NFC East the playoff powerhouse we didn't expect

The NFL playoff picture is becoming a little clearer ahead of Week 13 but few would have expected all four teams in the NFC East to be in a postseason berth at this stage of the season.

Video Transcript

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All right, so let's take a look at the standings. It is Week 13, and you know, after every quarter, we look back on the divisions and see who's leading, who's down bottom, and it's just so strange how these things, you know, they stay consistent, but they change every single week, right? So let's start here. The Washington Football Wizards, who were horrible, right, all year, they start Taylor Heinicke, and all of a sudden, they just start streaking a little bit, and the NFC East is the best division in football right now. Who would have thought that was going to be the case, right? Now, I do think, once the Washington Football Team and the Giants, once they play against each other a little more, I know the Eagles had to play the Giants twice, the Cowboys have to play Washington again, you know, that interdivisional stuff, thing happens again, then some of these losses are going to start to pile up a little bit. But just as of right now, Eagles, Cowboys, Giants, and Commanders, I think they're all in the playoffs right now. Every team in the NFC East is in the playoffs right now, and they're all above .500. And see what Taylor Heinicke can do? Just trust Taylor Heinicke, and that's what will happen. Now, the Cowboys are going to play the Eagles in a couple of weeks, so that'll be a fun little thing, and I think that's going to be, like, a playoff bye week type of implicator, right, later on down the line, so that should be fun to keep eyes on.

The AFC East, they're in the same type of situation, where all of their teams are in the playoffs, and they're all over .500, which is the Patriots, Bills, Dolphins, and the Jets. And, you know, I think the Jets, which is interesting, I was ready to say that the Jets are going to come to Earth a little bit, but every time Mike White just kind of shows up and does Mike White things, then, hey, you know, we tend to overrate Mike White a little bit. But now we've got Mike White with this Jets defense, which is going to be interesting, which should be fun to keep up with. So if he's going to be the starting quarterback moving forward, then maybe we're going to see a little bit more push from the Jets. Do I think the Patriots can sustain this 6-5 thing that they're-- no, I think the Patriots are barely winning football games, but they're winning, and you are who your record says it is. Pardon me. My bad, Bill Parcells. I apologize. Speaking of Bills and Dolphins there, they both are 8-3, and it seems like, when Tua Tagovailoa is playing football, not only do the Dolphins win, but they are blowing teams out, so we can only expect for the Dolphins to keep doing that. They've got a couple of playoff teams in the back end of their schedule, so we'll see what that looks like when we get there.

The Raiders have won two games in a row and the Broncos look putrid, but, hey, it is what it is. The Kansas City Chiefs are sitting comfortably at the top of their division, and the more the Chargers get healthy, then it seems like they're going to try to make a little push. Can you imagine being a wildcard team and just having to roll up against the Chargers, like, thinking, on a wild card day, you maybe get an easier team that you probably to get to play against? Like, if you're the fourth seed and the Chargers are the fifth seed, you just get the Chargers week one, a healthy Chargers week one. That's interesting.

Now, the AFC North gets a little fun, because the Ravens look horrific on defense. They just can't put it all together. Their offense, they're not very opportunistic. Then our Cincinnati Bengals, our Super Bowl contenders from last year, they're on a three-game winning streak. They're 7-4, tied with the Ravens right now. So, hey, if we keep doing this, if the Ravens keep losing, the Bengals keep winning, then we can see some easy change here, some quick changing of position in the AFC North there.

Nothing to talk about in the AFC South, because the Tennessee Titans are 7-4, but the rest of the division, listen, man, I understand it's not time to start mathematically eliminating people, because there are a lot more playoff positions, and we can work more dudes into that spot. Like, hey, there's seven playoff teams, man. We can't write the 1-9-1 Houston Texans off. You can all but write the 1-9-1 Houston Texans off. I don't even want to watch Texans football. I don't know if they still come on TV right now. Get them dudes out of here.

But the NFC South is a division that's interesting. You know, normally, you'll look at a team like the NFC North where, oh, there's one good team. There's the Vikings, and everybody else is kind of losing. The NFC South has everybody, every team is under .500. The Bucs are at 5-6, the Falcons at 5-7, and the Panthers and the Saints are tied at 4-8. Why is this important? Because the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who just lost to the Cleveland Browns there, you would feel like they comfortably have this, you know, kind of have this in the bag, right, because the Panthers are bad, the Saints are bad, the Falcons are bad. The Bucs should be the clear-cut number one team, right? Nah, man, they're only one game ahead of the Falcons, and if the Falcons can just get out of their own way, then they'll be division leaders. The Panthers got Sam Darnold. He's back, and DJ Moore looks reputable. He looks like a number-one receiver again. Maybe the Panthers can possibly make this return, man. The NFC South, I'm looking at the NFC South like what y'all thought the NFC East was going to be. I don't know, we'll see. But when we start to really, really eliminate teams right, that's when it's really going to get fun. Like I said, these teams are going to play against each other and really bump those numbers down, so the playoff picture is getting clearer and clearer week by week.