and Andy do, if they do make the playoffs

 

Wild Cards:

Green Bay- Aaron Rodgers, and a pretty good team around him are always dangerous

Minny- They are too talented to toss out, even if they lose to Philly and go 1-3-1. 

Pittsburgh- Too much talent and track record to toss completely

Houston- If a 1-3 team will rise from the dead, it's them

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I think Tennessee's main issue is they are stuck as a small market with limited media exposure and so most people have a very limited knowledge about the team even in the best of times.

 

A lot of those who aren't familiar with the team might mistake them for a losing franchise but from their first year in 1999 thru week 4 of the 2018 season the Titans rank 11th in wins out of 32 teams over the past 20 years with 158 regular season wins just two wins shy of Dallas who are 10th with 160 wins.

 

This season is Titans 20th anniversary in the NFL.

 

Tennessee are a couple wins shy of being a top 10 team in NFL wins over the past 20 seasons.

 

They have 9 winning seasons,7 postseason berths,3 division titles,3 13 win seasons (only Patriots/Colts/Titans have 3 or more 13 win seasons over past 19 years) 2 AFC Championship and 1 Super Bowl appearance since 1999.

 

After Tennessee's worst stretch of losing which was 2012 thru 2015 the team drafted a new QB Marcus Mariota and hired a new GM Jon Robinson.

 

From 2016 thru today all the Titans have done is win having winning seasons in 2016 and 2017 and having the biggest come from behind playoff road win in NFL history last year at Arrowhead in Kansas City.

 

The Titans were 5-1 last year in their division and 2-0 so far this year.

 

The Jaguars get all the publicity but they havent beat won vs Titans in 650 days which was back in Dec. 2016 as the Titans have won 3 straight vs Jax

 

Since he arrived in 2016 GM Robinson has fixed the offensive line,the run game as well as the passing game. Also on defense he has fixed the front seven including two linebackers drafted this season who are rookies Rashaan Evans and Harold Landry. As for the secondary they drafted CB Adoree Jackson last year,brought in Malcolm Butler this year and drafted safety Dane Cruikshank.

 

Whats crazy is Tennessee only had 4 draft picks due to their GM moving up a lot giving up picks to get the players he wants which were linebackers Rashaan Evans and Harold Landry,safety Dane Cruikshank and QB Luke Falk. They cut Falk leaving them with 3 picks for 2018.

 

Whats even crazier is 2 of their 3 recent draft picks have already won 2 games for Tennessee this season. Week 2 Dane Cruikshank scored on a 70 yard fake punt beating Houston by 3 points and in Week 4  Harold Landry strip sacked QB Carson Wentz and recovered the fumble which put Tennessee in scoring range and they beat Philly 26-23 in OT.

 

Tennessee are 3-1 so far this season wins include beating the Super Bowl champ Eagles and AFC Champ runner up Jaguars.

 

Those are pretty impressive wins against some of the best teams in the NFL.

 

Also Marcus Mariota had has 11th game winning drive vs Philly Sunday

 

Mariota has more game winning drives since 2017 than any other QB.......

 

 

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Marcus Mariota reached the 10,000 passing/1,000 rushing career marks in only his 45th career game, becoming the third player in NFL history to accomplish the feat. Previously, only Daunte Culpepper and Cam Newton had reached those levels in 45 games.

 

 

                                                                                    AND

 

 

Going for it: #Titans have gone for it on fourth down more times (7) and converted more times (5) than any team in the NFL this year. The Titans last week became the first NFL team since at least the beginning of the 1991 season to convert more than one 4th down in a single OT.

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  • 2 months later...

2 months later lets look at all of the 3-1 teams from back in September to see who are still alive and who arent

 

 

Kansas City, LA Rams, New Orleans are all 11-2 front runners for home field throughout postseason

 

LA Chargers are 10-3 and Chicago,New England are 9-4 still alive in playoffs

 

Tennessee,Baltimore,Miami, are 7-6 and still alive in the playoff race

 

Philadelphia are 6-7 and barely alive in the playoff race

 

Cincinnati are out of the playoff race at 5-8

 

Last but not least Jax goodness they were once 3-1 and are now 4-9 as the Jaguars have lost 8 of their last 9 games.

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I know people will think I’m crazy.. But I won’t count out Rodgers winning out and sneaking in as a 6 seed. Nobody else playing well that is in contention for that spot.

 

Long shot but I wouldn’t write it off.

CHIP and a CHAIR

 

Hate that saying though

 

Had a CHIP and a CHAIR 933 times lifetime off the bubble and never won a cent. :deemer…………...RODGERS 94x more talented than -FH- though.

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There are not totally off the wall scenarios where the Giants and Browns(they'll need Cinn to beat Pitt, which seems kinda off the wall right now) can still make the playoffs.   This tool, the Playoff machine, is fun and useful to see all the convoluted scenarios.  http://www.espn.com/nfl/playoffs/machine

 

The AFC 3-6 is must-see-tv.

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