Why Each Team Will/Will Not Win The Super Bowl: NFC

Photo from Tom Fox of The Dallas Morning News

If you read yesterday’s post, you know this whole exercise and I don’t need to explain it to you.

If you didn’t read yesterday’s post, we are no longer friends and I’ll be waiting by the mail for your apology.

Green Bay Packers

Will: The only reason the Packers weren’t a Super Bowl caliber team those few years is because Aaron Rodgers did not play up to his standard.

Last year, he finally got back to it and they were extremely close.

This year, they have the one seed again and Aaron Rodgers is the MVP favorite once again.

They should waltz their way to a Super Bowl.

Will Not: How many times are we going to say that about the Packers?

This has been the case since 2011, and not only have they not won another Super Bowl, they haven’t even made it back to the game.

I mentioned this when I talked about Sporting Kansas City in my MLS Cup Playoffs version of this.

If one team continues to fall short in the exact same spot every year, I have no reason to believe they won’t do the same thing again.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Will: Tom Brady is their quarterback.

Go ahead. Tell someone the Bucs won’t win the Super Bowl when they have Tom Brady at quarterback.

See how that goes.

Will Not: Injuries at inopportune times are the biggest killer.

The defense is hobbled, Mike Evans may not be 100%, Chris Godwin is obviously out for the year with a torn ACL and Leonard Fournette isn’t 100% either.

Evans and Fournette will likely play, but it just feels like the worst time to have these injuries for the Bucs.

Sometimes the timing just doesn’t line up.

Dallas Cowboys

Will: Do you know who the best team in the NFL is based on DVOA?

It’s not the Packers. Not the Bucs. It’s not the Bills either.

It’s the Dallas Cowboys.

And I assumed before the season that the Cowboys would be NFC East champions due to the play of Dak Prescott.

Dak has been great this season, but I am shocked at how much better the defense has been this season.

The Cowboys genuinely are the full package.

If the defense struggles, Dak and the offense can outscore you.

If the offense struggles, the defense can slow down the opposition to help out.

A lot of people should pick them to win it all this year.

Will Not: But I will not be one of those people.

Remember everything I said earlier about the Packers?

The same thing applies to the Cowboys.

I can’t pick them to win a Super Bowl until I actually see them get past the divisional round.

Los Angeles Rams

Will: They’re a super team.

They have a star quarterback, star wide receivers, a top tier offensive line, the best defensive player I’ve ever seen and likely ever will see, and the best cornerback in football.

It’s Super Bowl or bust.

Will Not: And it’s going to be bust, because this super team is broken.

They have all the pieces, and the pieces are performing well, but the past month of the season has shown that the Rams are not playing their best football.

And this is the worst time to be doing that.

Arizona Cardinals

Will: You might forget, but this team was 10-2 and Kyler Murray was a clear MVP favorite with an awesome defense backing him up.

The Cardinals came out of nowhere this season as legitimate Super Bowl contenders.

They might not have DeAndre Hopkins for the postseason, but this is still the same core team and can outscore their way towards a Super Bowl.

Will Not: Do you know why you forget the Cardinals were 10-2?

Because they’re playing terribly right now.

They lost four of their last five games, and those losses include three teams who missed the playoffs (Lions, Seahawks, Colts) and the Rams, who are the team they face this weekend in the wild card round.

I sure as hell am not going to bet on them suddenly turning everything around.

San Francisco 49ers

Will: Jimmy G is playing well, and the Niners could have (and likely should have) won the Super Bowl two years ago when Jimmy G was just ok.

This offense is better than that one, and a great offensive mind like Kyle Shanahan can scheme all the key weapons open to make life even easier for Jimmy.

If Jimmy G was a little better in 2020, the Niners are Super Bowl champs.

Now, he’s a little better.

Will Not: This is not the same defense as 2019-2020.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good defense. But the defense of two years ago could dominate games single handily. All the offense needed to do after that was prevent mistakes and they’ll win the game.

Now, mistakes can kill the Niners because the defense doesn’t have the same ability to minimize all possible mistakes, especially against offenses like the Packers, Bucs, Cowboys and Rams.

And while Jimmy G is better than two years ago, he’s still very mistake prone.

Philadelphia Eagles

Will: Uhhhhhhh.

Jalen Hurts is better than people think!

Plus they have a really good run game so they can drain lots of clock and keep their defense off the field.

And. Um.

Alright let’s just skip to the next bit.

Will Not: They just won’t win the Super Bowl, but that’s ok.

The Eagles are playing with house money.

New coach, new quarterback, full rebuild. This season was about finding out about their future.

And in this season they found out that Jalen Hurts very well could be the guy (don’t listen to guys like Colin Cowherd. He thought they should have kept Wentz) and that Nick Sirianni sure as hell can coach.

Now, you get to watch your Eagles in the postseason, and then go into the draft in April with three first round picks.

The future is very bright in Philadelphia. This just isn’t the season for them.