The Football Preview Everyone Does: AFC

So, I’m going to be honest with you: I don’t know about other football blogs, but I HATE doing previews. Last year I did a post for each division, but this year I’m going to do two preview posts, one for each conference. I’ll try to make it worth your while.

Here’s some rap that samples the “Monday Night Football” theme. You’re welcome.

AFC East

1. New York Jets
2. New England Patriots
3. Miami Dolphins
4. Buffalo Bills

The Jets are stacked this season, and have really good Super Bowl chances. The Patriots are getting old and hurt a lot. The Dolphins could probably take the wild-card spot from New England if given the chance to. Not enough positive change happened with the Bills this season to make me consider them anything special.

AFC West

1. San Diego Chargers
2. Oakland Raiders
3. Denver Broncos
4. Kansas City Chiefs

Despite the holdouts of Vincent Jackson and Marcus McNeill, the Chargers are still a solid team, and with Ryan Mathews, their running game should be much more productive than the aging LaDainian Tomlinson. Call this my surprise pick: the Raiders have Jason Campbell, and drafted players earlier this year whose names and positions didn’t make you slap your forehead. The Broncos are getting hurt left and right, which is why they’re down in third place. The Chiefs won’t be bad, but I just don’t see them being better than the other teams in this division, even with highly lauded Jamaal Charles (who I won’t draft since I’m in constant fear of getting burned in fantasy football this year, thank you).

AFC North

1. Baltimore Ravens
2. Cincinnati Bengals
3. Cleveland Browns
4. Pittsburgh Steelers

The Ravens were a dangerous team last season, and acquiring Anquan Boldin just answered their only offensive question mark. The Bengals have T.O., but I’m really interested to see whether or not Cedric Benson’s past season was a fluke. The Browns are in the process of a comeback (I believe it) and will be much better than last season… hopefully. I’m not saying they’ll go 0-6 (or 0-4) in the beginning of the season, but Roethlisberger’s suspension will hurt the Steelers so much that they’ll miss the playoffs this season.

AFC South

1. Indianapolis Colts
2. Tennessee Titans
3. Houston Texans
4. Jacksonville Jaguars

Come on, I’m not stupid. The Super Bowl losers are still incredibly good. The Titans will finally, hopefully get both their running and passing game clicking together this season. Both parts of it are really good, which is why it’s so frustrating that it hasn’t been able to work together so well at times. The Texans have a great offense, but their secondary is not good, and could be their downfall. The Jaguars are the Jaguars, and I almost feel bad that Maurice Jones-Drew is wasting great years on a stagnant team.

Yell at me in the comments.

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