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On Monday, Peter King’s Football Morning in America led with the following headline: “The NFL’s Surprise Team Of ’19 Doesn’t Plan To Be One-Year Wonder.”
I initially chuckled at the clickbaity headline, but clicked on the story anyway, and found out that not only are the Tennessee Titans “one of the most interesting teams in football,” which was a shocking revelation to me, but that their plan for making the playoffs has something to do with the team being “fun”, an offensive coordinator “not afraid of calling anything”, and “offensive versatility”. As a rival AFC Team, that plan wouldn’t have me shaking in my boots, but it probably doesn’t matter anyway, because even the best laid plans tend to be torn asunder by simple playoff math.
Since the league moved to a 12-team playoff format in 1990, an average of about six new teams made the playoffs every year. This long history of churn among NFL teams means that it’s highly probable that about six teams that made the playoffs in 2019 will miss the playoffs in 2020 (insert usual Covid caveats here).
Seven teams will make the playoffs in the NFC this year, and it’s a virtual certainty that some of last year’s playoff teams will stumble. Or as King quotes Bill Parcells in the FMIA article:
“You never pick up one year where you left off the previous year. Never.”
Last year, the Saints, Seahawks, and Eagles were the three teams to repeat as playoff participants from 2018. The 49ers, Packers, and Vikings were the new playoff participants in the NFC, while the Rams, Bears, and Cowboys failed to repeat their 2018 playoff appearance
Which brings us to our question of the day: Last year, the NFC was represented in the playoffs, in order of seeding, by the 49ers, Packers, Saints, Eagles, Seahawks, and Vikings. Which of these teams do you think are in for a rude awakening in 2020 and will not make it back to the playoffs?
Place your vote in the attached poll. If you can’t see the poll on your device, feel free to leave your take in the comments section below.
Poll
Which of these six NFC playoff participants from 2019 do you think will miss the 2020 playoffs?
This poll is closed
-
67%
Eagles
-
10%
Vikings
-
15%
Packers
-
2%
Seahawks
-
1%
Saints
-
2%
49ers