The Rodney Dangerfield of the NFLI read this paragraph in a Yahoo

Sports article recently:Those four words in the middle Youth Montae Nicholson Jersey , “a weak division, sure,” caught my attention.This year, 2018, saw a resurgence of the rather generalized assumption that the NFC East is a ‘weak’ division.That claim seems to surface anytime the Redskins sit at the top of the division.I read it in 2012, when RG3 led the team to a division title.I read it again in 2015, when Kirk Cousins led the Redskins to another division championship. It resurfaced again this season when a healthy Alex Smith led the team to a game & a half lead on the rest of the division.But it’s not just journalists and pundits who proclaim the weakness of the NFC East — its loudest critics are often its own fans in DC, Philly, Dallas and New York.We often decry the division as being competitive and wildly unpredictable when it comes to the 4 teams in the division, but ‘weak’ when it comes to playing outside the division.I thought I’d briefly explore the question: Is the NFC East a “weak” division in 2018?Regular season W-L recordsEvery NFL team plays 16 games per season, but 6 of those are against division opponents.That leaves 6 other games inside the same conference, and 4 games against a division from the opposing conference — ten games in all outside the division for each team.That’s 40 non-divisional games for each conference in a season.What happened in 2018?Based on this analysis, the AFC South, led by Houston and Indianapolis, was the strongest division in the 2018 regular season, winning 23 of 40 non-division games (57.5%).The NFC East ranks 6th out of 8 divisions, sitting one game under .500.You can see, though, that the margins are quite thin; just 3 games separate 2nd place and 6th place in this analysis.For those who might not trust my calculations, here are the detailed breakdowns for each team and each division:SuperbowlsOf course, only one division can boast the Super Bowl champion in any given season.This year, the Lombardi Trophy resides in Philly, which puts it in the NFC East.woo hoo.Of course, if we want to take a medium to long-term view, no division can boast more success than the AFC East, because no team has had more success in the past 20 years than the Patriots.Looking at a 20-year period, here’s how the divisions shake out:AFC East (5)Patriots (SB 36, 38, 39, 49, 51)AFC North (4)Ravens (SB 35, 47)Steelers (SB 40, 43)NFC East (3)Giants (SB 42, 46)Eagles (SB 52)AFC West (2)Broncos (SB 33 Youth Zach Brown Jersey , 50)AFC South (2)Colts (SB 41)Saints (SB 44)NFC West (2)Rams (SB 34)Seahawks (SB 48)NFC South (1)Buccanneers (SB 37)NFC North (1)Packers (SB 45)Over the past 20 years, the NFC East stacks up fairly well, having won 3 superbowls, behind only the AFC East (Patriots) and the AFC North (Ravens & Steelers).You might accuse me of ‘cherry picking’ the dates a bit, but I really didn’t.If we took the longer term view and looked at the past 32 seasons, then we would add 7 superbowl titles from the NFC East in those 12 seasons, giving our division 10 Lombardi trophies in 32 years. If we stuck with round numbers, then it would be 8 league championships in 30 years.If we shorten the time frame, the NFC East has 3 Championships in 11 years — which is the highest total, or 2 in 10 years, which ties for the most (with the AFCN & AFCE).So, at both shorter term and longer term — at 10 years, 11 years, 30 years and 32 years — the NFC East has either the most Lombardi Trophies of any division, or is tied for the most.By picking 20 years, I actually put the division in the least attractive light.2018 playoffsThe first thing to note is that the NFC East is one of the 4 divisions in the NFL to send two teams to the playoffs this season.With the Texans and Seahawks eliminated, only the NFC East and AFC West still have two teams alive, and the NFC East is the only division to have a 2-0 record in the current playoffs.BalanceStrength is sometimes looked at by focusing at the top of the division, and when we do that, the NFC East looks pretty bad.Only the AFC North (Ravens) and NFC East (Cowboys) have division winners with only 10 wins.But when you look down the standings, things appear better.The Eagles finished in second place with 9 wins.Only the Colts and Chargers — the two other Wildcard teams that won in the first round of the playoffs — had more wins.The Redskins finished in third place, with a 7-9 record.Only one third-place team (the Titans) finished with more than 7 wins.Among the last-place teams, only the Lions and Bengals finished with more wins than the Giants.Five games separated the top team (Dallas) from the last-place team (New York); only the AFC North (4 games) was closer.In summaryWe often hear that the NFC East is a “weak” division — we especially hear it whenever the Redskins sit atop the standings.It is certainly true that the division did not excel in terms of its regular season won-loss record against non-division opponents, yet two divisions (AFCE, NFCW) did even worse, and only 3 games separate the 2nd place and 6th place divisions.But the NFC East boasts two playoff teams among the 8 teams still in the hunt for a Super Bowl trophy, which is well-above the odds.I haven’t even discussed individual players.When you start listing those players: Adrian Peterson, Saquon Barkley, Ezekiel Elliott, Daron Payne, Jon Allen, Michael Bennett, Haloti Ngata, Fletcher Cox Authentic Josh Doctson Jersey , Demarcus Lawrence... well, you get the idea... there’s plenty of talent in the division.The NFC East is the home of the reigning Super Bowl champion — a team that is still in the hunt for its second consecutive league championship.If you look back over eleven years or thirty-two years, the division has produced the largest number of Super Bowl champions in the league.Over ten years or thirty years, the division is tied for that honor, and, in the end, championships are the real measure of quality.Only by cherry picking 20 years can we find a time frame that pushes the NFC East down to 3rd place behind the Patriots and the NFC North.Finally, except for the AFC North, where the Ravens took the division title with 10 wins and the Bengals brought up the rear at 6-10, the NFC East is probably the most competitive division, where no team has repeated as division champs since the Eagles last did so in 2004. The 5 o’clock club is published Wednesday to Saturday during the season, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.Obviously, we’ll be rooting for the Redskins at home against the Falcons.Prediction: Redskins win, 24-22.How about the other games?AFCvs NFCAs a general rule, we want to root for AFC teams to beat NFC teams.So, the rule of thumb tells us that we should exercise our rooting interest this way:Redskins fans should cheer for the Raiders to beat the 49ers —Honestly, I can’t follow my own advice here... I’ll be cheering for Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers to win against Jon Gruden’s Raiders, though with the Niners giving UDFA QB Mullens his first-ever start, I believe I took the Raiders for a ‘get well’ win in the Week 9 Pick’em contest.Prediction: Raiders win 24-20Redskins fans should cheer for the Bills to beat the Bears —There’s a couple of reasons I can’t follow this advice.First of all, I don’t think the Bills can win this one.Secondly, after Kirk’s remarks about wanting to play for “an organization committed to winning football”, I’m hoping to see his Vikings out of the playoffs this season.The best chance of that happening is for other NFC North teams to stack up some wins.I’ll be cheering on the Bears this week. Prediction: Bears win 31-6Redskins fans should back the Chargers against the Seahawks —I don’t have any problem rooting for the Bolts, and even less problem rooting against the Seahawks.The problem is that I don’t really believe that LAC can go into Seattle and get the win.I’ll be waving my powder-blue pom poms during this late afternoon contest, but I sense that I’ll be disappointed.Prediction: Seahawks win 23-20Redskins fans should NORMALLY back the AFC Patriots at home versus the NFC Packers —Once again, following my own advice is difficult on several levels.First is my deep and abiding hatred of all things Patriots.Second is that I am still focused on keeping the Vikings out of the playoffs, so I want to see their NFC North rivals do enough that either the Bears, Lions or Packers can take the division crown.Personally, I think it’ll be the Bears, but I may need to rely on the Packers and Aaron Rodgers to get the job done.Normally, the fact that the Redskins have a tie-breaker over the Packers would add more rational reasoning to hoping the Packers win the division, but as long as the Packers have that tie in their W-L record and the Redskins don’t, playoff tiebreakers are not a consideration.I like Aaron Rodgers, I like the Packers, and I’ll be cheering for them to upset the Patriots in Foxboro Youth Trent Williams Jersey , though I know how unlikely that is to come to pass. Prediction: Patriots win 37 - 27Redskins fans must absolutely cheer for the Titans to defeat the Cowboys on Monday Night Football —I have no misgivings here.I’ll be a Tennessee fan on Monday night, and I assume they have a decent chance to go into Jerruh’s world and get the win, despite the Cowboys being undefeated at home this season.Prediction: Cowboys win 23-19AFC vs AFCThe second rule is that we don’t much care about games that feature two AFC teams playing against each other.Chiefs at Browns -Prediction: Chiefs win 57-12Jets at the Dolphins - Two AFC East teams, both on 2 game losing streaks.I see this as almost a pick’em, but the Dolphins are at home and probably aren’t starting a rooking QB.Prediction: Dolphins win 17-10Steelers at Ravens - Initially I had the Ravens winning this game, but Week 8 results changed my mind.Prediction: Steelers win 25-16Texans at Broncos - Back in preseason,I thought this might be a playoff preview, but now Houston and Denver look like teams traveling in opposite directions.Prediciton: Texans win 24-16NFC vs NFCThis is where the rubber meets the road.Buccaneers at Panthers - This is a tough call, as it is an NFC South division game, and the Redskins haven’t played Tampa Bay yet, so I’m not sure about tiebreaker scenarios with them.Here’s where my head is at... We know the Redskins lost to the Saints but beat the Panthers, so we have the tie breaker over the Carolina, but lose out to New Orleans.If you think the Redskins finish as division champs, you want the Panthers to win the NFC South over the Saints.On the other hand, if you think the Redskins chance to qualify for a playoff spot will be as a wildcard team, then you want the Saints to win the division over the Panthers.I think the Skins will go on to win the NFC East, so I want to see the Panthers end up as the NFC South champs.I’m cheering for Carolina this weekend.I predict the Bucs will start Fitzmagic and light up the scoreboard.Cam Newton and his guys won’t be able to keep up.Prediction: Tampa Bay wins 31-21Lions at Vikings - Typically, I’d root for the team with a lower win percentage to beat its NFC division opponent, so — in this case — I should be rooting for the Lions, and I will be.Unfortunately, after losing to the Saints in the dome this past Sunday, the Vikings will be fired up to play well against their division rival. Prediction: Vikings win 34-23Rams at the Saints - My concern here is for Redskins playoff seeding.The chances are pretty slim that the Redskins will finish with an outright better W-L record than the Rams.It’s also unlikely that the ‘Skins would win tie breakers against the Rams.In keeping with the goal of seeing the Panthers win the NFC South, I will be rooting for Sean McVay’s team to put a loss on the Saints, and I think they have the firepower to do it.Prediction: Rams win 37-31BYE WeekThere are six teams on a bye in Week 9:Cardinals, Bengals, Colts, Jaguars, Giants and Eagles.At the end of Week 9, every team in the NFC East will have had its bye week, eliminating the half-game difference in the standings (unless another tie game pops up in the NFC East).If all my predictions come true, this is what the NFC rankings would look like at the end of Week 9: Custom Denver Broncos Jerseys