Carrington Harrison had a good question for me during out KC Chiefs talk on 610 Sports today: Which team that finished in last place in their division in 2011 has the best chance of finishing in first place in 2012? The old worst-to-first question...
Your options are: Bills, Browns, Colts, Chiefs, Redskins, Vikings, Buccaneers and Rams.
Despite my effort to avoid being a Chiefs homer, I picked KC. They were the only seven-game winner on the list and, even though they finished in last place in 2011, they were also a game out of first place, which no other team on this list can say.
My rank of most likely to go from worst-to-first would look like this: Chiefs, Buccaneers, Redskins, Colts, Bills, Rams, Browns and Vikings.
The Chiefs have a very winnable division, as we all know. The Bucs division is very difficult but the Saints season is up in the air with some of the things that have happened this offseason. The Redskins and Colts both have rookie quarterbacks so they're sort of an unknown as well, but also in winnable divisions. The Browns and Vikings are in very difficult divisions and have little shot of winning the division title. The Rams are an interesting case because they should be better but they've also been the worst team in the NFL in the last few years. Plus, with the 49ers rising up, I have a hard time believing St. Louis can topple San Francisco.
Of those eight teams, which one has the best shot of going from worst-to-first?