Every NFL season there are surprises in teams that come out of nowhere, players that flop and storylines meant for soap operas. This year we have been treated with one of the wackiest, most unpredictable seasons in recent memory.
It started off the same with the Brett Favre will "he or won't he come back" stories. We all knew he was, but ESPN had a month of nothing but meaningless baseball highlights, NASCAR wreck footage and the occasional check in on Tiger, so they needed to talk about something else. Insert Brett Favre, the ratings darling, until the season kicked off. Since then it seems nothing has gone according to the plan.
If the playoffs started now, the San Francisco Giants, Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints would make the cut in the NFC. The Packers and Saints, yes to be expected, but the Packers have injury problems and the Saints don't look nearly as good as they did last year (but I'm going to wait until after Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas come back from injury to make my final opinion). Some expected to see the Falcons and Giants in, but mostly likely as wild cards. Had you asked me, and many others, at the beginning of the season I would have had the Dallas Cowboys (biggest flop), Philadelphia Eagles and the Minnesota Vikings (second biggest flop) all in the playoffs before the Falcons or Giants. Then there's the Seahawks and Buccaneers. The Seahawks benefit from playing in a weaker division, but they weren't supposed to be more than .500 this late in the season. As for the Buccaneers, they might be the biggest surprise of all. This team was pegged to win anywhere from three to six games and has already won five of seven. Josh Freeman is playing much better than anyone would have thought, and he might take this young team to the playoffs.
In the AFC, if the playoffs started today, we would see the New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens, Indianapolis Colts, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers. Finally there is some normalcy (outside of the Chiefs at least). That being said, the Patriots have done it with a young defense making timely plays (which was seen as their glaring weakness going in), and the Steelers did it without our famous alum, and resident lady's man, Ben Roethlisberger for the first four games of the season.
What's more shocking in the AFC is the rise of teams like the Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, Tennessee Titans and the demise of the Cincinnati Bengals and San Diego Chargers. The first three have all used outstanding defense and a strong running game to overcome faults. The latter two rely too heavily on the pass, and the defense has been suspect most of the time.
The biggest surprise of the draft class definitely has to be former Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford. The St. Louis Rams made him the clear starter since day one, and the team hasn't looked back since. I thought it would be a long, trying season for Bradford and expected to see him benched after losing week in and week out, but Bradford has put up decent numbers: more than 200 yards per game, 11 touchdowns, eight interceptions and, most importantly, a 4-4 record. He has clearly supplanted himself as the franchise quarterback.
The biggest storylines of the season have been coming from Minnesota. First, Favre had to deal with the embarrassing story relating to his use of "sext" messages to former Jets cheerleader Jenn Sterger. Then came the news they were releasing Randy Moss. A sure hall-of-famer, Moss will now go through the waiver-wire process and could land just about anywhere (I'd say front runners are St. Louis, Seattle, New York, Tampa Bay or back in New England). I simply don't understand how a team could give up a third-round pick and then release him before he even gets a chance to get comfortable in the new offense (which is hampered by the fact that every next snap could be the last ever for Favre).
For the second half of the season, expect more of the unexpected as teams climb back and others fall off.
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