AFC Preseason Rankings

Unlike the NFC, the AFC has the defending Super Bowl Champions and a couple of other teams that could win the Super Bowl this season. Here is how we rank the AFC coming into the season:

1)      Pittsburgh Steelers: The defending champs lost receiver Nate Washington to the Tennessee Titans, but second-year receiver Limas Sweed should have a bigger role in the offense. Even though he has struggled some in the preseason, Rashard Mendenhall should have a very good season playing behind Willie Parker. Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes should finally have 1,000 yards in a season and Ben Roethlisberger should have a career year as he is still playing for an extension. The Steelers will have about 12 or 13 wins and should win another Super Bowl.

2)      San Diego Chargers: I mentioned earlier how I expect the Chargers to take a huge step forward this year. Philip Rivers is playing for an extension like Roethlisberger and Shawne Merriman will be 100 percent by the middle of September. Larry English adds great depth to this defense and the Chargers should win six division games in the horrible AFC West. People love saying that LaDainian Tomlinson is past his prime, but he will have over 1,200 yards rushing this season and Darren Sproles is still motivated to show teams that he can be the next Michael Turner.

3)      New England Patriots: We are probably alone in thinking that the Patriots are not one of the two best teams in the AFC. We expect Tom Brady to have a strong season coming back from his knee injury, but we took notice when former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison said he was scared to death when he came back to the NFL with the same injury. How dominant are the Patriots in the AFC East? Brady has led the Patriots to 11 straight wins over the Buffalo Bills, eight consecutive wins against the New York Jets in the Meadowlands and the Patriots have won three out of the last four games against the Dolphins in Miami. The Patriots will lose at least one game in the division and should end up with 11 wins.

4)      Indianapolis Colts: Peyton Manning doesn’t have that many years left to lead this Colts team back to a Super Bowl, but we think he will make one more playoff run before his career ends. Manning should have an improved running game with the Colts drafting Connecticut running back Donald Brown in the first round. If Joseph Addai can get over last year’s disappointing season, the Colts should have a very strong offense. We don’t like the receivers next to Reggie Wayne, but the defense should be strong with Bob Sanders and the underrated linebacker Phillip Wheeler leading the way.

5)      Baltimore Ravens: They lost their defensive coordinator, a starting linebacker and a versatile safety from last year’s playoff team. This defense will be fine as the Ravens found a way to win after Marvin Lewis left and they will do the same now that Rex Ryan is coaching the New York Jets. Many people think that the Ravens will miss Bart Scott, but we think he is overrated as he only had 1.5 sacks last season for the Ravens. He brings some intensity to the Jets, but the Ravens always find new linebackers and keep an eye on rookie linebacker Paul Kruger having a very good season for this defense. Joe Flacco might struggle some in his sophomore season, but should benefit from an improved running game as we expect Ray Rice to be the most improved player in the NFL and the former Rutgers running back will rush for over 1,000 yards this season.