ivanvamp said:
No, it's not that they'd lose all nine of them. Just that they are all legitimate possible losses. They'll win some, obviously, but could end up losing 4-6. Six is possible.
You're giving too much credit to some of those teams.
Indianapolis - Why should Indy concern me? The Patriots beat them by a combined 87-27 margin in two match-ups this past year. They splurged on a 32 year old running back with nearly 2500(!?) rushing attempts. It's no different than bringing in Stephen Jackson and expecting me to take them seriously. Todd Herremans doesn't fix all the problems on that line, that is if he can even stay on the field (missed a full season of games over the last 3 seasons). People thought Andre Johnson was too washed up to play here, and I'm supposed to be worried about him in Indy? Trent Cole was old 2 seasons ago.
Texans - Houston? Rahim Moore is a good find at safety, but Vince Wilfork is not the same player from 5 years ago. He's fine at stopping the run, but let's not pretend the Patriots game plan would involve running into the teeth of Watt/Wilfork. Oh yeah, they are turning to a Hoyer/Mallett/Savage pu-pu platter at QB. Scary!
Eagles - The Eagles defense should be better next year, but their offense will be significantly worse. They had a legit WR in Maclin, and he's gone. Philly is rolling Sam Bradford (or Mark Sanchez) out at QB. He of an 18-30-1 record. People blame the failure of that Rams team on everyone BUT Bradford, and it's bullshit. Plenty of QB's have done more with less at WR, but somehow he escapes scrutiny. The guys career yards/attempt is 6.3. 6.3! He's finished 30th, 32nd, 24th, and 36th in his four years in the league. There's dink-and-dunk, and then there's Sam-fucking-Bradford. And having a noodle arm is one thing, but the guys career completion % is 58.6%. How the fuck do you finish in the bottom half of the league every year when you don't throw the ball more than 5 yards down field? How is this possible?! The guy's finished inside the top 17 in passer rating once (11th). We all know that a team only goes as far as their QB is taking them, and the Eagles QB sucks.
Broncos - Denver better hope they play New England in the first 6 games of the season before Manning's arm falls off.
Cowboys - Lost their best player (Murray) and their defense is certainly due for some regression after playing above their head for large stretches last season.
Steelers - Pittsburgh barely faced a competent QB all season. No, seriously. They faced some of the most putrid passing offenses in the NFL. The Jets (32nd), Jags (31st), Kansas City (29th), Tampa Bay (25th), Houston (24th), Tennessee (22nd), Cincinnati x2 (21st), Cleveland x2 (20th), Carolina (19th)...11 of their 16 games came against the bottom third of the league in passing yards. Yet they still managed to finish
27th in the NFL in passing yards against. This defense sucks, and their best player (Le'Veon Bell) is guaranteed to miss game time while recovering from a torn ACL. There's no promise he comes back close to what he was last year, especially in year one after an ACL injury.
Giants - The Giants were 6-10 last year. If some moron equates two Superbowl victories from 4 and 8 years ago as a reason to be worried about them now, then they deserve a good slap.
Could the Patriots finish 10-6? Of course. 14-2? Of course. Teams that are supposed to win lose every week. But let's not start making vague assertions without any context. Yes, any of these teams could beat the Patriots, but New England will still be favorites in most (all?) of these games.