Rise of the AFC South: NFL’s Most Ridiculed Division Might Soon Become Its Best

For a seven-year period between 2004 and 2010, the NFC West was the divisional laughingstock of the NFL. The division posted a .400 winning percentage during that span, with three of its four teams losing at least 16 more games than they won. And only six teams finished seasons with winning records. In 2010, the Seattle Seahawks won the division despite finishing 7-9, and nine wins were enough to win the division in 2004, 2006 and 2008. 

So for the better part of a decade, the NFC West wasn’t just the worst division in football, but by far the worst division in the NFL and one of the worst in professional sports. 

But with the draft, free agency and the salary cap, parity reigns in the modern world of professional football. That means it’s hard to stay good or bad for long, which is why strong and weak divisions come and go in cyclical fashion. 

Eventually, the NFC West used all of the advantages associated with sucking and leveraged those opportunities into success:

The Arizona Cardinals were able to draft key cogs like Calais Campbell, Patrick Peterson, Daryl Washington and Tyrann Mathieu and pay quarterback Carson Palmer. The San Francisco 49ers rebuilt themselves with first-round picks Patrick Willis, Joe Staley, Mike Iupati, Vernon Davis, Michael Crabtree and Aldon Smith while also investing smartly in free agency. The Seahawks were revitalized by blue-chip early picks Earl Thomas and Russell Okung while also adding diamonds in the rough Richard Sherman and Russell Wilson. And even the St. Louis Rams became respectable with key picks Chris Long, Robert Quinn, Michael Brockers, James Laurinaitis and Janoris Jenkins. 

As a result, the NFC West has sent at least two teams to the playoffs in each of the last four seasons, with the Seahawks, Cards and 49ers becoming serious contenders (although San Francisco has since fallen off). 

We’re about to see the same thing happen to the AFC South, which took over as the league’s sorriest division as soon as the NFC West abdicated the throne. 

Like the NFC West between 2004 and 2010, the AFC South has produced just eight playoff teams in the last seven years. 

The division has been particularly bad over the last three years, with a winning percentage of just .385. And in the last five years alone, AFC South teams have won five or fewer games on nine …

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