What "Good" Team Will Pick Top 5?
 

By good, I mean 8 wins or better.

J

My short list would be the New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals, New Orleans Saints, Oakland Raiders, and Arizona Cardinals.

I doubt Cincinnati will be that bad. I only list them because it is possible that Andy Dalton could have a Colt McCoy-like drop off. But they drafted well enough that even if Dalton plays poorly, they can still win enough games to not be that bad.

New Orleans will only draft in the top-five if Drew Brees has a hold out. Even if he does, he would come back after week 10 to accrue another season and the Saints would win enough games to not draft in the top-ten.

I think the Sanchez-Tebow experiment explodes and the offense is terrible. But even so, I think they can win 6 games, which is good enough to not be top-five.

That leaves Oakland and Arizona. Arizona has two games against both Seattle and St. Louis, both of whom are not that great. Based solely on that, I'll say Arizona.

I feel like Houston is a candidate to slide. I'm not saying top 5 bad, but I feel they are in for a dip.

Joel Dreessen was a big part of what their offense is, along with Eric Winston. They are all about their two tight end sets. I wonder if their considering a transition, given they cut Jacoby Jones and brought in rookies like DeVier Posey and Keshawn Martin, with Martin being an ideal slot fit while Jones is more of an outside receiver.

Schaub has missed at least 5 games in 3 of his 5 season, and cutting Winston isn't going to make keeping him healthy any easier. I know Yates did a commendable job, but I'm not sure if he can really do that again.

On defense, they are still pretty good overall. Depends on if Kareem Jackson gets any better and the type of impact Mercilus can have early, but it should still be good.

I still think this team will be right around 8 wins, but we shall see. I see the Titans taking a step forward if they start Locker (he just adds a lot more to that offense). Having to play the Colts at the end of the season kind of sucks, because Andrew Luck will have his feet wet by then, making him more dangerous than early in the season.

I think the Jets and the Raiders are most likely to fully implode next season. I don't think Sanchez can handle the pressure and Tebow sure as hell isn't going to do anything in the AFCE. Oakland has Carson Palmer at QB which basically means that the Raiders are bound to suck.

How about my own Denver Broncos if P.Manning gets hurt?


They need an elite QB. They were awful with Orton the last two years, and with Tebow last year he basically was an elite QB for us, not a good passer, but with how he ran our team he was more valuable than a better passer.


But I think playoffs.

Hmmm....I like the Texans and Bengals names...think I'll go with the Ravens. Lost their best defender, Flacco is a big giant meh, and I think last year was their year to win but they couldn't pull it off.

New York Jets

The Jets or the 49ers.

Nooooooooo....

That defense, in that division, will get them to .500 at minimum.

Cincinnati should have a pretty big tumble.

People forget how easy their schedule was and the fact that their only wins were in "should win" games.

I imagine that they could struggle getting over .500 this year but will in all likelihood fall shorter than that.

I don't know if they will be in the top 5 next year, but they are the first team that comes to mind that likely won't reproduce last years success

What about the 49ers?

J

Oakland and Cincinnati are two teams primed for big falls.

Yes, if they play like they did last season which isn't guaranteed. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the 49ers failed to make the playoffs.

New York Jets that locker room is so close to imploding.

cant be that big of a fall for oakland considering they missed the playoffs and did it it in embarrassing fashion at that.

im a go out on a limb and say mark sanchez shuts everybody up this year and balls out

Unless I misunderstand the question, no team with at least 8 wins will draft in the top 5.

It already did...

Yeah, the question is very poorly written. As written, the question is asking what team will trade into the top five in next year's draft.

No, the exact opposite. That is what your presume. Based on what is written, that is quite a presumption as well.

The question is what team that finished with 8 or more wins last season will fail to reach similar success and end up with a losing record netting them a top 5 pick in next year's draft.

I think the Raiders are going to have a hard time winning 5 games. Also I can see the Jets stop playing for Rex and the locker room going AWOL.

I agree, unless there's an injury at QB. I mean, ponder this: if Aaron Rodgers gets injured (heaven forbid), Green Bay is probably going to be starting Graham Harrell. Graham Harrell.

Edit:

Up until I saw last year's Colts team, I would have argued against something like that happening.

I'd figure they would change things up, play a bit more conservatively on both sides of the ball: run the ball more, have a safer passing attack, extra protection, more base defenses to minimize big plays, etc.

But the Colts couldn't even do those things. I think the Packers are generally a better team outside of Rodgers than the Colts were outside of Manning, but losing your QB like that might be such a kick in the balls that the team just kind of...falls apart.

Unless your the Patriots