by Mike Davies

The AFC conference appeared to lose its toughness from season’s past.  It was clear that the winner of the NFC Conference Championship would go on to win Super Bowl XLIV.  Divisional Winners, including the Cincinnati Bengals, New England Patriots, and San Diego Chargers, all failed to record a win in the postseason.  Even the Indianapolis Colts appeared to have weaknesses through out the season.  The AFC was also filled with below average teams with 8 of the 16 AFC teams failing to record a winning record.  With all of this in consideration, I expect an AFC team to reclaim super bowl glory.  Here are my predictions for the 2010 regular season:

AFC North

Baltimore Ravens 11-5

Cincinnati Bengals 9-7

Pittsburg Steelers 8-8

Cleveland Browns 3-13

The Baltimore Ravens are a clear favorite for divisional champions with a fierce rushing attack led by Ray Rice.  The only flaws I see with this team is Joe Flacco, an inexperienced quarterback going into his 3rd year, and a weak secondary, destroyed by offseason injuries to Dominique Foxworth and Ed Reed.  The Cincinnati Bengals were the comeback team of the 2009 season with a massive improvement to their record.  The team should expect another winning season, especially after the signing of Terrell Owens; but if the Bengals want to be successful, Carson Palmer has to step up and lead this high-powered offence to victory.  Consider this a throw away season for the Pittsburg Steelers with the suspension of Ben Roethlisberger for the first six games.  Lack of experience will keep this team from even making the playoffs.  The Cleveland Browns haven’t made a playoff appearance since the 2002 season, so why start now?  The only positive from this team are the signings of Jake Delhomme and Colt McCoy.

AFC East

New England Patriots 12-4

New York Jets 10-6

Miami Dolphins 7-9

Buffalo Bills 4-12

The New England Patriots have been the king of the AFC East for a majority of the 21st century.  Tom Brady and his highflying offence will need to regroup after struggling to find much success throughout the season.  Also, if this team wants any success, the Patriots’ front seven must apply pressure to opposing quarterbacks.  The New York Jets are expected to give the Patriots some intense competition with Rex Ryan and his league-leading defense.  I am interested to see how Mark Sanchez will do with his new receivers.  The Miami Dolphins had an average season at best but will need to improve if they want to make it to the postseason.  All eyes will be on Chad Henne and Brandon Marshall to pick up the slack on the Dolphins offence.  Karlos Dansby will be a key addition to their dismal defense so expect an improvement from last year.  The Buffalo Bills are yet another team in the AFC currently in a rebuilding stage.  It appears the team has given up hope on Marshawn Lynch and drafted C.J. Spiller in the first round of the draft.  In the past few years, the Bills have always had problems with their quarterback position.  Do not expect much from this team until they fix this problem.

AFC South

Indianapolis Colts 12-4

Tennessee Titans 10-6

Houston Texans 9-7

Jacksonville Jaguars 5-11

The AFC Champion Indianapolis Colts had a disappointing end to their season after losing to the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl.  I question this team throughout the entire season because of all of their last second victories. Peyton Manning continued to stun audiences after he almost led the Colts to an undefeated record.  In regards to this year, I think the colts have been overexposed so expect them to have a few more losses this season.  One of my breakout teams of the year has to be the Tennessee Titans after ending the season with a 8-2 record.  Vince Young has looked impressive this preseason and looked decent when he took over the starting position during Week 8 of last season.  For this year, look for the Titans’ offence to utilize Chris Johnson in every way possible after an amazing statistical season.  Another team to look out for is the Houston Texans, who just had their first winning record in their franchise history.  Matt Schuab and Andre Johnson will be one of the top passing/receiving duos in the league and will rack up plenty of fantasy points.  The defense took a big blow with the loss of free agent Dunta Robinson and a 4-game suspension handed to Brian Cushing.  It was hard to predict a record for this team because this could be their breakout year or it could be another below average year.  The Jacksonville Jaguars are going down a dangerous pathway.  Once playoff regulars, the team has made poor decisions and has yet to find their identity.  Expect a poor season from them until they use Maurice Jones-Drew and draft a new quarterback!

AFC West

San Diego Chargers 13-3

Denver Broncos 10-6

Kansas City Chiefs 6-10

Oakland Raiders 3-13


As always, the San Diego Chargers are heavy favorites to win the AFC West against an extremely weak division.  Philip Rivers has become the top man in San Diego and has a wide variety of targets.  The only questions I have are:  How long will Vincent Jackson hold out? And when will the Chargers bring their regular season success to the postseason!?  A team that went under the radar last year was the Denver Broncos, who began the season 6-0.  Josh McDaniels is going into his second year as a head coach and will have a much better season now that Brandon Marshall is out of the picture.  This guy certainly has the ability to make the right plays, lets just see if he has the right players.  The Kansas City Chiefs are also going through some changes with the signings of Matt Cassell and head coach Todd Haley.  Last season, the team was not able to connect and had a poor record.  I expect a few more wins this year, but be ready for this team to shine next season.  On the other hand, the Oakland Raiders are a team that has no direction for the upcoming future.  They recently released former first overall pick, Jamarcus Russell, and traded next year’s first round to the Patriots for Richard Seymour.  In conclusion, any team that plays them can mark up an easy win.

It’s not easy to predict how each team’s record will be, but there are just rough estimates.  As far as the playoffs go, I will say that the AFC Championship game will be the Ravens versus the Chargers.  Lets just say I have a good feeling about that San Diego offence.

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