The surprise team of the 2010 NFL season was the Kansas City Chiefs, but right behind one of Missouri’s football teams stood the other one, the St. Louis Rams.
For the first time in his long but short career with the Green Bay Packers, quarterback Aaron Rodgers was able to step out of his own shadow. A Super Bowl victory has a way of doing that for a gifted gunslinger who no longer has to look over his shoulder at a famous predecessor.
By the Detroit Lions’ standards, the 2010 season was a successful one. Detroit, which finished the season 6-10, closed the season with a four-game winning streak and tripled last season’s win total.
The city of Chicago has still not gotten over the loss to archrival Green Bay in the 2010 NFC Championship Game. The question for 2011 is whether the Bears team will rebound from a heartbreaking and soul-crushing loss.
The Jets made it to the AFC Championship game for the 2nd straight season last season and it will be a tall task for them to do it again.
The Patriots not only have the best odds to win the AFC East, but the AFC and the Super Bowl as well. Tom Brady is the reigning MVP and the Pats’ offense should be solid once again, but the big question mark in New England is on defense, especially in the secondary.
Is Chad Henne the answer for the Dolphins at QB? He had an up and down season last year and there have been rumblings that the fish may go out and get a QB when free agency begins and Vince Young is a player being mentioned.
Many thought the Bills would use their high draft pick to take a QB, but they passed on doing that and heading into this season Buffalo will hang their hopes on Ryan Fitzpatrick (3,000 yards 23 TD last season).
The Chiefs surprised a lot of people last season by winning the AFC West last season, but even though they have a pretty season early season schedule they face many tough teams outside of the division.
The Chargers did not make the playoffs last season, but this season they have the best odds to win the AFC West.
The first round of the 2011 NFL draft was loaded with exciting defensive prospects.
In the happy, hypothetical world where the NFL lockout is no more, training camps are about to start. The Hall-of-Fame game is a month away.
As the labor situation in the NFL between the league’s owners and players continues to slowly creep toward a new collective bargaining agreement, (we hope) here we go with another conference preview.
With hints of some solid progress in the current negotiations between the NFL owners and its players, the prospect that a resolution is reached in time to keep the start of the regular season on schedule looks much better than it did a couple of months ago. 
That being said, it is time to take a look at the future odds for each team in the NFC chances at winning the conference as provided by BetUS.com
Philadelphia +600, Dallas+700, New York +900, Washington +2500
Michael Vick starts his second season as Philadelphia’s quarterback and should once again flourish with full complement of weapons in WR’s DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin along with RB LeSean McCoy. If the Eagles defense can return form, they should not only be the team to beat in the East but in the conference as well. Dallas will get QB Tony Romo and WR Dez Bryant back, after both had their 2010 season cut short by injury, which should help erase the memory of a dismal season.
New York should once again be in the thick of things in the East behind QB Eli Manning and an offense that finished the season ranked fifth in total yards. Question marks at the quarterback position will plague Washington well into the regular season as will a running game that was ranked 30th in the league last year.
Green Bay +350, Chicago +1200, Minnesota +1600, Detroit +2000
The reigning Super Bowl Champion Packers should waltz to a division title as long as they avoid the trappings of a hangover that sometimes accompanies this achievement.
Chicago will once again look to QB Jay Cutler to lead it back to the top of the division, but last year’s run will be difficult reproduce given some of the other holes on this team.
Minnesota begins life without Brett Favre, and will have to figure out who will be their starter at quarterback as right now the Vikings are counting on unproven rookie Christian Ponder to lead the way.
If Matthew Stafford can stay healthy for a full 16 games, Detroit is in great position to make quantum leap in the standings this season and possibly challenge Green Bay for the division title.
Atlanta +650, New Orleans +700, Tampa Bay +1400, Carolina +6000
The only thing we know for sure about the South is that Carolina will not win the division. The other three teams are closely matched and should take turns beating each other up as the season progresses.
Atlanta remains the most talented team behind QB Matt Ryan, WR Roddy White, and RB Michael Turner, but has yet to learn how to win in the postseason. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
New Orleans still has Drew Brees, but this team could actually take another step backwards after its 2009 Super Bowl run.
Tampa Bay appears to be the up and coming team in the division, but QB Josh Freeman still has to prove he has what it takes to lead this team to the next level.
San Francisco +2000, St. Louis +2000, Seattle +3000, Arizona +3500
This is another division that could be completely up in the air, primarily because of the mediocrity of the teams it contains. San Francisco has a new head coach in Jin Harbaugh, but is still undecided as to who will be its signal caller.
St. Louis has the best prospect for improvement behind second-year QB Sam Bradford, who led this team to more wins last season that it had in the three previous seasons combined.
Seattle won the West with a 7-9 record last year, but has quarterback questions of its own as it appears that 12-year veteran Matt Hasselbeck will not be back with the team.
Arizona’s fall from grace was swift after the retirement of QB Kurt Warner and the loss of WR Anquan Boldin as the Cardinals have yet to find suitable replacements for all the offensive production those two provided.
The current lockout will have a varied impact on every team in the conference, so stick with the longest tenured head coach in the league, Andy Reid to have his Eagles ready to make a long run on possible short notice.
NFC 2011 Conference Champion – Philadelphia Eagles
AFC Future Odds | 2011 AFC Picks
The 2011 NFL regular season might kick off in September. A lot depends on the legal battle between the NFL owners and the NFLPA, as of right now we may not have a season to look forward too. Just in case its on thought we’ve already got a ton of Week 1 point spreads and over/under lines articles up for all the games in week one.
The optimist in me still believes we’ll see NFL football come September. That means it’s absolutely worth taking a look at the latest NFL futures in light of the recently completed draft. Who are the biggest movers and shakers?
