PUT YOUR NAME ON IT: 2016 NFL Predictions From The BRB Staff

Can you feel it?  Your Houston Texans are about to kick off the 2016 regular season in less than 48 hours.  While we spend most of our energy focused on the good guys over on Kirby, many of us also keep a keen eye on the rest of the NFL with a burning desire that our favorite team will navigate a very dynamic gauntlet to achieve the ultimate goal: NFL champions as winners of the Super Bowl.

Before we dive into the predictions of how each team will finish this 2016 NFL season, Luke Beggs offered this comment as I surveyed the staff for their input:

Before we get started, [KITTEN] the NFL divisional champion rule. It's a stupid contradictory rule which subverts the meritocracy that the NFL claims to be based around. Explain the merit of a sub .500 team or a team with better record being defeated by a team with a worse record simply because of the wonder that is the NFL's divisional alignment.

I agree with Luke, as this does seem pretty ridiculous.  I have often thought a lot about this point over the years. While I agree it would be easy to just take the six teams from each conference with the best overall records and place them into the playoffs, that would mean "strength of schedule" factor would be missing, and that component does provide necessary weight to the end results. When you consider that each team competes twice per season with each of their respective division rivals, it provides at least some degree of measurement and weighted value to help separate the wheat from the chaff.

While there have been seasons where an entire division is chock full of the worst teams in a conference, or even the entire league, it still makes sense in most cases to promote the top team in each division into the playoffs. However, I am a firm believer in re-seeding the playoff brackets once the division winners and wildcard teams have been identified. As an example, a second-place team in a division with a 10-6 record that earns a wildcard berth behind a division champ with an 11-5 record should not have to go on the road to face a division champ with a 7-9 (losing) record. The NFL should most certainly consider re-seeding playoff brackets.

Without further ado, here are the bold predictions from the Masthead of how things will unfold for 2016:

AFC:

NFC:

SUPER BOWL:

NFL INDIVIDUAL LEAGUE AWARDS:

So there you have it!  There's quite a strong consensus with respect to some team results and individual awards, but there are some interesting alternatives nestled in there as well.  Share your thoughts on these predictions, offer your own, and perhaps any thoughts you have with respect to the playoff re-seeding topic.

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