Parity in the NFL? 2015 NFL Playoff Predictions: AFC

Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

With the 2015 NFL season officially less than 100 days away, I decided that it might be fun to do some early NFL Playoff predictions based on teams as they stand now and how I think they may fair in the upcoming season.

The term parity is familiar to any sports fan. Parity in professional sports implies that the best teams in a league are not substantially better than the worst teams.

“The state or condition of being equal” – Google definition of parity

The NFL constantly touts parity as one of the best things the league offers in terms of competition. It’s probably overused but it’s not overhyped: any NFL team can beat another NFL team on any given Sunday.

"“When you come into a season, every fan thinks that their football team has a chance to win the Super Bowl and that’s what I believe the 32 clubs are working towards,” said Roger Goodell, the NFL’s commissioner, in back in 2011."

So is the commissioner right?

Perhaps.

Trends tell us that while a team can win on any given Sunday, a small handful of teams seem to consistently stay at the top of their division year in and year out. High profile quarterbacks and coaches are often the reason, however there is also usually a few surprise teams that sneak into the postseason as well.

With that in mind, we’re going to take an early educated guess and give you some rapid fire thoughts as to who we think will be in the NFL playoffs later this year.

Last week, we covered the NFC. This week, we’re going AFC.

Next: AFC South