Shutdown Corner Playoff Projection: Admitting our preseason mistakes is easy
The first step in projecting the playoff field this far out is to admit where you were wrong. Or may you might have been wrong. Or something.
When we did our playoff picks — less than a week ago — as part of our season projections prior to the start of the season, that served as ground zero for the projection (even though we didn’t pick seeds for the teams) that we’ll now run in this space on a weekly basis throughout the season.
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Besides, you probably can derive which teams we liked the best based on our Super Bowl projections and such. So I am here to admit those early missteps — while also prepared to return to said picks if they start looking good over time. We’re not above that at all.
First, with the good. In the AFC … not too bad! We kept 1 through 5 the same, and merely flip-flopped AFC West teams in the wild card spot. Denver Broncos in, Kansas City Chiefs out. Yes, the Chiefs’ comeback was impressive; the Broncos’ opening night win was more so.
Over in the NFC, things are … similar. Full disclosure here: We would have placed Panthers third, Packers second. This week, we’ve flipped them. Not bad. And though we couldn’t quite pull the trigger on putting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the final playoff spot (and still can’t bump the Vikings), we think that might be one we regret in a month or two. They’re intriguing. Hey, at least we said they’d finish with a winning record.
If you want another source for determining NFL hierarchy we suggest Frank Schwab’s weekly power rankings, which comes out weekly after the Monday night game. And if you want to laugh at us for making these premature predictions now, that’s also perfectly fine.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
