NFL Divisional Quartets

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Listening to a sports-talk radio show while driving home from work the other day, one of the radio hosts posed this question to his counterpart:

"The AFC North has four teams. Tell me who you would include in the strongest quartet of players. One player per team, one player per position of QB, RB, WR, TE."

This little exercise preoccupied me the rest of the drive, as I envisioned whom I would pick not only for this one division but each of the eight divisions.

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to come up with your own quartet of players, whether for all divisions or only the single division which includes your favorite team. Below find my picks.

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AFC North - Bengals, Browns, Ravens, Steelers
QB - Deshaun Watson, Browns
RB - Najee Harris, Steelers
WR - JaMarr Chase, Bengals
TE - Mark Anderson, Ravens

Strongly considered using Nick Chubb at RB, but the drop off from him to Harris is smaller than the drop off would be from Watson to Pickens.

*****

AFC South - Colts, Jaguars, Titans, Texans
QB - Trevor Lawrence, Jaguars
RB - Jonathan Taylor, Colts
WR - DeAndre Hopkins, Titans
TE - Dalton Schultz, Texans

Titans had nothing going for them in my eyes other than Derrick Henry until they added Hopkins recently.

*****

AFC East - Bills, Dolphins, Jets, Patriots
QB - Josh Allen, Bills
RB - Breece Hall, Jets
WR - Tyreek Hill, Dolphins
TE - Mike Gesicki, Patriots

Lots of great WR's to choose from, had to fill out the other positions first to see which WR would be left standing from a team not-yet-filled.

*****

AFC West - Broncos, Chargers, Chiefs, Raiders
QB - Justin Herbert, Chargers
RB - Javante Williams, Broncos
WR - Davante Adams, Raiders
TE - Travis Kelce, Chiefs

My home division (go, Broncos!), which I thought would make it difficult to pick players from my rivals, but in fact this was my easiest division to pick a final roster.

*****

NFC North - Bears, Lions, Packers, Vikings
QB - Justin Fields, Bears
RB - Aaron Jones, Packers
WR - Amon-Ra St Brown, Lions
TE - TJ Hockenson, Vikings

Though it seems ridiculous to not have Justin Jefferson in the WR slot, fact is I think TJ Hockenson is heads and shoulders better at TE than Sam LaPorta, at least at this stage of their careers. And it's not like Amon-Ra is a WR to sneeze at.

*****

NFC South - Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers, Saints
QB - Derek Carr, Saints
RB - BJ Robinson, Falcons
WR - Mike Evans, Buccaneers
TE - Hayden Hurst, Panthers

As befits the weakest division in football this year, this is the weakest quartet of the bunch.

*****

NFC East - Commanders, Cowboys, Eagles, Giants
QB - Jalen Hurtz, Eagles
RB - Saquon Barkley, Giants
WR - Cedee Lamb, Cowboys
TE - Logan Thomas, Commanders

Another quartet that practically put itself together effortlessly.

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NFC West - 49ers, Cardinals, Rams, Seahawks
QB - Geno Smith, Seahawks
RB - Christian McCafferey, 49ers
WR - Cooper Kupp, Rams
TE - Zach Ertz, Cardinals

Was concerned Arizona couldn't contribute ANYBODY of note, but I'd forgotten about Ertz.

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That wraps up my list. What about you? Would you change one (or all) of my selections?