As the 2021 NFL season continues on its way to reaching the postseason, some facts are truer than true and that cannot be avoided. To start, if you look at any of the top NFL stats pages, you’ll see that this has been the season where no team has been able to truly call themselves favorites in any way, shape, or form. The level of competition across the league has been one that has kept pro football fans on their feet at all times, with upsets and surprises being on the menu week in and week out throughout the season.
But even with all the craziness around the league, there have been some teams that have managed to stand out a bit more than everyone else and make their claim at being taken as favorites for a spot in the upcoming Super Bowl. This is why we bring you our picks for two AFC teams and two NFC teams who look fit for a Super Bowl run this year.
AFC: New England Patriots
Whoever thought that after Tom Brady left the New England Patriots, that would mean that the team would fall into a pit of perennial failure and sadness, well, don’t look now, because the Patriots once again are the best team in the AFC. Led by football mastermind and one of the best coaches to ever play a part in the game, Bill Belichick, and a rookie QB, Mac Jones, who by all means has shattered all doubts about who will be this team’s leader in the future, the Patriots got to work, not wasting any time whatsoever taking back the AFC East, a division that had been rightfully theirs for the bigger part of the 2000s.
This team plays some of the most orderly and correct football in the league. With the Patriots you shouldn’t expect flashes of greatness or highlight reel moves left and right, but what you should expect is a team that knows exactly what needs to be done in every down on both sides of the ball to get a win. From the looks of it, they will continue on their path towards being the top seed in the AFC and if there’s one thing everybody knows is that a postseason where all of the most important games have to go through Gillette Stadium, is one where the Patriots will always have an upper hand.
NFC: Green Bay Packers
If we are going to talk about the best team in the AFC, the Patriots, then it’s only fair that we also talk about the best team in the NFC, the Green Bay Packers. While at the beginning of the season everyone thought that the Packers would end up being a sort of imploding train wreck because of all the drama surrounding Aaron Rodgers and his decision to make this his final season in Green Bay, it looks like nobody told the Packers about that, because they have been taking down everyone in their path towards being the best team in their conference.
They have already taken down postseason favorites like the Rams and Cardinals this season, all while still holding a clear lock on their division, the NFC North, and from the looks of it, if they can score a couple more wins against the Ravens and Browns in the upcoming weeks, especially since two more wins against the Vikings and Lions should be more than secured to finish out the season, Green Bay should be sitting pretty comfortably in the driver’s seat atop the NFC.
AFC: Kansas City Chiefs
I’ll come right out with it and say this if the Tennessee Titans had Derrick Henry in full health, they would be the number one pick above the Patriots and Chiefs, but since the Titans have to wait until the postseason to see if Henry will be able to come back, there’s no way the Chiefs cannot be seen as the other big favorites in the AFC to once again reach the Super Bowl. At the beginning of the season, whoever didn’t have the Chiefs as their top pick in the AFC for making it to yet another Super Bowl, would have been seen as a mad person, but as the season got going, all the alarms around Arrowhead Stadium started going off. Something was just not clicking correctly in KC, and their dominant stance in the conference was being put to the test more and more.
So what did Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs do? They remembered what it was like to be one of the best football teams in the league and started beating everyone around.
After their last loss in week 7 to the Titans, the Chiefs mounted a six-game winning streak that once again put the league on notice about what this team can do when they’re firing on all cylinders. Now, while the season has been a bit of a rollercoaster for KC, it would be foolish for any team to think less of a Chiefs squad that looks like they’re tuning up the band to make it to the postseason in their best fashion and form.
NFC: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Last but certainly not least, the only team who looks more than poised to give Green Bay a true run for their money for the NFC Conference title, in a championship game that even if still just being imagined, just sounds like an epic showdown, Brady vs. Rodgers. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers seem like they haven’t skipped a beat whatsoever from their Super Bowl-winning run last season, and while yes, they have recorded three losses in the season, that number seems like it will stay that way until the end of regular playing. Tom Brady is once again playing at an elite MVP level and the team has continuously made it a point to rise to Brady’s level and play the same way, making them one of the most dominant squads around.
While it seems clear that the race for the No.1 seed in the NFC will come down to numbers and inches between them and the Packers, one cannot think of the idea of a scenario that all football fans would love to see in the Super Bowl, a Brady vs. Belichick matchup without salivating. For now, it’s up to Brady and the Bucs to try and make their case for once again making it to the Super Bowl this season.