Bill Barnwell: Ranking the Non-Playoff teams

[gafin]

Yesterday, I ran through the league’s eight divisional leaders and tried to figure out which of them were most likely to hold on to their spots over the 11 weeks to come. Sorry for jinxing you, Colts and Patriots.
Today, I’m going to run through the opposite side of the spectrum. There are 20 teams on the outside of the NFL playoff picture that need to make some hay over the next 11 weeks to find themselves playing meaningful football in January. There’s plenty of time for them to do so, of course; I mentioned yesterday that the Panthers and Chargers were each below .500 after Week 6 last year, but the duo combined to finish 17-5 and make the playoffs.
There’s probably another sub-.500 playoff team lurking in the NFL right now. Let’s see if we can find them. I’m going to run through those 20 teams in descending order of (my estimate of) their playoff chances. These aren’t power rankings, since playoff possibilities depend upon things unrelated to a team’s level of play, like their future schedule and the records of the other teams in their division

24. Miami Dolphins (2-3)
23. Buffalo Bills (3-3)
The Bills are ahead of Miami in the standings by virtue of their win in hand, and they beat the Dolphins comfortably in Week 2, but I think they’re basically neck-and-neck in terms of playoff hopes in the AFC East. Indeed, Bovada has their chances of winning the division at an identical +900. For both, their best chance of making the playoffs appears to be a Patriots collapse, as it’s difficult to imagine either of these teams getting to 10 wins.
I’d give the slightest edge to the Bills, if only because they’ve already played the Chargers, which the Dolphins will do in Week 9. The Bills need to reestablish themselves as a good team soon, though, because things get awful in December. They have three road games over the final four weeks, and while they get to play the Raiders, their other three matchups are against the Patriots, Broncos, and Packers. Anything can happen in the NFL, but if the Bills are anything worse than 8-4 heading into that final month, their hopes would be dim.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/ranking-the-nfls-non-playoff-teams/

 

[SkapePhin]

All I can think is how inbelievably fortunate the Patriots have been to play in a division with 3 teams have been so inept and dreadfully run for almost 15 years now. Has there been any other division like this in the same time span? With one well run team facing off against 3 consistent dumpster fires?


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[LANGER72]

All I can think is how inbelievably fortunate the Patriots have been to play in a division with 3 teams have been so inept and dreadfully run for almost 15 years now. Has there been any other division like this in the same time span? With one well run team facing off against 3 consistent dumpster fires?


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The ownership change for the Patriots changed their fortunes. Same for the Fins as well.
Once the Robbies sold the team to the garbage man, the wheel feel off this franchise

 

[roy_miami]

I can imagine the way to 10, go 3-1 in each quarter and that gets us to 11, it needs to start with a win at Chicago though. And Tannehill needs to get hot until he gets through some of these growing pains. I doubt 10 will be good enough for the wildcard right now though.

The one glimmer of hope is the offense has taken a big step up and is 15th in yards per game right now, if Tannehill picks it up top 10 is within reach. Why is that number significant? Because we haven't achieved that number since the Marino era. And one moral victory we can take away from the Packers game is we are capable of beating an elite team with elite QB play despite not getting good QB play ourselves. That is not an easy thing to do, folks.

 

[Hayden Fox]

If the Fins woke up and played right, they could beat out the Pats.

 

[nyjunc]

All I can think is how inbelievably fortunate the Patriots have been to play in a division with 3 teams have been so inept and dreadfully run for almost 15 years now. Has there been any other division like this in the same time span? With one well run team facing off against 3 consistent dumpster fires?


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except the Jets have been pretty good over this period of time. since the Pats run began the Jets have made the playoffs 6 times(4x more than Buf/Mia combined). Lately we have stunk b ut not the majority of years the Pats have dominated the division.

---------- Post added at 01:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:06 PM ----------

The ownership change for the Patriots changed their fortunes. Same for the Fins as well.
Once the Robbies sold the team to the garbage man, the wheel feel off this franchise

They have a great owner but their fortunes really changed when Tom Brady became their starter and there was a lot of good luck in that.

 

[DuderinoN703]

Perhaps one year, one year, the Dolphins won't be in an article where the non-playoff teams are ranked. I may have no hair and no ability to get an erection by that point but maybe one day it will happen.

 

[allsilverdreams]

when the F*$# will we hire a real HC

 

[Tannenbombs]

I never thought I'd say this but.. I miss Tony Sparano...