James Palmer

It's a little bit, and I love that you made the analogy of the East because that's kind of the way Brady and Belichick used to handle it.

And I started seeing so many resembling factors from Andy and Patrick where it was like, well, we'll figure these things out as September goes.

And we'll work on them and we'll get better as a team.

You always saw that from Spags' defenses in a lot of these years, right, where it was like the start wasn't outstanding.

But by the time December rolled around, they were finding their gear and they were finding a way to really take it to the level that they wanted it to be heading into the postseason.

The problem with a more competitive division is you're not granted that luxury sometimes.

And then the things, you know, in November really mattered more.

You don't want to get behind the eight ball in December.

I think it is an advantage to have the weaker division, in all honesty, because the team scheduling, they always play the top teams in the AFC anyways.

And so they're always getting battle tests in some capacity.

But I've covered this league for a long time, and I've been in all the locker rooms throughout the course of December.

If you're standing in a locker room in Baltimore –

It's different, man.

I mean, if it's in a locker room in Cincinnati, it's different.

In Pittsburgh, you see guys, they're banged up.

It's difficult because of how black and blue that division is.

So I don't know if I see, honestly, to be completely frank, a whole lot of advantages there.

to having a much more competitive division because they're also competing with the rest of the top teams in the AFC regularly, the way the schedule makers make it.

So I just think their December has been a luxury.

I think you just have to change the way you go about your business a little bit.