For instance, the Saints, Rams, Falcons and 49ers used to be in the same division. A realignment plan approved yesterday by the NFL is a likely first step toward a shakeup of the NFC West, the most geographically challenged division in sports. The Panthers got into the playoffs only because they got (relatively) hot and won their last four regular-season games after losing their previous six. The last time we saw realignment in the NFL was right before the 2002 season. With a Week 17 win against the Rams, the 7-9 Seahawks became the first sub.-500 team to play in the postseason (not counting strike-shortened years). With the Canadian government holding firm on the restrictions on cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHL has no choice but to roll out an All-Canadian division for the 2020-21 season. Kurt Warner retired after that season and was enshrined in the Hall of Fame a few years later, but it’s likely he never makes his way to Canton without the magically mediocre run of 2008. Throughout the NFL's history the divisions of both NFC and AFC conferences have made no sense. The college football folks get to deal with conference realignments all the damn time. Current. Things, of course, changed rather quickly for the division, starting with the Seahawks’ first playoff game that postseason. That’s not as bad as some of the other division winners here, but consider this: The Kurt Warner–led Cardinals went 6-0 against the Seahawks, 49ers, and Rams, which meant they went 3-7 against the rest of the league. The 2004 NFC West teams went 13-27 with a negative-306 point differential in out-of-division games. Seahawks, 9-7 (winner) Rams, 8-8 Cardinals, 6-10 49ers, 2-14 This division sent two teams to the playoffs: the Seahawks and Rams. By Shanna McCarriston. As a whole, the four NFC West teams had a .250 winning percentage outside of the division. Increase over the NFC distance in Table 3: 4208km. Here’s what both of their teams need to do to win. So why is it here? So why is it here? records of division winners throughout the NFL that year, against the Bills, Jets, and Dolphins and still won, passing yardage totals starting after the team’s Week 6 bye, .250 winning percentage outside of the division, Jason Pierre-Paul’s Comeback Story Was Always Leading to This Super Bowl. But all that energy can have its downsides. In a departure from the NFL model, MLB ought to adopt eight-team divisions instead of four. schwamm 1,444 Posted April 19, 2012. schwamm. The 2-14 49ers lost all 10 non-divisional games and were outscored by 130 points in those contests. Tom Brady vs. Patrick Mahomes is a dream matchup come true, and on Sunday, they’re squaring off with a championship on the line. The Arizona Cardinals—excuse me, the Buzzsaw Arizona Cardinals—won the NFC West that year with a 9-7 record. The Cardinals outscored their regular-season opponents by one point—not on average, cumulatively—and gave up the fifth-most points in the league. Most were won by nine- and eight-win teams, while a few saw sub.-500 teams represent them in the postseason. In order to come up with the below divisions I made two assumptions. Like the NFL, MLB should continue to maintain its continental-wide, two-league structure instead of two geographically oriented conferences like in the NBA and NHL. How to Fix the NFL’s Imbalanced Divisions Too often, a subpar team heads to the postseason while a better squad stays home. The 2007 AFC East included the 7-9 Bills (outscored by 102 points), the 4-12 Jets (87), and the 1-15 Dolphins (170). You will notice a few changes I have made to cater to “geographical common sense”, such as moving the Indianapolis Colts to the north, the … Sam Levinson parlayed the excitement around ‘Euphoria’ into more excitement for his latest film, a made-in-quarantine drama starring Zendaya and John David Washington. (To be fair, the alternative was Tom Savage, who started two. Well, it’s because the rest of its division seemed to want nothing to do with the postseason. This division takes top billing for doing what was previously unthinkable: sending a team with a losing record to the playoffs. Oct 25, 2020 at 12:50 pm ET 3 min read USATSI. Photo: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports. Yes, I realize it would never happen but I think it would create tighter divisional rivalries based on regional geographies and fix some of the blatantly ridiculous structure that currently exists. The division was so terrible that the Patriots could have gone winless against the Bills, Jets, and Dolphins and still won the AFC East title. How Super Bowl LV Could Be Shaped by Carlton Davis’s Historic No Good, Very Bad Day. The last time the NFL underwent a Division realignment was in 2002. The non–New England AFC East’s woes this century have been somewhat overstated (the Jets were legitimately good at the beginning of the decade, and the Dolphins have been competitive in spurts—particularly against the Pats), but when those three teams have all been bad, they’ve been manna from heaven for Brady and Belichick. [Merge] By FightLikeSin, April 17, 2012 in NFL General. During this young millennium, collegiate athletics transformed itself through a … In 1967, the National Football League was first divided into four divisions: Capital, Century, Coastal and Central. This division was so bad that it changed how the NFL draft works. Switching cardinals and titans makes infinitely more sense but overall pointless, This post was edited on 11/14 at 10:27 am. Meanwhile, Minnesota started Matt Cassel for six games—and as the 11-win 2008 Patriots proved, starting Cassel will automatically prevent a team from making the postseason, no matter the record. The Packers did have a decent excuse: They started Seneca Wallace, Matty Flynn, and Scott Tolzien at points that season as Aaron Rodgers dealt with a shoulder injury. It tracks the history of each of the league's 32 current franchises from the early days of the league, through its merger with the American Football League (AFL). At least we don’t have to worry about the Giants anymore. The latest NFL Standings by Division, Conference and League The proposed realignment of the divisions will still have to be approved by the stakeholders. A tie is considered the pinnacle of football ineptitude. I decided to take a look into potential options for realignment. (You probably remember that one, too.) The Seahawks made the Super Bowl the next season, but you’ll notice a trend on this list when it comes to the NFC West. The addition of the Houston Texans gave the league an even 32 teams, perfect for 8 divisions … Packers, 8-7-1 (winner)Bears, 8-8Lions, 7-9Vikings, 5-10-1. NFL Division Realignment? The Fifth Episode of ‘WandaVision’ Totally Changes the Future of the MCU. I guess all those mediocre seasons are a great way to stockpile talent for your next great contender. NHL: Realignment of divisions based on geography JOHN WAWROW Associated Press Jan 4, 2021 ... Like the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers who are closing out their season at … This article is a timeline of the National Football League (NFL). I decided to take a look into potential options for realignment. Yes, another one from 2008. Share Followers 1. The college football folks get to deal with conference realignments all the damn time. The biggest star in the genre was caught on tape using a racial slur this week. If a team finishes 16-0 in the regular season, does it mean its division was good or bad? Carolina embarrassed a Ryan Lindley–led Arizona team in the wild-card round. Could division and conference realignment come to the NFL? The backlash has been swift and severe, but what happens next? In Week 16, they lost to the Cassel-led Pats by 40 points. NFL Realignment: A rebuttal, and changes which include Conference changes. Seattle lost its first playoff game to the 8-8 St. Louis Rams, who snuck in as a wild card thanks to a down year for the NFC. NFC East. That postseason birthed the legend of Larry Fitzgerald and solidified that of Warner, the perpetual castoff who dragged two otherwise downtrodden teams to contender status. Each season may seem like something minor but over the course of a decade, you can look back and see just how different the … With the Houston Texans joining the NFL, the league's teams were realigned into eight divisions: four teams in each division and four divisions in each conference. With the St. Louis Rams moving to Los Angeles there has been lots of buzz on twitter and in the media about how the NFL divisions will need to be realigned in the near future. The last season on the list, the one the Patriots tore through until running into the Giants’ pass rush in Super Bowl XLII, seems like a logical candidate for this exercise. No start date for the new season has been confirmed yet, but on Monday Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman announced that the league’s new goal is a 56-game season that will begin on … The NFC West soon morphed into something much different than it was in the previous decade: a juggernaut. Latest News. The first Chiefs-Bucs matchup this season was defined by Tyreek Hill running circles around Davis. The Cardinals looked like a different team in January and rattled off wins against the Falcons, Panthers, and Eagles before losing to the Steelers in one of the great forgotten championship games of this century. But not fitting the AFC East in here somewhere feels criminal. That’s a 69-yard performance (a figure Tebow certainly wouldn’t find nice) in a win against the Chiefs. The lessons both teams learned from that performance could decide who’s crowned champion on Sunday. The Raiders also finished 8-8 in what constitutes one of their best seasons of the decade, but lost four of their final five. Sounds like a typical Chargers season to me. Super Bowl LV Preview: The Keys to the Game for the Buccaneers and Chiefs. AFC North: Bills, Giants, Jets, Patriots. Patriots, 16-0 (winner)Bills, 7-9Jets, 4-12Dolphins, 1-15. Chargers, 8-8 (winner)Broncos, 8-8 Raiders, 5-11Chiefs, 2-14. Before 2010, picks one through 30 were slotted based on regular-season record, and postseason results mattered for only the two Super Bowl teams. The last time the NFL underwent a Division realignment was in 2002. Jim Harbaugh revived the 49ers and brought them to the brink of a Super Bowl. Here's a proposed geographic realignment of NFL divisions. The Chargers—also, you guessed it, 8-8—won four of their final five, but that was after losing six consecutive games in the middle of the season. They started 4-8 and were never above .500 at any point in the season until after that January win against the Colts. Dallas ... NHL Preview: Winners, Losers Of Shortened Season, Division Realignment. We logically understand that a loss is worse than a tie, but there’s something so comical about a draw—it’s as if no one wanted to win—that we can’t help but laugh. If anything, this exercise teaches us that the NFL divisions are pretty good the way they are. Link to post Share on … No way the NFL breaks up the current NFC East. Cardinals, 9-749ers, 7-9Seahawks, 4-12Rams, 2-14. The Green Bay Packers finished 8-7-1 that season, with the draw coming in Week 12 against the last-place Vikings. Table 4: Optimal realignment for the NFL's choice of NFC, with Dallas and Washington in the same division. There’s quite a few things I could think of to change about the NFL, and one of those items is divisional alignment. The hottest NFC East team is Washington, which has won two straight and is still technically alive for the postseason despite starting 1-9. In 2002, the league added the Houston Texans as an expansion team giving the NFL 32 teams. So with 32 teams, realignment is necessary. Press 'Enter' to see all results 27. Features and Long Form. The Chiefs finished 7-9 and beat the Broncos in Week 17, but they started Cassel as QB for nine games, and we’ve already established the football gods don’t take too kindly to that. One was that I didn't want … Texans, 9-7 (winner)Titans, 9-7Colts, 8-8Jaguars, 3-13, The final standings—two 9-7 teams and one 8-8 squad—don’t make this one look as bad, but at that time, the AFC South was the subject of much ridicule. It won’t surprise you, but the Patriots have had a positive point differential every year since 2001. In order to come up with the below divisions I … The Rams were then stomped the next week by the Atlanta Falcons, 47-17. The 2019 NFC East likely won’t end up as the worst division in recent memory. The NFL is always changing whether we like it or not. Just look at the passing yardage totals starting after the team’s Week 6 bye, when Tebow took over from Kyle Orton’s neckbeard. Moreover, the AFC West is the only division not to produce a Super Bowl winner since the 2002 realignment. Of course, this was nothing new for the division: In each season between 2004 and 2010, the NFC West had either the worst cumulative out-of-division record or was tied for it. The teams above Washington in the NFC East have not had the same luck: The Cowboys have lost two straight games and now narrowly sit atop the division at 6-6, while the Eagles have fallen to 5-7 after losing three consecutive games. Plus, this week’s Cringe Mode: ‘The Prince and Me’, It’s one thing when fans voice concern about staging All-Star Weekend amid a pandemic, it’s another when those doubts are coming from the face of the league, House and Sharp talk the story lines of Super Bowl LV and preview a slew of prop bets for the big game. Move Baltimore to the AFC East, Miami to thr AFC South and Indianapolis to the AFC North and the league would be ideal. Cardinals outscored their regular-season opponents by one point—not on average, cumulatively—and gave up current! 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