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Board 8

I'm going to tier all the fully available teams. I'm just ordering them within each tier by how they were listed in the above list of teams, so don't look further into that.

Super Bowl Contenders as is

Denver Broncos - This is one of the winningest franchises in our league and one of eight franchise that have been to multiple Super Bowls. They had a poor season in S18, but they bounced back in a big way in S19 fielding one of the top offenses and defenses in the league (7th and 2nd respectively). They started off strong, but were a .500-ish team for the second half of the season. They did manage to get a playoff victory at least. The trenches are aging with potentially multiple starters retiring in the off-season. A lot of their most expensive players still have multiple years left, so there could be plenty of work ahead to navigate the salary cap.

Portland Express - Almost inarguably the best franchise to not win a Super Bowl over the past 5-10 seasons, the Express pulled a Broncos and randomly had a terrible season. They fielded a great offense (6th), but after being one of the top defenses for a long time, it inexplicably fell to 28th. Some of that can be attributed to losing some talented starters (DT Vernon Butler, SS James Sanford, and MLB Rodney Sylvester), but I'd chalk it up to bad luck and would expect some decent regression to the mean next season. Like the Broncos, a lot of their more expensive players still have years left in their contract, so they would need some navigation around their salary cap. They do have the #2 overall pick and own all of their draft picks, so that should be nice.

Columbus Pioneers - The AFC's best team the past two seasons (#1 seed in both), the Pioneers have the best offense/defense combo in maybe the entire league (3rd on 0, 1st on D this past season). They suffered from brutally-timed offensive playmaker injuries late in the season that carried over to the postseason, so they came up empty there. This isn't a young team, but they shouldn't suffer too many starter retirements this offseason. They will probably be right up against the cap, moreso than the Broncos and Express.

Seattle Seahawks - Perennially talented and often underperforming, the Seahawks finally had another breakthrough season. They were the last unbeaten team, then the injuries kept piling up. They endured as much as they could, but they suffered a narrow loss in the NFC Championship game. This is one of the younger teams in the league in terms of starter ages, so their future looks good for the time being. A lot of their most expensive players were short-term injury signings, so as long as they hit the open market, the Seahawks should be in good financial standing.

St. Louis Rams - The Rams have made the playoffs in 11 straight seasons. They usually pair an elite defense with a quality offense, but this time, they finished with the league's #1 O to go along with their #4 D. They have been shuffling HBs for awhile now, but they finally got a great one in Jeremy Hill. A lot of their starters will be 30+, but none should be in danger of retiring yet. Cap space will be an issue, but the pecularity of their distribution of high earners and how many years they have left make it hard to gauge if they will be closer to the Pioneers or slightly more favorable than the Broncos/Express.

Minnesota Vikings - The Vikings have won 3 Super Bowls in the past seven seasons. They lost a ton of talent from S18 and S19, but their fall in S19 (14-2 to 6-10 should not have been that severe), especially when you see that they finished 11th on offense and 12th on defense with a positive turnover differential. Their running game being constantly injured and horrible (it was constantly injured and okay in their SB winning season in S18 though), was probably the biggest factor outside of poor luck. If the recent 15th overall pick Jeff Wilson Jr. makes some decent progress, then that might make a huge difference. Cap health should be excellent relative to other teams in this tier.
KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy