Greeson: Broncos to top Saints in Super Bowl

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

The cuts came and went. Johnny Football is what the Browns told him to act like -- a backup quarterback. The preseason passed without major injury, which is a great thing.

Now it's go time in the NFL.

AFC East: There are few organizations in sports as consistent as the New England Patriots. Sweet Odin's Raven, forget penciling them in as the East champs, you can do it in Sharpie, cover it with liquid cement and bury it in a time capsule that says, "True until Brady and Belichick retire." This is the ACC -- there's one really good club, and no matter how much you try to talk yourself into believing that Miami/Miami or Buffalo/Clemson or the New York Jets/UNC could contend, they can't. And they won't.

AFC South: No team will get more universal preseason prediction love than the Indy Colts. That has everything to do with luck, as in (a) Andrew Luck, (b) the luck to play in a rebuilding division that is always rebuilding and (c) well, the luck to have six games against the QB accounting firm of Fitzpatrick, Locker and Henne.

AFC Central: Quietly, and way behind the NFC West, this is one of the best divisions in football. Cincinnati has a closing window to make the most of the division's most talented roster, since Andy Dalton's affordability-to-talent metric is about to flip in the opposite direction and the Bengals need to make some difficult roster decisions that the Steelers and Ravens did to afford their quarterbacks.

AFC West: Denver is the class of the division -- and the conference -- on paper considering last year the Broncos had the sport's most productive offense and added some major pieces (Demarcus Ware and Aqib Talib. to name two) to a defense that should be better. Plus, Denver's two best linemen missed most if not all of last season with injuries and suspensions. Seattle's roster may be the best 1 to 53, but Denver's starters are the class of the NFL. As for the rest of the league, here's believing that Oakland quarterback Derek Carr will be the class of this rookie class of signal-callers.

NFC East: The NFL's highest profile division has a slew of story lines, but here's one for you: Is every quarterback in this division overrated? That asked, we'll take the Eagles to win this division because of (a) overall talent and (b) the wrinkles coach Chip Kelly throws into his offense.

NFC South: This division will be a dogfight. And when NFL teams look evenly matched, more times than not you lean to the best quarterback-coach combo, and that clearly points you to New Orleans. The Saints have arguably the best QB-coach duo in the league, and certainly in the top three. As for the rest of the division, we like the Buccaneers more than most and think the Panthers fall back and the Falcons will be lucky to go 8-8.

NFC Central: We think this season will belong to Aaron Rodgers in similar ways that last year belonged to Peyton Manning. With his weapons and his skills, Rodgers is going to churn up numbers like a warrior ninja accountant. (Not exactly sure if we've ever seen a ninja accountant, but it sounds pretty fierce.)

NFC West: Yes, it's the best division in football, but we've heard more in the preseason about a defensive end who didn't make the worst team in the division than we've heard about the defending Super Bowl champs. That's OK, but come Thursday night, when the lights come on, there's no reason to believe the Seahawks are not the class of football again. They are built for the postseason grind and with the best home-field advantage in the game, they are all but assured of a playoff spot. Add in the game's best roster 1 through 53, and there you go. Easy piecey lemon squeeze.

PLAYOFFS

NFC division winners (home-field advantage; # first-round bye): Philadelphia, New Orleans#, Green Bay, Seattle; Wild cards: Chicago, Arizona.

Results: Chicago over Philly and Seattle over Arizona in round one; Green Bay over Chicago and New Orleans over Seattle in semifinals; New Orleans over Green Bay in NFC final.

AFC division winners (home-field advantage; # first-round bye): New England, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Denver#; Wild cards: Cincinnati, Kansas City.

Results: Indy over Cincy and Pittsburgh over Kansas City in the first round; New England over Indy and Denver over Pittsburgh in the semifinals; Denver over New England in AFC final.

Super Bowl: Denver over New Orleans, and even the biggest Peyton fan will get tired of the Manning-rematch-versus-N.O. story lines.

As for the awards, here you go.

MVP -- Tom Brady, New England

Offensive player of the year -- Drew Brees, New Orleans

Defensive player of the year -- Patrick Peterson, Arizona

Offensive rookie of the year -- Brandin Cooks, New Orleans

Defensive rookie of the year -- Ryan Shazier, Pittsburgh

Comeback player of the year -- Rob Gronkowski, New England, although Julio Jones is a fine pick here, too

Coach of the year -- Sean Payton, New Orleans (although we think Lovie Smith and Tampa are going to do some things).

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