08-18-2015, 10:08 AM
(08-18-2015, 09:05 AM)Brownshoe Wrote: Well how are they not? The AFCN has the reputation of being one of the toughest divisions in the league. In recent years the AFCN has won multiple superbowls and they have had the most playoff teams than any other division.
the 49ers will probably be worse than the browns next season, and the cards might only have 8 or 9 wins. The
Seahawks are the only team in that division that has a good chance of going to the playoffs next season.
The NFCN will be tougher than the NFCW next year, but I don't think it will be as good as the AFCN. The bears are a joke and the only team that's even good enough to go to the playoffs consistently is the Packers.
(08-18-2015, 09:33 AM)PhilHos Wrote: Mid-way through the season last year, EVERY team in the AFCN had a winning record. At the end of the year, 3 teams had a winning record and made the playoffs and the 4th was 1 game under .500. It's not being homeristic to state our division is tougher or even the toughest.
Yeah, the Packers and Seahawks may be better than all 4 teams in the AFCN, but that doesn't ake their whole division tougher.
There's a lot going on here. So let's start from Brownshoe's flawed logic. I couldn't care less about multiple Super Bowls since what the Steelers did 7 years ago has ZERO bearing on how good they are in 2015. Hell, even the Ravens have a vastly different team today than what they won the 2012 SB with. If anything, the multiple SBs hurts your argument because the Seahawks have been there twice in as many years with relatively the same exact team that they're taking into 2015. So, let's just throw out past Super Bowls in general becuase they have nothing to do with 2015, nor does the "more playoff teams than anyone else" over your cherry picked X amount of years that you didn't even mention. You just said "in recent years", uhh...okay? What does that have to do with right now? 2 years ago we only had 1 playoff team and the rest of the division didn't look so great. Last year we beat up the 2 weakest divisions in the entire NFL, if we didn't send 3 teams to the playoffs I'd be concerned. Isn't that more recent to talk about than SB wins 3 and 7 years ago?
So, let's just go with talking about 2014 and 2015, since we can use what happened in 2014 and then this offseason to project a bit.
If you're into DVOA and such, feel free to check out this chart... http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teameff
Strength of Schedule 2014 (not using 2013 stats, but the actual 2014 statistics)
SEA - 13
SF - 8
ARI - 2
STL - 9
PIT - 29
BAL - 30
CIN - 15
CLE - 25
Every single team in the NFCW had a tougher schedule than any AFCN team in 2014. No wonder we sent 3 teams to the playoffs, not everybody gets to beat up on the historically terrible NFCS and the garbage can AFCS. Saying we're automatically better because we sent more teams to the playoffs is absolutely flawed.
I feel like you guys (and most others here) follow closely to what the Bengals do and not many other teams. Sometimes people seem to follow our division, but not much else past that, IF that.
We could get into more in depth if you'd like, but I promise that the Rams and Cardinals lost less and gained more this past offseason than either of the Ravens or Steelers. Just have an open mind and actually look at the players and coaches lost/gained on those 4 teams and then we can talk some more.
I do think the AFCN is good, but we got to beat up some awfully shitty teams last year, and the year before that the Bengals were the only team that looked good and went to the playoffs. There's nothing in recent memory that makes me believe we're in a "tougher" division than the NFCW unless we want to go back 3-4 years which has very little to do with the present. The Rams have probably had the best offseason out of any team in either division, the Bengals and Cardinals both remained about the same while sprinkling in small moves, the 49ers had a BAD offseason, the Browns are still going to be the Browns (no QB, questionable and poor coaching), and the Steelers lost quite a haul on defense and the Ravens have some question marks in key places (though I believe they'll be fine). The Seahawks are easily the best team in either division right now. I don't know how anybody can say that the AFCN is absolutely better than the NFCW without question. It's definitely homeristic.
