I am looking at their schedule and with how some of the teams on the schedule changed and the makeover of the defense I think that they have a shot to take enough games, especially from the Giants(who have lost 7 defensive starters between free agency and injury) and Dallas(not sure what to expect from Romo and never know what to expect from their other offensive players other than Witten). My tune may be different come Monday after they play the Giants but I see the offense finally doing just enough to balance the defense so that 21 points a game wins more often than it loses for them. A few years back, if they had only scored 21 points in all their games, they would have been 13-3. We shall see. I was wavering between them, Dallas, and Chicago for the last Wild Card spot. All three have major question marks to me, but no one else jumped out at me from the NFC. I still think that the AFC is the class of the league right now and if they gave playoff spots like soccer does, than you would see 8-9 teams from the AFC in the playoffs to the NFC 3-4.
My reasoning also takes into account how awful the NFC West is, so I automatically have eliminated all but one of those teams from contention. So thats 1 of 6 spots. Central (Green Bay, Bears, Minnesota, Detroit) Green Bay I think locks down a playoff spot, but they only qualified in the last week last season. One of the Wild Cards could also come from Chicago or Detroit (assuming they stay healthy). I dont think Minnesota has a prayer of contending. The South (Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Carolina and New Orleans). I write Carolina off right off the bat, and I think that the other three beat each other up enough that this division gets one wild card (either New Orleans or Tampa Bay) and I think Atlanta especially with the addition of Julio Jones at wideout win that division. That leaves the East and two spots in my mind division champ and a wild card. See my reasoning above for why I think the Skins have a solid shot. I think the season hinges on the offense's ability to just hold onto the football to win games. So as you can see, I did actually think it over before I laid it out there. I watch the Skins since they are the home team but I am not much of a homer when it comes to the NFL. My homerism is reserved for Virginia Tech football and college in general.
