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Josh McDaniels tops every bad team's Christmas list for a reason.

That reason? He understands Bill Belichick's overprepared mind. In McDaniels' world, in-game adjustments are already too late.

I learned that the hard way from my season under Belichick's top disciple in Denver. Quarterbacks like me were expected to know every play from the preceding week of practice. But in pure Belichick fashion, McDaniels would introduce our pregame meeting with 10-15 wrinkles we hadn't run in preparation. Keep in mind that this was less than a day before kickoff.

Some team is going to pay McDaniels a lot of money for that level of flexibility. As you'll see from my Week 15 picks, only the top teams have the cojones to tear everything down and start fresh on the fly. It’s what separates the playoff teams from the pack and what separates the Super Bowl contenders from the playoff teams.