2011 AFC WEST: Who Knew It Would Be This Good

Day 7 of breaking down the divisions leads us to the lowly AFC West. Yeah I know everyone has a preference but the AFC West has pretty much been a one pony show for the past few years. One of the reasons why I haven’t given the San Diego Chargers a lot of credit for their regular season record is because they play in this division. Things are starting to look up again as new head coaches have brought new life to the West Coast and now maybe San Diego will have to earn the crown they have worn for the past few seasons.

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2011 NFC SOUTH: In It To Win It

Day 6 of breaking down the divisions takes us to the ever popular NFC South, where the food is better than the teams and the teams are pretty darn good. The NFC South hosts the best combination of football that you can ask for. You have teams that line up and play smash mouth football and teams that spread you out and throw everything but the kitchen sink at you. However they all have one thing in common “defense”. Every team in this division will hit you in the mouth and hit you in the mouth hard.

Atlanta Falcons

The Atlanta Falcons are the most revamped team in the division the past few years. They went from a team that just wore you down running the ball to a wide open attack. They have a good mix of speed and toughness at about every position. The signal caller Matt Ryan is entering his third year. Year three usually tells us if they will be great or at least have the potential to be great. We know Ryan can make all the throws and he will have plenty of weapons around him to get the ball too. The backfield is headed by Michael Turner. Turner is a speedy big back who can do it all. Outside the wide receivers are headed by Roddy White. White’s career started slow but has now taken a major turn upwards as he has become one of the elite receivers in the game. White will be complimented by rookie phenom Julio Jones who should make things easy for the best pass catching tight end in the history of the game in Tony Gonzalez. The Falcons also have an offensive line that was built to be versatile.

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2011 NFC NORTH: The Champs Are Here

Day 4 of breaking down the divisions leads us to the NFC North, the home of the Black and Blue division. The NFC North used to carry the label as the most physical division in the NFL, but I think you can safely give that title to the AFC North now. The NFC North has taken a turn from physical to wide open. This is now the league of the quarterback.

Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears have been the poster for physical play throughout the history of the league. They have always based their play on physical defense and smash mouth running. Well times have changed. Today the Bears have a gun slinger for a quarterback and their defense has come back from the dead and is playing like champions again.

The Bears offense is headed by Jay Cutler. Cutler leads an attack that showcases very young wide receivers Devin Hester, Devin Aromishadu and Johnny Knox. They add to that group a savvy veteran in Roy Williams. Their run game evolves around all purpose third year running back Matt Forte but his holdout has opened the door for Marion Barber to do work. The tight end Greg Olsen was traded to Carolina so expect more 4 and 5 wide sets for Cutler since his favorite target is no longer in town.

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2011 AFC EAST: You Better Bring It Every Game

For the next few entries, we will be breaking down the divisions. We will analyze who will be the champion before the season starts. We will look at coaching, players, front office, and fanfare to determine which team will come out of their division and contend for their conference championship.

Today we will start with one of the toughest divisions in football. The AFC East is made up of the Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, and the rejuvenated New York Jets.

Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills show up with a very limited roster. They have many holes on offense and defense. They are clearly the weakest team in the division. They don’t have a solid contributor at the quarterback position and they will be depending on a slew of unproven wide receivers to make a below average quarterback look good.

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