NFL Divisional Round leaves Patriots as heavy Super Bowl favorites
By Chris Wilson
After an exciting NFL divisional round, one team — the New England Patriots — remains the heavy favorite to win Super Bowl LII, thanks to the experience of quarterback Tom Brady.
The NFL’s divisional playoff weekend began with eight teams vying for the league’s top prize. These eight teams were led by a variety of different types of quarterbacks — from second-year players, to veteran journeymen, to Super Bowl MVPs.
When the dust settled after the “Minneapolis Miracle” gave the Minnesota Vikings the final playoff spot on Sunday night, we were left with four teams, and four starting quarterbacks: Blake Bortles, Nick Foles, Case Keenum and Tom Brady.
Which one of these four is not like the others?
San Francisco 49ers
Bortles is widely considered a first-round bust after the Jacksonville Jaguars selected him with the third overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, and was a candidate for replacement prior to this season.
Bortles’ play didn’t drastically improve in 2017; the difference in the 3-13 Jaguars of 2016 and the 10-6 Jaguars of 2017 was the emergence of the NFL’s top defense, and an improved running game. Bortles’ job isn’t to win football games; his job is to not lose them — which he successfully did with just 87 passing yards in the Jaguars’ AFC Wild-Card victory.
Nick Foles sandwiched an MVP-caliber 2013 season into the career of an NFL backup. Foles has never able to replicate his one season of magic with coach Chip Kelly, and has bounced between teams before landing back in Philadelphia in 2017.
Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz led the team to an 11-2 record before tearing his ACL, and forcing Foles into action. Foles looked like the backup he is during the Eagles’ final three games, before turning in a serviceable performance against the Atlanta Falcons. Last week, Philadelphia was the first top seed to be an underdog to the bottom seed in the history of the league, and the Foles-led Eagles are once again home underdogs this week.
The Minnesota Vikings — and quarterback Case Keenum — shouldn’t even be here. It took a “miracle” for the Vikings to advance to the NFC Championship game, and it’s perhaps a bigger miracle Keenum got them into the playoffs in the first place.
A five-year veteran with only nine career wins, Keenum came to Minnesota hoping to win a backup role, but took advantage of opportunities given to him due to quarterback injuries on the team. Keenum is in the midst of the best season of his career, but struggled against the New Orleans Saints in his first career playoff game, before his last-second 61-yard touchdown pass sealed the victory for the Vikings.
And then there’s Brady and his five Super Bowl rings. Brady has done this before — as recently as last season. He’s been NFL MVP twice, and MVP of the Super Bowl four times — and his New England Patriots are nearly double-digit favorites against the Jaguars.
Can any of the other three quarterbacks keep Brady from his sixth Super Bowl ring?
Perhaps there’s one more miracle in store for the 2017 NFL Playoffs.