American Football: Domination

The 2018 regular season came to a close, and the contenders were ready.

But first—an aside: the "battle for the bottom."

Last season, franchise quarterback Carson Palmer announced his retirement, sending the Arizona Cardinals into a full rebuild.

At the time, plenty of voices dismissed Palmer as nothing special—"just a mediocre quarterback," they said, "a guy who only dragged the Cardinals to the playoffs a few times and always flopped when it mattered." Snide remarks like "Good riddance," "Forget about the Hall of Fame," and "Perfect timing for the Cardinals to restart" echoed everywhere.

It didn't take long, though, for people to realize just how brutal rebuilding could be—and just how valuable that so-called "mediocre" quarterback had really been.

The Cardinals stumbled to a 3–13 record, finishing dead last, far ahead in the race for the league's cellar. No suspense at all.

And it wasn't just Arizona. Other franchises were drowning too.

The San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders, and New York Jets all had their own disasters, sinking to 4–12 in embarrassment.

The Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Giants, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers weren't much better, ending up at 5–11. And in some ways, their collapse was even more shocking—

Before the season, Jacksonville and Tampa Bay were seen as playoff contenders. Yet they crashed out completely. The Giants, still reeling from last year's quarterback fiasco, had only themselves to blame. They never found clarity, and this season they just sank further.

So which was the bigger shock? The Jaguars, tumbling from an AFC Championship berth straight to the basement? Or the Cardinals and Giants, whose rapid collapse blew past everyone's worst expectations?

Either way, every franchise had its own mess to deal with.

With the regular season done, their offseasons had already begun early. GMs and executives now faced a scramble:

Who shined this year? Which rosters might hold a fire sale? Which coaches could be saviors? Should they patch holes or tear it all down? How should they balance free agency and the draft?

Some answers would emerge only in the crucible of the playoffs.

The spotlight shifted—

The NFC

The NFC had always been chaos, a battlefield of constant upheaval. New faces, new orders, every single year.

2018 was no exception. The fight went to the final week, and every survivor staggered out of a bloodbath.

No. 1 seed: NFC South champs, the New Orleans Saints, 13–3.

No. 2 seed: NFC West champs, the Los Angeles Rams, 13–3.

No. 3 seed: NFC North champs, the Chicago Bears, 12–4.

No. 4 seed: NFC East champs, the Dallas Cowboys, 10–6.

Wild cards:

No. 5 seed: NFC West runner-up, the Seattle Seahawks, 10–6.

No. 6 seed: NFC East runner-up, the Philadelphia Eagles, 9–7.

The records told the story: brutal parity. Aside from the Saints and Rams matching records at the top, everyone else was separated by a single win.

Why? Because even the teams that missed out had played strong. The line between contenders and pretenders blurred. Every team that made it had clawed through, beaten up and bloodied, just to stagger across the finish.

That was the NFC. Always was.

Each playoff squad carried a story.

The Rams, dominant early, got ambushed in the second half. Sean Payton and Drew Brees's seasoned Saints seized the top seed like thieves snatching prey from a lion's jaws.

The Rams' late cracks cost them home-field throughout the playoffs—a small but significant wound that cast a shadow over their title run. Still, nitpicking aside, both the Saints and Rams stood as the heavyweight favorites.

But the others were killers too.

Seattle survived the Rams' division stranglehold. Dallas and Philly crawled out of the East like survivors of a warzone. Every one of them was dangerous.

And the most fascinating? The Eagles.

Last season's Super Bowl champions had delivered a legendary clash, unforgettable to fans. This offseason, they faced a rare problem: Carson Wentz and Nick Foles. What to do with two quarterbacks?

They chose balance. They re-signed Foles, keeping him as Wentz's backup.

A win-win move.

When asked why, Foles gave many reasons. But one stood out:

"My battles with Lance aren't finished. We still have our fight, and I look forward to meeting him at the summit again."

That decision ended up saving Philadelphia's season.

When Wentz returned from injury, his magic was gone. The MVP-caliber spark of last year had vanished, and the Eagles slumped to 5–6. Disappointing.

Then came the shift. Foles stepped in, worked his magic again, and rattled off three straight wins to drag Philly back from the edge, slipping them into the playoffs at 9–7.

Ugly record? Sure. But in the postseason, it didn't matter. Once you were in, everything reset. A new story began.

The legend of "Saint Nick" lived on—one of the most talked-about tales of the season.

And yet, for all his heroics, the NFC's crown jewel story belonged elsewhere—

Chicago.

The Bears.

The year's Cinderella. The year's dark horse. The year's shocker.

Chicago was to the NFC what Kansas City had been last season: the unexpected powerhouse.

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Powerstones?

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