Cowboys--The general manager is still a dingus, yet they had a chance at contention if Tony Romo and Dez Bryant could have stayed on the field.
Eagles--Maddeningly inconsistent, they cemented the end of the Chip Kelly Era by displaying his shortcomings as a personnel guy more than as a football coach.
Giants--Never out of a game when Odell Beckham is active, they disappointed those who expected Super Bowl contenders every year, suggesting Tom Coughlin was ultimately a victim of success.
Redskins--Jay Gruden bought himself some time with Kirk Cousins' unexpected season, but the team is still not that good and he still seems better fit for assistant coaching duties.
Bears--A stunning run of competent football midway through the season shone a light on John Fox and his coaching staff, severe lack of defensive talent aside.
Lions--They were not nearly as bad as they looked for the first two months, but it doesn't excuse Jim Caldwell's squad tanking at 1-7 like that.
Packers--All at once, Aaron Rodgers started looking like he's lost it and all of his targets looked incompetent, resulting in a painful 2nd half of the season.
Vikings--A serious team with a serious leader in Mike Zimmer made some serious noise, especially late in the season when QB Teddy Bridgewater seemed to mature.
Falcons--Dan Quinn brought a new attitude, a 5-0 start raised hopes, then defense and Matty Ice lapses resulted in a Same Ol' Falcons-type season.
Panthers--As solid (and full of themselves) as they were the first half of the year, Ted Ginn's emergence as a deep threat turned Mike Shula's offense into a dynamo and Cam Newton into the league MVP.
Saints--The slow crumbling of a championship franchise continued as the defense found all kinds of ways to shit the field every week.
Buccaneers--If Lovie Smith can stop acquiring old Bears for his Tampa-2 defense and shore that end up, Jameis Winston showed enough flashes for the Bucs to compete someday soon.
Cardinals--At times they looked like the most complete team in football, featuring a fearless Carson Palmer-led offense and a dizzyingly aggressive blitzing defense.
Rams--Jeff Fisher has a knack for getting his group up for division challenges, but they're going nowhere with those middling quarterbacks and that lackluster passing attack.
49ers--A disaster of a franchise who lost major talent in the offseason and never had a chance, particularly with an uninspiring choice at head coach.
Seahawks--Spent the first half of the season as if they had a Super Bowl hangover, then curiously went crazy on offense once Jimmy Graham and Marshawn Lynch got injured.
Bills--Can't contend in the same division as Tom Brady if Rex Ryan is the fraud at Defensive Genius that he appears to be, though the offense is potentially dangerous.
Dolphins--The setback in QB Ryan Tannehill's development and the confounding choices for the coaching staff threaten to plummet Miami into a black hole for a very long time.
Patriots--Appeared set for another title run and maybe even another perfect regular season until injuries derailed them, but Brady and Belichick are very capable of figuring it out in the playoffs.
Jets--Tremendous first year for Todd Bowles as he kept the defense at a quality level while letting Chan Gailey get way more out of Ryan Fitzpatrick than imaginable.
Ravens--Fought like hell all year even as their best players dropped one by one and their playoff hopes waned early in the season.
Bengals--A shame that Andy Dalton got hurt late in what was by far his best season, probably crippling the title chances of a damn good squad.
Browns--Rivaling Washington as the biggest joke in the NFL, Cleveland weaved some crappy football in between mind-boggling decisions to keep trusting the maturity and resilience of Johnny Manziel.
Steelers--The heights of what Ben Roethlisberger can do with his wide receivers was always tempered with the valleys of what a secondary in need of remodeling can allow.
Texans--The first Super Bowl-era team to make the playoffs using four different starting QBs, they thrived on two all-world stars in J.J. Watt and DeAndre Hopkins and almost nothing else.
Colts--They have to be worried about the near future as the defense continued to struggle and the offense looked out-of-sorts with star QB Andrew Luck and down-the-toilet without him.
Jaguars--Jacksonville's first competent offense in years suggests that they can finally stop sweating upgrades there this coming offseason and start working on finding defensive backs and a pass rush.
Titans--Firing coach Ken Whisenhunt halfway through his first year with a very high draft pick at QB says the organization ain't at all organized.
Broncos--Appeared to get caught trying to squeeze one more year out of Peyton Manning, but Wade Phillips's defense rescued the team consistently and makes them fearsome in the playoffs.
Chiefs--Andy Reid's finest hour molding an offense out of scraps, they're the first 1-5 team to ever make the playoffs and they beat the mediocre competition in front of them, which is all one can ask.
Raiders--Looked like a contender for a while with the Derek-Carr-to-Amari-Cooper connection making waves, and will possibly grow into consistency under Jack Del Rio in the next few years.
Chargers--Continue to waste Philip Rivers's career with not enough help in the running game and not enough talent on the defensive side.
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