Jeremy's Anything Is Possible NFL Preview

This guy isn't going to win the Super Bowl again. I think.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

Football season is back!

Just like last year, I'm running through all 32 teams and offering three potential paths for their season. One has the glass half-full (or, really, the glass full-full), one has the glass half-empty (or, well, the glass all-empty), and one last path that I deem the most realistic, and hence will serve as my nominal "prediction" for that team.

I stayed mostly vague in terms of playoff results in the realistic sections. The reason for that is that I find most pre-season predictions to be largely stupid. Looking at the landscape of the league, the NFC is incredibly top-heavy (Carolina, Arizona, Seattle, Green Bay) but then a whole bunch of riff-raff (it was hard to talk myself into anyone at all taking the last playoff spot in the NFC). Meanwhile, the AFC really only has one truly great team (New England), followed by maybe nine different teams that seem to have a reasonable-or-better chance at grabbing a playoff spot (Cincinnati, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Houston, Denver, Indianapolis, Oakland, Buffalo, New York). But, each of those teams have obvious flaws that are likely to be exposed in the playoffs (which we'll talk about in their respective sections).

Here's where my complaint comes in - when you're picking a Super Bowl winner, you're really picking the team most likely to REACH the Super Bowl. There's no way to reasonably project what teams will look like in five months, so saying "I like Carolina to win the Super Bowl because I think they'd beat Cincinnati" is just stupid. Once you're in the Super Bowl, it's effectively a coin-flip. As such, the most logical pick is to take the team that has the biggest gap between them and the rest of the conference, and that team seems to be New England. They're the team most likely to win the Super Bowl, if only because they're the team most likely to reach the Super Bowl (unless you're convinced that each of the top four teams in the NFC is better than them, which I find dubious).

Joe & Daphne's Preview: The AFC East

Daphne: "Release me vile human!"

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe) and Daphne Parello (@DaphnePup)

Welcome to our first NFL preview of the summer! My pup and I are happy to have you. Over the next several weeks we will be taking a look at every division in the league, along with making playoff and award predictions.

We begin today with the AFC East, a division owned by the New England Patriots, or, more specifically, quarterback Tom Brady, who has won the division in all but one of his healthy seasons since taking over as the Patriots' starter in mid-2001. That's 12 division titles in Brady's 13 seasons, if you're curious, with the Patriots winning the division 12 times overall in that 14 year span.

In that time, only one other quarterback has won the AFC East: The immortal Chad Pennington, who went 7-2 as a starter for the 2002 Jets, and led the Dolphins to a division crown during Brady's injury lost season of 2008.

Unfortunately, Chad Pennington ain't walking through that door for anybody in the division.

Still, the AFC East could be better and deeper than it has been in years, thanks to some suddenly salty defenses. But, will the division's traditional also-rans get enough out of their quarterbacks to capitalize on their stellar defensive fronts? Daphne and I examine.

Long And Suite Preview: The Playoffs And Super Bowl

The Seahawks got the better of Denver in last year's Big Game. But who will be there this year?

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Let's just pick up where we left off yesterday, with our top-six teams from each conference.

Joe's Picks:

AFC

1. Denver (13-3)
2. New England (12-4)
3. Indianapolis (10-6)
4. Pittsburgh (10-6)
5. Kansas City (9-7)
6. Cincinnati (9-7)

NFC

1. Green Bay (12-4)
2. Seattle (11-5)
3. New Orleans (11-5)
4. Philadelphia (11-5)
5. San Francisco (10-6)
6. Chicago (9-7)

Jeremy's Picks:

AFC

1. New England (12-4)
2. Denver (12-4)
3. Pittsburgh (10-6)
4. Indianapolis (10-6)
5. Cincinnati (10-6)
6. San Diego (10-6)

NFC

1. New Orleans (13-3)
2. Green Bay (13-3)
3. Seattle (13-3)
4. Philadelphia (9-7)
5. San Francisco (11-5)
6. Chicago (10-6)

And here's how we get from these twelve teams, down to one Super Bowl Champion.

Long And Suite Preview: The AFC

Can Peyton Manning lead the Broncos back atop the AFC?

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

We're just gonna blow through these quickly - just post our picks for how each division will finish, what each team's record will be, and how the playoff seedings stack up. The heavy analysis as to how and why those things will come about will be in tomorrow's full-season preview. This is just quick and dirty picks. First will be each division's order of finish. The second section will have each team's record (and a pick for each team's respective over/under). The third section will be our top six teams.

Super Bowl History: No. 1 Seeds Battling and Best Offenses vs Best Defenses

We may never get another Super Bowl match up like the one we'll get Sunday.

 By Joe Parello  @HerewegoJoe

A great deal of history will be on the line this Sunday when the Broncos and Seahawks face off in Super Bowl XLVIII.

Peyton Manning will be going for his second title, and hoping to cap the greatest season a quarterback has ever had. The Seahawks will be looking for their first championship ever, and we will get to see a match up of the top seeds from each conference (rarer than you think), and a match up of the league's top defense vs the league's top offense (ever rarer).

So, while I wouldn't take any of these facts and run to Vegas with a bag of cash, here's how those match ups have played out throughout Super Bowl history.

Can the Pro Bowl Be Saved?

As of now, players awkwardly hitting on Hawaiin girls is the highlight of Pro Bowl weekend. Let's change that.

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Most people hate the Pro Bowl and say it can't be saved, but I've gotta say, I'm still holding out hope for the NFL's All Star game.

Granted, football is a completely different animal than baseball and basketball, and even hockey. You simply can't play an exhibition game with the same intensity, and thus, the same excitement as a game that counts. It just isn't going to happen.

I think the average football fan understands and accepts this fact, so let's use that to our advantage and totally change the meaning of the Pro Bowl and make it a fun weekend for everybody involved.

Why Your Favorite AFC Team Will Make the Super Bowl Next Year

Ryan Tannehill and the Dolphins could be playing on Super Sunday next year... No, seriously. Ok, maybe not that seriously.

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe) and Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

We've made it to that comfortable void between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, and two fan bases are in football fandom heaven right now.

Yep, those lucky bastards in Denver and Seattle get to dream about their team's Super Bowl date in just under two weeks, not to mention all the reminiscing they're already doing about the 2013 season and accompanying postseason. You see, making the Super Bowl is such a huge accomplishment, that the season is already a success for both this teams. After all, Peyton Manning did beat Tom Brady to get here, and the Seahawks got to defeat, then totally belittle, the hated 49ers to make Super Sunday.

Only a New England Patriots fan could complain about just making the Super Bowl.