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2008 NFL Preview and Predictions

July 2, 2008

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The 2007 NFL season doesn’t seem so far away.  The Giants improbable playoff run and eventual defeat of the seemingly unbeatable New England Patriots.  The Patriot’s own Tom Brady and Randy Moss and their statistically unprecedented demolishing of the record books.  ’07 gave us plenty to remember, and plenty to look forward to for the 2008 NFL Season.

 

Ranking NFL teams before the season starts is not a particularly difficult task.  For example, would anyone argue this projected list of the top 5 teams in the NFL?:

 

1.  New England Patriots
2.  New York Giants
3.  Indianapolis Colts
4.  Dallas Cowboys
5.  San Diego Chargers

 

I won’t dispute that most, if not all, of these teams can be moved up and down a few slots, but most fans and critics would agree that these five teams are, at least based on last season’s performance and this year’s projections, set to be the elite class of the NFL again in 2008. 

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By the end of the season, though hard to imagine right now, I doubt all five teams are still considered to be the top five teams in the NFL.  Take pre-season 2007 as an example.  ESPN.com’s power rankings had the following posted before the first snap of last year’s season:

 

1.  New England Patriots
2.  Indianapolis Colts
3.  San Diego Chargers
4.  Baltimore Ravens
5.  Chicago Bears

 

The Patriots and Colts are of course at the top of the list, and should be near the tops of every list for the last two years (in this case the Chargers also panned-out), but the Ravens and the Bears?  Both teams probably deserved to be ranked in the top five based on their performance in 2006, but by the end of the season the Bears were down to 20th in ESPN’s power rankings, and the Ravens had fell all the way to 25th.  Where were the eventual Superbowl Champions ranked?  17th in the preseason, and the Cowboys barely broke the top ten.  There is a point to this, and that is that, while there are a few organizations that have established themselves at the top of the league, the NFL is, by and large, a very versatile, competitive, and complicated league.  That’s just going back one year, the further you go back, the more parody that emerges. 

 

The athletes across the board in the NFL have gotten so good that the smallest mistakes, on the field, in the coaches booth, or otherwise, can decide the outcome of a game.  This means that just about any team has the tools in place to beat any other team in the league.  What this gives to fans is an enjoyment that is rare in sports.  Their team truly has a chance to win on any given Sunday (or the occassional Thursday or Monday).  Be sure to remember that fact going into the season.  Nothing is certain in the NFL until that final whistle blows.  Does that mean that the Patriots are going to lose to the Dolphins in Week 3?  Probably not, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

 

The 2008 NFL season officially kicks off on Thursday, September 4th.  Records will be broken, upsets will occur, and we will love every minute of it.

 

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Written by Steve Janus

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