Expect chaos in playoffs
WHO DO you like? Which teams will end up in Super Bowl LVI, and which will be the last one standing on Feb. 13? Given that no team has asserted itself as dominant this season, these NFL playoffs might be the most wideopen in recent memory.
The Buccaneers (12-4) began the season with all 22 starters from their Super Bowl championship team returning. Yet, as the playoffs begin next week, even with Tom Brady, do you really trust the Bucs, who despite their 12-4 record are in the throes of the Antonio Brown mess and are short-handed at receiver?
The Titans (11-5) are the current No. 1 seed in the AFC, but are they a team you absolutely, positively expect to be in the Super Bowl — even with it likely they will have running back Derrick Henry back for the postseason?
The Chiefs (11-5) were 3-4 at one point this season before righting itself and winning eight in a row before losing to the Bengals last Sunday.
The Bills (10-6) have struggled at times despite being one of the preseason favorites with quarterback Josh Allen one of the league’s rising stars. And the Brady-less Patriots (10-6) are back in the tournament and a potential tough out, but hardly dominant.
The AFC North champion Bengals (10-6) are a fun dark horse, but not good enough to make it to the Super Bowl. I still think Bill Belichick and the Patriots are a dangerous team and will emerge to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl.
If a Patriots-Buccaneers Super Bowl showdown pitting Belichick and Brady sounds too delicious to come true, that’s probably because it is. I don’t think Tampa Bay will get past Aaron Rodgers and the topseeded Packers (13-3), who have home-field advantage.
So, it’ll be the Packers and Patriots playing Feb. 13 at SoFi Stadium with the Packers emerging as the champs.
That’ll send us all into an offseason of more “As Aaron Rodgers’ World Turns’’ drama and intrigue. Will he retire and ride off into the sunset? Does he want out of Green Bay to prove he can win somewhere else? Or did this season make him fall back in love with the Packers’ front office?
That saga, along with free agency and the draft, will carry us to training camp 2022 so we can start this all over again.