How the NFL works...

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

How many experts picked the Skins to win the East last year?? Most people agreed their ceiling was probably 7 or 8 wins.

A team going from 5-11 to 10-6 and division champs is what parity is all about.

And a typical season within the NFCE 7 or 8 wins would have been the ceiling (though I suspect probably fewer, more like '10, '11, '13). But then the Cowboys saw umpteen players go out injured. The Eagles lost their best player (Jason Peters) along with several others and fell to pieces at the tail end of Reid's tenure. The Giants really never showed up all season.

I mean, we beat two winning teams all last season. You've really got layers of outliers. The division (year) was an outlier. The easy schedule was an outlier. The gimmick offense an obvious outlier.

Anyway, I think we're getting close to the end of this dark era and there's great opportunities ahead. That was my purpose for the thread.