Ranking the NFL Divisions (From Best to Worst)
Piece By: Ethan Frisone
Power can shift very quickly between divisions in the NFL. All it takes is one team taking the next big step to competitiveness or one team collapsing into irrelevance. With less than three months until the start of the season, let’s break down each NFL division, from best to worst.
1. NFC West: 49ers, Seahawks, Rams, Cardinals
This really isn’t all that close. The NFC West is by far the best division, top to bottom, in the NFL. The 49ers are coming off a dominant season that resulted in a Super Bowl berth and remain the team to beat in the NFC. The Seahawks, who won a playoff game last year, were within inches of actually stealing the division from San Francisco in Week 17. Russell Wilson is obviously one of the best players in the league, and the Seahawks have to be considered contenders as long as he’s under center. To add to the fire power of the top two teams, the LA Rams and the Arizona Cardinals will both be tough outs for any team and have legitimate shots at making the postseason. The Rams were the NFC representative in the Super Bowl just two seasons ago, and although they regressed and missed the playoffs last year, have enough talent and a great head coach to keep them afloat. Arizona is a popular pick as the biggest sleeper in the league for this season, and rightfully so. Kyler Murray, the reigning Rookie of the Year, was only going to get better and now has been gifted one of the best receivers in the league in DeAndre Hopkins. Overall, no other division in the league has even close to the level of depth of the NFC West, making it the obvious selection for the top spot.
2. NFC South: Saints, Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers
Over the last two seasons, this division has been dominated by the Saints, with none of the other three teams even achieving a winning record in the regular season. That looks poised to change this year, with the Bucs making some big-time changes that have vaulted them up pre-season rankings. New Orleans is a top 5 team, and that hasn’t changed going into 2020. Now, no one should be ready to say that the Bucs are on par with the Saints yet. But, Brady brings the leadership and stability under center to help this team reach double digit wins, and they should be fully expected to be in the playoffs when January rolls around. The Falcons are a little bit perplexing. They’ve started the season horribly the last couple years but have shown signs of their 2017 form in the back halves of those seasons. So, while they aren’t a major talking point at the moment, they cannot be written off entirely. The Panthers, on the other hand, will likely not be very competitive this season. While the Falcons have finished strong the two years, the Panthers have started very well, only to collapse and lose almost every game in the second half of the seasons. They’ve got a new coach in Matt Rhule and a new quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater, but Carolina is still clearly the weak link in this division.
3. AFC West: Chiefs, Broncos, Raiders, Chargers
The AFC West obviously has credibility as the home of the best team in the league in the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs, but the remainder of the division is what ultimately pushes it to the top of the conference. The Broncos, Raiders, and Chargers all had pretty unremarkable seasons in 2019. But the Broncos and Raiders definitely showed some promise. Denver may have (finally) found a solid starting quarterback in Drew Lock, and if he continues to improve, the Broncos will very much be in the playoff race. The same can be said for Oakland, who was in the hunt until the final couple weeks last season. The Chargers still have many of the same pieces as their 2018 squad that went 12–4, and although they probably still won’t be a very dangerous team this year, will be a tough out for a lot of teams. So, even though this division should pretty much be given to the Chiefs before the season even starts, the AFC West doesn’t have any glaring weak spots and should be given credit for that.
4. AFC North: Ravens, Steelers, Browns, Bengals
Like the AFC West, this division is a one man show. The Baltimore Ravens are coming off a remarkable year in which they went 14–2, and Lamar Jackson took home a unanimous MVP. Barring injury to Jackson, the Ravens are fully expected to be one of the top teams in the league this season. Behind them are three teams who have nowhere to go but up. Some analysts have pegged the Steelers as high as top 10 in the NFL with the return of Ben Roethlisberger, but I’m not ready to go there yet. We can’t assume a 38-year-old will come off a major elbow surgery and automatically be the same player. With that being said, the Steelers managed an 8–8 record with oftentimes horrendous play from their back-ups from last year, so they should be fully capable of at least improving this season. Now we come to the Cleveland Browns. The Browns showed all of us last year that sometimes having all the talent in the world means absolutely nothing. With a new head coach hired, Myles Garrett coming back from suspension, and Baker Mayfield coming back humbled, Cleveland should, with emphasis on the word “should,” outperform their pathetic showing from last year. Finally, the Bengals will probably be in the NFL’s cellar again this season. Number one overall pick Joe Burrow didn’t do much losing last year at LSU, so we’ll see how he handles the challenge of fighting and scrapping for only 4 or 5 wins this season in Cincinnati.
5. NFC North: Packers, Vikings, Bears, Lions
The NFC North is pretty simply a two-team race between the Packers and Vikings. Both teams were among the last 4 standing in the NFC in 2019 and haven’t done anything (try as the Packers’ front office might) to move themselves out of the contention conversation. Speaking of moving themselves out of contention, how about those Chicago Bears?! Look, Khalil Mack and the defense are still terrific. But this team isn’t going anywhere with either Mitchell Trubisky or Nick Foles under center. Chicago’s got some work to do to get back to where they were just two seasons ago. The Lions, who were awful last year, will be aided by the return of Matthew Stafford. But they are still far from relevance and will still probably end up picking very early in the NFL Draft. Maybe this time next season, Detroit will have a head coach that its players don’t hate, and we can have a different conversation.
6. AFC South: Titans, Texans, Colts, Jaguars
While the AFC West is being held up on the shoulders of the Kansas City Chiefs, the AFC South is being dragged down as the Jacksonville Jaguars embark on their inevitable 2020 Tank for Trevor (or maybe Justin Fields) season. While analysts across all different outlets very rarely unanimously agree on a team’s placement in power rankings, literally everyone has written in the same team as occupying the #32 spot. The rest of the division is pretty solid, though we could see some regression from its two postseason representatives from last year. The Titans had a remarkable run to the AFC Championship Game on the back of the absolute unit that is Derrick Henry. Ryan Tannehill’s career resurgence was a great story, and it was hard not to root for this squad. However, maintaining that same level of success over the course of an entire season will be a much harder challenge. The Texans and Head Coach Bill O’Brien, who had a 24 point lead over the Chiefs in the 2nd quarter of the Divisional Playoffs at Arrowhead, decided the best way to get over the hump was to trade their all-world wide receiver, DeAndre Hopkins. Doesn’t sound like a great idea for taking this squad to the next level. The wild card of this group is the Colts. After a disappointing year following the abrupt retirement of Andrew Luck, Indy brought in Phillip Rivers for what could be the last year of his career and gave him some weapons in the draft with Johnathan Taylor and Michael Pittman, Jr. Also factoring in the addition of DE DeForest Buckner, the Colts have a chance to contend with Houston and Tennessee for this division. It’ll be exciting to see those three squads duke it out this year; it’s too bad Jacksonville’s presence lands them all at #6 on the list.
7. AFC East: Bills, Patriots, Jets, Dolphins
What?? The AFC East isn’t the worst division in football? No, it’s not. And that’s even with the projected major regression of the Patriots following the departure of Tom Brady. I don’t buy into the notion that New England is going to try to tank the season; it’s just not in their DNA. As long as Bill Belichick is still the Head Coach, you can’t write them off, and it would not be surprising at all to see them still find a way to win the division. But Buffalo is a very good team, and they should be ranked number one in the AFC East and on the cusp of the top ten in the entire league going into this year. They’re coming off a 10–6 season that saw them give the Pats a run for their money both times they played and nearly won a road playoff game in Houston. As long as Josh Allen doesn’t take any major steps back, the Bills should be poised for a strong 2020. While the Jets and Dolphins aren’t in a position to compete for anything this year, neither team should be expected to be a league bottom-feeder this season. After the first two weeks last year, it looked like the Dolphins might not win a game. But Head Coach Brian Flores got his team to play hard the rest of the way, resulting in a 5–11 season that was a major overachievement. Miami also had a very strong offseason, adding pieces like Byron Jones and Kyle Van Noy in free agency and grabbing Tua Tagovailoa in the draft and should continue to get better this season. The Jets have been cast aside in discussions this season as the de facto worst team in the division, but people seem to forget that New York actually went 7–9 in 2019 after starting 2–7. They’re still not a good team, but they’re certainly not say, in the bottom 5 or 6 of the league, like two of the teams in my #8 division…
8. NFC East: Eagles, Cowboys, Giants, Redskins
Outside of divisional play, the NFC East teams went a combined 12–28 last season. YIKES. The Cowboys have no excuse to not be in the playoffs this season. They finally got rid of glorified cheerleader/expert clapper/Head Coach Jason Garrett and replaced him with Mike McCarthy. They drafted a great young receiver in CeeDee Lamb. As long as Dak Prescott doesn’t hold out, this team is too talented to revert back to their 8–8 ways. The Eagles also, despite playing pretty horrifically at times over the past two seasons, have managed playoff berths each year and are capable of putting themselves back there this year. So, if the NFC East has two potentially playoff ready teams, why is it last? Simple. The Giants and Redskins just stink. Their rookie quarterbacks, Daniel Jones and Dwayne Haskins, each showed some flashes last year but obviously have a lot of work to do. Perhaps the new head coaches for each team can breathe some life into the two franchises, but with each having so many problems and going a combined 7–25 last season, we have got to see some improvement before thinking about them as credible professional football teams.
