NFL 2008 Preview and Playoff Predictions

Ah, can you smell it? No, not the sorry excuse for food you’re brewing in your kitchen—the NFL season genius! There’s a hint of fall in the air, and all of the locals are wearing the current player bandwagon jersey.

Labor Day has finally arrived, and it’s officially okay to start planning how to bogart your children’s Halloween candy. It all hints at the same thing, with that thing being the official arrival of the NFL season (a.k.a. the only sports season that really matters).

For whatever reason, this particular offseason seemed especially rough. But it’s okay now, because we’re officially less than 72 hours from opening night.

Speaking of opening night, we’ll kickoff this year’s NFL season with two teams from the NFC East, which is arguably the toughest division in football. Well, save for the Redskins, who are like the redheaded step-child of the division, but even they are better than most other teams.

Would there be a better place to start off an NFL preview than with the toughest division in the sport? I submit that there is not.

NFC EAST

1. Philadelphia Eagles
2. Dallas Cowboys
3. New York Giants
4. Washington Redskins

The Dallas Cowboys are the popular pick here and with good reason; their team is stacked and they are the token most-played-as-on-Madden team of 2008. However, the only team that can go blow-for-blow with them on offense in the division are the Eagles.

The Eagles improved on both offense (DeSean Jackson) and defense (Asante Samuel), not to mention that they have a threat to top 2,000 yards from scrimmage in Brian Westbrook. Barring a Donovan McNabb injury, the team will be a serious competitor in both the division and the entire league.

Usually, defending Super Bowl champs get a bit more respect, but not when they’ve lost two integral parts of the winning team. Michael Strahan retired to follow Tiki Barber’s blazoned career path towards television, whereas Osi Umenyiora has been lost for the year thanks to a torn lateral meniscus. And no, I have no idea what a meniscus is.

Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka are talented, but not enough so to completely fill in the aforementioned players' cleats. Not even close. It also remains to be seen which Eli Manning is going to show up this season. Either the Super-Vendetta Eli or the Aw-Shucks-That-Was-My-Fault-You-Dropped-That Eli.

Likely to end up in the cellar is the Washington Redskins. Jason Campbell and company will be making the transition into the West Coast offense this year and will be working out all the kinks. Again, being in the basement of the NFC East isn’t even that bad. I see it being like a refurnished basement complete with ping pong tables, a mini-fridge, and a nice, sports-watching section. Just like the AFC South would have...

AFC SOUTH

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

Easily the toughest division in the AFC, the South saw three of its teams gain entry into the playoffs last year. Even before all the reports out of Indiana broke about Peyton Manning’s not-that-serious knee injury actually being quite serious, I had the Jaguars pegged as division winners.

They’ve shown they can, at times, play on the Colts' level, offensively, over the past few years and now, finally, have a quarterback who is capable of managing everything necessary in order to beat them.

The defense lost some key players (Marcus Stroud) but quickly found players to shore up the defensive line through the NFL Draft (Derrick Harvey and Quentin Groves).

The Colts, on the other hand, have questions about Peyton Manning’s knee and Marvin Harrison’s ability to contribute at a pre-2007 level. Both instances have likely been over-blown, but it’s worth noting, especially from a team who hasn’t had any of those problems for what seems like the past 55 years.

The Houston Texans and Tennessee Titans are in the bottom tier of the division, but both having promising young teams. It’s a toss-up as to whom most think will finish ahead of the other, but I figure there’s a good chance they’ll both finish with nearly the same record (somewhere around 8-8).

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?