Talk:Super Bowl Champions/@comment-25672991-20141116055048/@comment-4363767-20141116064802

Drew Brees is 35. That is up there for quarterbacks, but not ancient. Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are both pushing 38, for example, and they may very well be in the league for a couple more years.

Johnny Manziel is a rookie. He has not proven himself as another other than that. He needs more time to develop both as a quarterback and as the leader of the Browns football team, assuming he stays in Cleveland. Besides, dare I reiterate that Manziel is on the Cleveland Browns, a team recently (and perhaps historically) known for playing poorly. They have never appeared in a Super Bowl, they last appeared in the playoffs in 2002 (losing the wildcard game), and have not even had a winning season since 2006 in which they went 10-6 and lost the division in tiebreakers to Pittsburgh. Cleveland has a lot of work to do before they can reach the big stage, and winning on the big stage is another question entirely.

On top of all of this, the Saints are struggling in a losing division, and the Browns are leading a division in which every team is two games above .500. It is likely that the Saints win the NFC South simply because they are the least-sputtering team in a collapsing division. I predict they finish 9-7 or 8-8 with the no. 4 seed in the playoffs. As for the Browns? It's very likely that Pittsburgh or Baltimore take the division, with the other grabbing a wildcard. Whether or not Cleveland can withstand this test will show if they deserve to play in the postseason and whether or not they can win there.

One last thing -- there is no feasible way in which Cleveland can get past Tom Brady's Patriots or Peyton Manning's Broncos this year to reach Super Bowl XLIX. The Ravens did it in 2012, yes, but they had the right pieces and right players during the right time, none of which are things the 2014 Browns seem to possess. Also, one can argue that both the Patriots and Broncos have improved since then. The Saints, however, would face opponents just as difficult in the postseason -- they will likely have to go toe-to-toe with Arizona, Philadelphia, Dallas, or Green Bay, teams they can beat so long as 1) they have homefield advantage (which, as a no. 4 seed, will likely happen in only the wildcard game), and 2) the other four teams do not improve or get hot in the postseason.

In my opinion, at this point in the season the Saints are more likely to reach the Super Bowl than the Browns, but not by much. Both teams would have to take incredible strides to do so.

TL;DR: the Browns are rebuilding themselves while they lead a winning division in a conference dominated by the Pats and Broncos, the Saints are falling apart while they lead a losing division in a conference dominated by uncertainty.

UPDATE: This comment was first posted on Saturday, November 15. As of this edit on November 16, 9:40 PM EST, week 11 of the NFL is almost over. The Browns have dropped to 6-4 (previously 6-3, today losing to the Texans) and swing down to fourth in the AFC North, while the Saints fall to 4-6 (previously 4-5, today losing to Cincinnati) and slip to second in the NFC North. I rest my case.