Kansas City resurrected their tough D.
Suddenly Denver is a violent defense....
Buffalo last year snuck up as a legitimate defense, and now they are even better?
St. Louis is wait and see as far as consistency goes. They sometimes look like the 2000 Ravens, and then the week after they are terrible. But I like what I see so far.
Baltimore looks a lot like us.....big names drop off, but overall the results and attitude are similar.
Pittsburgh it looks like they have a strong LB corps but the DL and DBs are not up to snuff.......we'll see how accurate that statement is in a few days.
Seattle and Arizona I figure to be strong as usual, just a question of how tough.
Carolina I didn't get to see the first game.......not sure how good they are. They came across as a one year wonder and not a whole lot last year?
Jets are one of those teams that quietly have a strong defense, year in and year out. Figure with the return of Revis, and that new DL they drafted along with picking up Bowles, they'll be tough again this year. Five turnovers this weekend..........a fluke or forced?
Miami another quiet defensive team, although not quite the Jets level IMHO.
Detroit should be another strong year, even without Suh.
Cincinnati, same thing.......another top defense in the AFC.
Anyone I'm missing?
We'll update this thread as the season moves along and we see who the real contenders are.
I'm also focusing on teams not named the Niners........after game 1 I think the 49ers stack up very well compared to many of these teams on this list.