NFL Preview: American Football Conference

Before making my predictions, I looked over every team's schedule and depth charts. No matter how talented a team may be, a murderous schedule can derail title hopes more than injuries can. Based on how good/bad I thought each opponent would be, I assigned a win or loss to each game on every team's schedule. Then, I took those standings, assigned seeds to the 6 playoff teams and predicted the playoffs from there. Basically, these predictions are based on a combination of eye test and schedule, rather than me going with my gut. We'll see how things actually shake out, but this is my best guess.

AFC South:
1.) Indianapolis Colts (12-4)
2.) Houston Texans (10-6)
3.) Tennessee Titans (10-6)
4.) Jacksonville Jaguars (6-10)

AFC East:
1.) New England Patriots (12-4)
2.) Buffalo Bills (7-9)
3.) Miami Dolphins (6-10)
4.) New York Jets (5-11)

AFC West:
1.) San Diego Chargers (11-5)
2.) Denver Broncos (8-8)
3.) Kansas City Chiefs (5-11)
4.) Oakland Raiders (3-13)

AFC North:
1.) Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4)
2.) Baltimore Ravens (8-8)
3.) Cincinnati Bengals (8-8)
4.) Cleveland Browns (4-12)

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Key Games:

San Diego at Pittsburgh, October 4th; Indianapolis at Tennessee, October 11th; New England at Indianapolis, November 15th; Tennessee at Houston, November 23rd; Pittsburgh at Baltimore, November 29th

Wild Card Playoffs:

San Diego over Houston
New England over Tennessee

Divisional Playoffs:

Pittsburgh over San Diego
Indianapolis over New England

Conference Championship:

Indianapolis over Pittsburgh

~~ Lank