Which division is tougher? AFC East or NFC East?

Question

AFC East

New England Patriots (3-0)
New York Jets (1-2)
Miami Dolphins (0-3)
Buffalo Bills (0-3)


NFC East

Dallas Cowboys (3-0)
Washington Redskins (2-1)
New York Giants (1-2)
Philadelphia Eagles (1-2)

AFC North, huh? Do I detect some Steeler fans out there?

AFC North

Pittsburgh Steelers (3-0)
Baltimore Ravens (2-1)
Cleveland Browns (1-2)
Cincinnati Bengals (1-2)

Answer 1

Everyone should be made aware that MR. 24K above likes to write long winded, rambling incoherent answers to try and make himself sound smart. Seriously dude, one or two sentences next time. No one thinks you are smart. We are NOT impressed...

And to answer your question, you would have to say that the NFC East is the toughest division in football. Those who are saying the AFC North are obvious Steelers homers....

Answer 2

I think it's clearly the NFC East. The Bills, Jets, and Dolphins are struggling mightily. The only win that the Jets have is against the Dolphins, who is winless.

The Eagles struggled the first two game before blowing out Detroit, Washington has made a splash, and the Giants (Probably the weakest team) still is more talented than the Bills and Dolphins.

Best division overall is looking like the AFC South. Colts are defending champs, Jaguars just shut down the running team of the nation, the Titans are rolling, and the Texans are 2-1 (I think they would have beaten the Colts had Andre Johnson been healthy, and Green hadn't gotten hurt.)

Answer 3

AFC South is the strongest so far
Colts 3-0
Texans 2-1
Titans 2-1
Jaguars 2-1
No losses outside of the division

Of your two it is the NFC East

Answer 4

Tougher, or more balanced? The NFC East is well balanced, but the teams are only middling to good. The AFC East has a lot more disparity, and while its bad teams are really bad, its good team is arguably the best in the league so far. If I was a team, I'd rather have to battle vs the NFC East for a playoff spot rather than trying to have to beat the Pats for it.

Answer 5

I pretty muchagree with bucsfan. I think the NFC East is very slightly more competitive than the AFC East, and I think the AFC North is the toughest division in the NFL.

Answer 6

Definitely NFC East, the teams better and more competitive.

AFC East, Dolphins,Jets, and Bills will not put up a fight against the Pats at all.

Answer 7

Of the two, the NFC East.

The Patriots have pretty much clinched the AFC East already.

Answer 8

NFC East is arguably the toughest in the league. Any team could win on any given Sunday (as proven by the Skins/Giants).

Answer 9

I don't know how you'd answer this question at this point in time...A "tough division" would have teams that are evenly matched. The reason for that is that the way that the games are scheduled between teams.

A team in a division must play each other twice...once at home...once away. That means that half of the entire amount of games played are divisional games. (Four teams per division means eight divisional games per team...four at home...four away.) The other eight games are played against other divisions and/or other conferences, at home, or away. So the win/loss records after week three are still not indicative of the division who is the "toughest"

A "tough division" would have an evenly matched win/loss record within their own division while overall have dominating win records over non-division and non-conference opponents.

So a division who is "tough", for instance, would have three out of four teams or all four teams with finishing records in the neighborhood of 11-5 to 9-7. So if one team stands out with a 14-2 and the others with much weaker win-loss records that would not impress me as a "tough" division. It just impresses me as a division that has an outstanding team.

Furthermore teams that had good finishing records last year are scheduled against non-divisional and non-conference teams that had the same caliber of play while teams that performed poorly, last year, are matched against teams with similar records. Therefore a team that went to the playoffs will be matched against non-divisional and non-conference teams of similar records (whether or not they went to the playoffs...only win-loss records are compared when scheduling) whereas a team that was seeded lower will be matched with lower seeded non-divisional and non-conference opponents.

IDEALLY this "evens" the playing field throughout the league breeding competitiveness. REALLY, however, some teams will trade players and draft picks in order to create a winning team perennially. And some teams are not attempting to create winning teams at all. Some teams are only in the business of buying and selling players and draft picks for profit. (And then you have been taught in school that indentured servitude, slavery, was illegal? Not when it comes to big business...like the NFL... or even the big business buyouts of smaller companies. When a large business buys a smaller business, their employees are also purchased.) This practice, of course, will weaken a division if two or more of the teams of the division practice this type of profiteering. Professional Football Teams are big business and they have the bottom line, rather than the goal line, as their primary effort.

Professional Football is not about "the game" at all. It is a form of entertainment marketed to the people, sponsored by big business, and profiteered upon by the mass media. It is not a "fair" game whatsoever. There are hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars, at play every Sunday. That is not including the billions of dollars wagered in legal and black market venues.

Yet I regress. It is still much too early in the season to make that type of assessment, of strong or weak divisions, mathematically. Now if this question were asked in week eight or week nine then I can give you an honest, unbiased, mathematical response.

At the end of week eight or week nine three of four teams in the division, or even four teams in the division will have records of 6-3 to 5-3 or 5-4 down to 4-4. Now these types of records do not seem all that impressive but you have to remember whom these teams have faced. They are twice as likely to have faced their own divisional opponents.

So, right now, today, anyone who is making these types of assessments are merely expressing their own biased opinions.

From the records that you have posted it seems that BOTH the NFC East and the AFC East CANNOT be considered as "tough divisions" because it seems as if they only have one or two outstanding teams...at most. Thus they both seem weak, as divisions. But this is an early assessment and my opinion.

God bless you and Jesus Christ is Lord

Answer 10

Between the two divisions you mentioned i would go with NFC East.

and i think the AFC North is the toughest division in the NFL.