Except Flacco in 2012 but yeah, I know that stat. The great players/teams eat in the NFL for long periods of time, this is true. That's just the nature of any sport/competition - the absolute best will rise to the top and stay there for a while barring catastrophic injury. But even if your franchise is great for decades, you can still be knocked out by a flash in the pan or a team on the rise. Even the P*ts went a full decade between their two different runs of SB's without winning a title because they kept getting knocked out by teams who were better that DAY, but not better as overall franchises.
And even given that you generally know who the 2 or 3 best teams will be leading up to any given season, whatever other predictions you make are going to be total crap shoots. Every single year, there are players and teams who rise and fall dramatically in the NFL. In the NBA, you have a pretty clear picture before any games are even played who is going to the best, then the next best, then the next best after that. And barring catastrophic injury, it is incredibly rare that any team or player dramatically over- or under-performs their preseason expectations
