Sports Illustrateds Peter King separated himself from the masses when he gave the Green Bay Packers his No. 1 overall ranking in his first NFL preview column on May 17. He also didnt hesitate to remind readers of the 2009 version of the same column when he picked Chicago to reach the Super Bowl and ranked New Orleans No. 24.

I stink at this, King wrote.

King excluded, early predictions have the Packers riding a potent offense to the playoffs for the second consecutive year. The organization has Super Bowl aspirations, but previews dont have the club advancing to the NFC championship.

The initial round of NFL magazines hit the stands in June, and Athlon Sports summed up the most common thought, The pieces are there or at least the Packers brass is convinced they are. Barring another rash of injuries, this team could contend for a berth in Super Bowl XLV.

A 51-45 loss to Arizona in the wild-card round of last seasons playoffs raised expectations in Green Bay, though summer predictions have the Packers finishing second in the NFC North behind the Minnesota Vikings for the second year in a row.

Most think if the offense, and specifically quarterback Aaron Rodgers, continues to throw points on the board in bunches, and the defense stays solid, and healthy, the Packers could find themselves inside Cowboys Stadium on Feb. 6 for Super Bowl XLV. Every starter on a unit that ranked No. 3 in the NFL in scoring (28.8 points a game) returns a year after nine of the top 11 scoring teams made the playoffs.

Theres just not much faith, nationally, the Packers can go much further than last season although training camp doesnt begin until July 31.

Athlon Sports, Sporting News, Beckett and Lindys Sports each had the Packers as the No. 2 team in the NFC North. All but Beckett have them securing a wild-card berth. None of the four put the Packers in the NFC championship as Athlon Sports and Sporting News expect divisional-round losses.

Dallas was the popular NFC pick among the magazines with the Cowboys advancing to the Super Bowl in Lindys Sports and Sporting News. The Cowboys won a stacked NFC East in 2009 and broke a streak of 12 straight years without a playoff win. Athlon Sports put its proverbial money on the Vikings, and the arm of Brett Favre, coming out of the conference.

In the AFC, perennial favorites such as the Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers were nowhere to be found. Lindys and Athlon backed the Baltimore Ravens while Sporting News selected the New York Jets.

The Ravens and Jets, clubs that recently have won with defense, have become trendy picks with offensive additions. Baltimores third-year quarterback Joe Flacco has proven targets in former Arizona Cardinals star Anquan Boldin and deep threat Donte Stallworth, who is coming off a year-long suspension after pleading guilty to DUI manslaughter. The offense could catch up to a defense that gave up just 16.3 points a game in 2009 (No. 3 in the league).

The Jets gave second-year quarterback Mark Sanchez a few more toys with former Super Bowl MVP receiver Santonio Holmes and future Hall of Fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson. Oh, and the Jets had the No. 1 defense in the league last year, allowing 14.8 points a game.

All three magazines picked the AFC representative to be crowned Super Bowl champion, regardless of the opponent.

Until we show we can beat the Queens I can easily see no one picking us higher than 2 in the Division. I'm looking/hoping for us to do that. Detroit and Chicago should be improved this year also.

"PackerTraxx" wrote:

And they're saying the Cows? Why? Their #2 ranked D last year was completely lit up by the Vikings. Favre beat on the Cows like a red-headed stepchild and Romo spent more time on his back than a Tijuana prostitute.

"zombieslayer" wrote:

I am going to have to disagree on the Vikings.

If I look at the schedule and who they beat by how much and when, I see a pattern develope. They played 3 team that had inconsistant years, Giants, Bengals and Packers. The Pack struggled early and played better late. The Bengals and Giants played pretty good early and fell apart late. The Vikings were lucky in the timing of the schedule to get all 4 of those games in the struggling part and not in the decent part. On top of that, there was only 1 other team with a solid winning record on their schedule, AZ. MN got their butts handed to them in AZ. The rest of the teams they played were mediocre at best. The Vikings also lost to Chicago, Carolina and Pittsberg who were 9-7 or 8-8. They almost lost to SF and Balt. That leaves thier dominating wins against Seatle, Chicago, Tampa. Cleveland, Detroit X2 and St Louis.

This year all the teams they play are at least as good as 9-7 Chicago and 8-8 Carolina except Detroit, Buffalo and Washington.

In short, easy schedule, lots of wins. Tough schedule and lots of losses.

"Dexter_Sinister" wrote: