What NFL season had the least clear favorite in the preseason?

[ShinobiMusashi]

1999

Elway’s retirement made 3peat talk for DEN impossible

The Falcons seemed to have “yeah but” one hit wonder vibes

Safe to say the Rams were the longest of longshots

I wrote a pretty big retrospective project on the 1999 NFL season about 4 years ago and found some good stuff online that may still be there. There was an ESPN power rankings article that came out in the preseason that was all in on the Jets winning it all that year. Everybody knew they were toast if Vinnie got hurt though, and that's what happened week 1. It was eerily ironic to me how much hype the Aaron Rodgers Jets had in 2023 for the same thing to happen.

[7DnBrnc53]

1971? Colts were not the strongest champion and were aging. I can see Colts, Dolphins, Raiders, Chiefs getting support from AFC. Cowboys had lost so many times by that are they the favorite? Vikings also in the mix at least.

1981? Raiders are another veteran team, 11-5 wild card. Wound up not making the playoffs as veteran offense fell off big time. Probably a lot of Charger picks I suppose. No one picking 49ers/Bengals.

I agree with 1971. From what previews I looked at, the 49ers were also a favorite, and even some people probably liked Detroit.

In 1981, the Chargers and Falcons were the popular picks.

As for the 49ers and Bengals, I will start with the Schenley 1981 book. They were positive about both teams. They indicated that Cincy could be a surprise, and that the 49ers were a team on the upswing (even though the author said that they didn't have enough talent to win a SB yet).

As for the Game Plan preview, they had the Bengals finishing in last and the 49ers finishing in third. Also, they didn't believe that either DeBerg (who would be traded to Denver) or Montana would be the long-term answer for San Fran.

[ShinobiMusashi]

1999

Elway’s retirement made 3peat talk for DEN impossible

The Falcons seemed to have “yeah but” one hit wonder vibes

Safe to say the Rams were the longest of longshots

This was ESPN's predictions for 1999 in form of power rankings; https://a.espncdn.com/nfl/preview99/rankings.html

They had Jacksonville #1, Vikings #2, Jets #3, and still believed in Broncos(4) and Falcons(5). I think they had high hopes for Brian Griese. Rams were down at #25 and write up says they would be 5 spots higher if Trent Green didn't get hurt.

[JWL]

2002 is as good a choice as any year. I don't recall a clear cut favorite.

That summer I was in Las Vegas and did three $20 futures bets for the Eagles, Titans, and Jets to win the Super Bowl. Obviously, two of these were sure to be wrong. I was hoping one would be good. Considering the Jets played in the final Divisional Round game and the other two went to conference title games, I did choose three of the final five teams. Alas, none went to the Super Bowl. I haven't made such bets since.

I particularly liked the 10-year stretch of 1997-2006. Some big name quarterbacks were retiring (Marino, Elway) and some other ones were on their way up (P. Manning, Warner, Brees). The Cowboys and 49ers were down and some downtrodden teams were up. It seemed more wide open in those years as to who could win the Super Bowl each year than it had been before or since.

Could 2008 also fall into this range? Patriots had their amazing 2007 regular season before being beat by the Giants in the Super Bowl.

But in 2008, Brady was out for the year, and was it viewed as wide open then?

Giants had a really good regular season the following year themselves (top by my score% in fact), but I don’t think people would have viewed them as clear favorites after a Super Bowl upset win like that if you say the 01 Pats weren’t viewed as clear favorites either.

Brady was knocked out in Week 1. Going into the season they were a heavy favorite to play deep into the playoffs. Maybe after Week 1 not so much.

[JWL]

1999

Elway’s retirement made 3peat talk for DEN impossible

The Falcons seemed to have “yeah but” one hit wonder vibes

Safe to say the Rams were the longest of longshots

This was ESPN's predictions for 1999 in form of power rankings; https://a.espncdn.com/nfl/preview99/rankings.html

They had Jacksonville #1, Vikings #2, Jets #3, and still believed in Broncos(4) and Falcons(5). I think they had high hopes for Brian Griese. Rams were down at #25 and write up says they would be 5 spots higher if Trent Green didn't get hurt.

I picked the Rams to go 10-6 and make the playoffs in 1999. I am pretty sure I had mailed my picks to a friend. I wasn't on message boards back then.

I thought the Rams had accumulated a bunch of good players and were finally ready to be good again. Then Trent Green got injured and I thought, "Well, that pick looks bad now." But then Kurt Warner was great and that pick of mine looked nice.

[ChrisBabcock]

1999

Elway’s retirement made 3peat talk for DEN impossible

The Falcons seemed to have “yeah but” one hit wonder vibes

Safe to say the Rams were the longest of longshots

This was ESPN's predictions for 1999 in form of power rankings; https://a.espncdn.com/nfl/preview99/rankings.html

They had Jacksonville #1, Vikings #2, Jets #3, and still believed in Broncos(4) and Falcons(5). I think they had high hopes for Brian Griese. Rams were down at #25 and write up says they would be 5 spots higher if Trent Green didn't get hurt.

I picked the Rams to go 10-6 and make the playoffs in 1999. I am pretty sure I had mailed my picks to a friend. I wasn't on message boards back then.

I thought the Rams had accumulated a bunch of good players and were finally ready to be good again. Then Trent Green got injured and I thought, "Well, that pick looks bad now." But then Kurt Warner was great and that pick of mine looked nice.

Yeah. The Rams were absolutely going to improve in 1999 with either Green or Warner under center. Getting Faulk (in a steal of a trade) was huge.

[CSKreager]

1971? Colts were not the strongest champion and were aging. I can see Colts, Dolphins, Raiders, Chiefs getting support from AFC. Cowboys had lost so many times by that are they the favorite? Vikings also in the mix at least.

1981? Raiders are another veteran team, 11-5 wild card. Wound up not making the playoffs as veteran offense fell off big time. Probably a lot of Charger picks I suppose. No one picking 49ers/Bengals.

81 was basically the end of the OAK/PIT reign of terror that basically once the Dolphins were broken up by the WFL outside of 77 DAL the NFL basically revolved the Steelers and Raiders.

80 felt like it could be new but somehow that smoke and mirrors Raiders team found a way to steal the title with basically a team of golden oldies

[7DnBrnc53]

still believed in Broncos(4). I think they had high hopes for Brian Griese.

Maybe they believed that Griese would manage the game enough to win since they still had the same O-line and Terrell. Starting Griese was a big mistake, though. They still had the same cast minus Atwater (and they added Al Wilson and Dale Carter). Bubby Brister should have been the guy.

I don't think that they should have ever drafted Griese. In 2001, Jack Elway (a scout with the Broncos at the time) pounded the table for Drew Brees. That's when they should have gotten Elway's real successor.

80 felt like it could be new but somehow that smoke and mirrors Raiders team found a way to steal the title with basically a team of golden oldies

Steal is the operative word. I don't know how that team even came close to a Super Bowl.

[CSKreager]

80 felt like it could be new but somehow that smoke and mirrors Raiders team found a way to steal the title with basically a team of golden oldies

Steal is the operative word. I don't know how that team even came close to a Super Bowl.

The Raider mystique, that’s how