As I'm sure you'll recall, we took a look at the AFC last week, so this week, it's time to break down the NFC...

East

NY Giants (12-4)**
Philadelphia (11-5)*
Dallas (10-6)
Washington (7-9)

Giants
Plaxico Burress is gone.  While some may say it's a good thing, getting rid of a distraction, he'll be sorely missed.  Plax, was Eli's go-to-go guy, and you could see how much the offense missed him down the stretch last year.  Domenik Hixon and Steve Smith are serviceable enough to get by with, but look out for rookies Mario Manningham and Hakeem Nicks, who have both showed flashes of potential in the preseason.   The running game is still solid, despite the loss of Derrick Ward, with Brandon Jacobs getting the bulk of the carries and Ahmad Bradshaw now presented with an opportunity for more carries.  While the offense may stall at times, the defense is as strong as ever and boasts the deepest line in football. 

Eagles
The Eagles are the trendy pick to not only win the division, but reach the Super Bowl.  While the Eagles did do some massive upgrading to their offense in the off season, the defense is somewhat suspect to me.   They'll need to get better play from their defensive tackles than they did a season ago, and the line backing corps. is pretty weak.  The secondary is probably the strength, but you have to wonder how much they'll miss Brian Dawkins, not to mention, the loss of the late Jim Johnson.

Cowboys
Tony Romo appears to be a lot more focused on football this season, eliminating most of his distractions (Jessica, TO) from a season ago.  Is that enough though, and are his receivers good enough without TO?  In a word,No.  Roy Williams is a supreme talent, but he's shown he's not a guy you can rely on every down.  The other starter, Patrick Crayton is just a guy, he doesn't do one thing particularly well.  The guy to keep an eye on is Miles Austin.  He has the speed to stretch the field, and has had a tremendous camp thus far.  The other question surrounding the receivers is how much TO's departure will affect the coverage Jason Witten sees.  Running the ball, this team will be strong.  Marion Barber gets the bulk of the load, while Felix Jones will come in as the change of pace guy.  I look for Jones to have a breakout season of sorts this year.

Redskins
Getting Albert Haynesworth was nice (even though it was absurd money), but there's too many question marks on this team surrounding him for him to make enough of an impact.  Phillip Daniels looks older and older, and continues to show signs of decline, while Andre Carter was forced to move back to being a down lineman on the other side.  Brian Orakpo was added to the linebackers as a pass rusher, but will get absolutely destroyed in coverage.  In the secondary, Carlos Rogers continues to blossom, and DeAngelo Hall had a nice bounce back, joining the team mid-way through the season last year.  While Fred Smoot has noticeably declined, he's still a top-notch nickel corner in the league.  This team's real questions come on offense.  Is Jason Campbell good enough and can he get past his hurt feelings from the team's off-season flirtations with other QBs?  I don't think so.

North

Green Bay (11-5)**
Chicago (11-5)*
Minnesota (9-7)
Detroit (3-13)
(Packers win division tie-breaker, based off finishing with a better winning percentage against the NFC than Chicago)

Green Bay
The Packers offense is going to be one of the best in the league.  Greg Jennings emerged as a star last year, and Donald Driver is still as good as they come, but the big thing to keep an eye on is James Jones.  Jones missed time and battled injuries last season.  A healthy James Jones is going to make a huge impact to the air game for the Packers.  In addition to Jennings, Driver, Jones and the sure-handed Jordy Nelson, there's the blossoming Jermichael Finley, to boot.  Finley is going to be one of the games elite TEs in a few years.  The biggest question mark on offense for this team, is can the line hold up?  A shuffling of the lineup has given them better size up-front, and the hope is after a few seasons of playing next to one another, some continuity forms within the group.  Defensively, you can't get much worse than the club was a season ago, but thus far Dom Capers has looked like one of the best hires from the off season.  The new 3-4 scheme is going to attack and create turnovers.  If the defense can be at least average, the Packers will be very good.

Chicago
The Bears made the biggest splash in the off-season, trading for Jay Cutler.  Cutler gives the team their first legit QB since...well...a long time.  The running game is strong, and while he might not have much left in the tank, Orlando Pace is an upgrade at left tackle.  On paper, the receivers don't look good, but Jay Cutler is a good enough talent to make the receivers around him better.  Devin Hester will stretch the field, and finally has a QB that can get him the ball, and Greg Olson should have a breakout season with Cutler throwing to him.  Defensively, the team took a step back last year, but that won't continue this year.  Tommie Harris is healthy again, and newly hired defensive line coach, Rod Marinelli, will make that unit much better.  The Bears did receive a relatively big blow, losing Dusty Dvoracek for the season, but they're deep enough with guys like Mark Anderson, Israel Idonije and Anthony Admans to make up for it.

Minnesota
The Vikings boast aruguably the best running attack in football, with Peterson and Chester Taylor, and feature strong offensive and defensive lines, but there are questions surrounding this team.  The receivers will be much better playing with Brett Favre than Sage Rosenfels and Tarvaris Jackson, but not by much.  I have serious questions whether a 40 year old QB who has "a tear" in his rotator cuff and "cracked ribs" can hold up for 16 games.  Plus, I might be the only one, but I still think the Williams boys haven't avoided suspension and at some point, will sit out 4 games this season.  Even though he plays 11 games in a dome this season, and will potentially only play in one cold weather game down the stretch, I just can't bet on Brett Favre.

Detroit
They made some upgrades, but this is still an awful football team.  Is Matthew Stafford really a first overall pick talent?  I don't think so.  The defense will be improved under Jim Washburn, but this is still a bad defense and a very, very bad team.  The lone bright spot being Calvin Johnson.  If he can put up numbers like he did a season ago with guys like Dan Orlavsky, Duante Culpepper and Jon Kitna throwing to him, and no one reliable on the other side of him, how good can this guy be with talent around him?

South

New Orleans (11-5)*
Tampa Bay (7-9)
Atlanta (6-10)
Carolina (5-11)

New Orleans
The Saints offense is going to be video game good again.  Marques Colston is back, Lance Moore and Devery Henderson stepped up with valuable playing-time last season, in Colston's absence, and the running game looks to be settled with last season's breakout runner, Pierre Thomas carrying the bulk of the loads.  As always, defense is the question with this team, and I believe they've gotten better this season.  Jonathan Vilma, Michael Jenkins and Darren Sharper are all big upgrades over their predecessors, and should help this defense on their road to mediocrity.  Plus, playing in an awful division helps.

Tampa Bay
John Gruden was ushered out for Raheem Morris, for "disappointments in the playoffs," even though Gruden won a Super Bowl - though it was six years ago already.  Byron Leftwich appears to have won the QB job.  I've always liked Leftwich as a game-manager type.  He won't win you games by himself, but he shouldn't lose you any.  Leftwich should have some decent talent to throw to as well, a lot more than he had in Jacksonville, with Kellen Winslow and Antonio Bryant, and the enigma that is Michael Clayton.  The Bucs have as deep a runnign back committee as anyone in the league, with Earnest Graham, Derrick Ward and Cadillac Williams.  The real question surrounding this team is on defense.  The line isn't very deep anymore, and longtime defensive leader, Derrick Brooks is gone.  Ronde Barber and youngster Aquib Talib, lead an otherwise suspect secondary.

Atlanta
The Falcons have never, NEVER, had back-to-back winning seasons.  There is a first time for everything, but that first time is not this year for Atlanta.  The Falcons were the darlings of the division last year, going 11-5, but 6 wins came in games decided by 7 points or less - 5 of which, against teams who missed the playoffs.  Things could have easily gone bad last year for this team.  Aside from John Abraham, the defense is questionable, and can we expect a sophomore slump from Matt Ryan?  Plus, I'm one from the camp who believes Michael Turner was not as good as his numbers would indicate last year.  Tony Gonzalez will help them out in the red zone, but I see this team getting into a lot of shootouts this season, and not having enough firepower to come away victorious.

Carolina
Here's another interesting factoid about the NFC South, the South has never had a team win the division in consecutive seasons, nor has it had a team reach the playoffs in consecutive seasons.  Doesn't bode well for the aforementioned Falcons or these Panthers.  Jake Delhomme was awful in the post-season last year, and has never really been as good as advertised.  Plus, we all overlook it, but he's already in his mid-30's.  Steve Smith is as dangerous as ever, but you need a reliable QB to get him the deep ball.  The running game is solid, with DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, but defensively, this team has issues.  The defense has been on a gradual decline fo the past few years.  Julius Peppers is alone as the only threat on the line and aside from Chris Gamble, this secondary is one of the worst you'll find in football.  Look forward to college basketball this season, Carolinans...

West

Seattle (10-6)*
Arizona (8-8)
San Francisco (5-11)
St Louis (4-12)

Seattle
Anything that could go wrong for the Seahawks last year, did.  This year should be different.  Matt Hasselbeck is back, and so are his receivers.  The running game was upgraded by bringing in Edgerrin James, and Jim Mora has shown he prefers to run the ball, so James and Julius Jones should get a lot of touches.  Defensively, the team addressed depth on their line by bringing in Corey Redding and Colin Cole, and the linebacking corps. may be the best in the game, with LeRoy Hill, Lofa Tatupu, and this year's first round pick, Aaron Curry.

Arizona
Only one Super Bowl loser has reached the playoffs the following season in this decade, the 2006 Seattle Seahawks.  The Cardinals lead a charmed season last year, getting hot at the right time, despite nearly throwing the division away.  I have serious doubts Kurt Warner can stay healthy for 16 games - although, Matt Leinart has looked good this preseason - and this defense features a strong secondary, with Adrian Wilson, Antrel Rolle and DRC, but holes everywhere else.  I just don't see it in them this year.

San Francisco
Michael Crabtree still hasn't signed, Isaac Bruce doesn't have that much left and Vernon Davis hasn't been the "game-changing" tight end he was billed as.  Plus, how much confidence do you have in Shawn Hill?  And while we're on it, how bad does the drafting of Alex Smith over Aaron Rodgers look now?  Defensively, they have some talent, and Patrick Willis might be the best LB in football.  The defense has seemed to respond to head coach, Mike Singletary, but I just don't see enough talent on the offense from them to challenge for anything.

St Louis
A lot of it is due to having a very bad defensive line protecting him, or not, for that matter, but Mark Bulger has had a string of rough years.  Bulger looks more and more like a system guy, who looked great filing in for Kurt Warner when he had the greatest show on turf surrounding him.  The offense is going to struggle again.  The receivers are a thin group, and unproven, and Bulger has no dependable tight end as a safety valve.  Defensively, they have some nice pieces in Jake Long, Adam Carriker, Will Witherspoon and O.J. Atogwe, and head coach Steve Spagnulo should make a difference there, but this offense won't keep their defense in enough games.

Playoffs

Byes:  (1) New York, (2) Green Bay
(4) Chicago over (5) Seattle
(6) New Orleans over (3) Philadelphia

Divisional
Green Bay over Chicago
New Orleans over New York

Championship
Green Bay over New Orleans

Super Bowl
Pittsburgh over Green Bay