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Same old same old
Remember when free agency brought parity?
who are the NFC QBs in that time?
Jake Delhomme
Donovan McNabb
Matt Hasselback
Rex Grossman
Eli Manning
Kurt Warner
Drew Brees
Aaron Rodgers
Eli Manning
Colin Kaepernick
Russel Wilson x2
This year will either Be Wilson a 3rd straight year, Cam Newton, or Carson Palmer
For the AFC then, in the last 12 years no parity, as far as going to Super Bowl.
People say, "Oh, well, the balance of power will shift when these guys retire," and I'm really not sure about that.
I think it is fair to think that when Big Ben, Brady and Manning retire, their teams will lose a bit of the talent these three bring to the team as it will be almost impossible to replace them with equal talent. However, I agree, that the Steelers, Patriots and Broncos are outstanding franchises and their philosophy of operating a team, coaching and winning will continue to give them a leg up on most other teams. They are good models to duplicate.
While part of that is obviously the fact that Brady, Peyton, and the Rapist are absolutely fantastic quarterbacks, it's also true that the Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, and Pittsburgh Steelers are simply the class of the AFC. People forget that the Patriots went to the Super Bowl under Parcells in the mid 90s (and went 11-5 with Matt Cassel), that the Steelers are the dang Steelers, and that the Broncos won two Super Bowls and then were consistently pretty good after that outside of that two year window with Josh McDaniels. They won a playoff game with Tim freaking Tebow at QB.
People say, "Oh, well, the balance of power will shift when these guys retire," and I'm really not sure about that.
Let me put it this way. Do you remember that at Adam Gase's introductory press conference, he said he was happy to come back to the AFC? I can't have been the only person who picked up on that. The AFC is a crap conference in which a handful of competent organizations run roughshod over a bunch of tomato cans every year. Every now and then you get a good two year run out of the Chargers or the Ravens, but that's about it. You always know that if you draw the Bengals on wild card weekend, that's basically a bye week.
I agree with your overall point that the competent and well run franchises will find a way to remain relevant, but i think your selling the Ravens short. Since the turn of the century they've only had 4 losing seasons. To make up for that they've had 2 Superbowl victories. Since hiring John Harbaugh in 2008 they were more or less a juggernaut, his first 5 years were especially impressive.
Their current downslope was not unexpected. Much like the '12-'13 Steelers attrition finally caught up to them, with low draft picks and salary cap issues causing them to quietly overhaul the roster. But even during that retooling they still won a playoff game last season. Had they not had an epic amount of injuries this season theres a fair chance they would have made the playoffs again. Of course, their coaching staff being too good and taking head coaching jobs has been nagging at them as well.
I have no doubt they will bounce back next year. And stay up for the following 3 years. This years stumble might prove to be the best thing to happen to them in awhile.
Well, Billick really wasn't a particularly good coach, and Harbaugh's being killed by staff turnover as much as anything. A victim of his own success. But it's true that the Ravens have been very up and down. Even with one of the best coaches in the NFL and a very good quarterback, they've sucked ass the last couple of years. Part of that is the aforementioned staff turnover and the injuries, but also part of it is Ozzie has struck out a few times in the last few years.