Trent Dilfer

ESPN’s Trent Dilfer joined the Dennis & Callahan show Wednesday morning to discuss NFL news. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page.

Dilfer offered his analysis of the Patriots. “I don’t think they’re a great team,” he said. “I don’t think anyone’s saying they’re a great team. But I don’t know if you have to be right now. They have a great quarterback, they have great systems, they have a great perspective week in and week out. I think they’re the best team when it comes letting go of what happened last week or last play and moving on to the next week and the next play, the next task at hand, having a clean focus on what it takes to win that down or that game. And they play that way. They don’t panic. They’re just kind of going to do their thing. They’re going to wait for you to implode. And the golden rule in this league is if you don’t beat yourself, you really can sit around and wait for someone else to beat themselves for you.”

With the Patriots and Jets tied atop the AFC at 8-2, one of the East powerhouses appears destined to the playoffs as a wild card and start on the road. Dilfer, who quarterbacked the wild-card Ravens to the 2001 Super Bowl, isn’t concerned about that. “I don’t see it being a necessity that you win the division and get home field throughout,” he said. “It’s obviously a bonus and something you’d like to do. But I think both the Patriots and the Jets are teams that can go on the road.

“I think the Jets probably have a little bit better blueprint to go on the road and win, because they don’t put quite the burden on their quarterback that the Patriots do, and then crowd noise becomes an issue. And defensively they can come up with more key third-down stops, red zone stops in a hostile environment. So, they’re probably built a little more to play on the road, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be more successful. Once again, you take a [Bill] Belichick and [Tom] Brady team, you put them on the road, they’re not going to blink. That’s the big thing. They’re not going to blink. They’re not going to panic. They’ve been there, done that. So, I’m not from the school that you have to win the division.”

Asked for his favorites to go deep in the playoffs this season, Dilfer responded: “Start with the New York Jets. I think they’re the least-flawed team in the National Football League. They do have tremendous upside. They have a lot of bells and whistles and flashy names. But more than anything else, they have the least amount of flaws.

“Their quarterback is playing excellent. When you get past the top five quarterbacks in this league — Brady, [Drew] Brees, [Peyton] Manning, [Philip] Rivers, throw either [Michael] Vick or [Aaron] Rodgers in there — then you’ve got to start saying [Mark] Sanchez is playing as good as that next five.”

Dilfer said the Patriots are his No. 2 AFC pick, while in the NFC he likes the Eagles and Saints. “I don’t know how you defend Michael Vick right now,” he said of the Philadelphia quarterback.

As for a team on the rise, Dilfer said it’s San Diego. “There’s nobody in this league that wants to see the Chargers,” he said. “Their history in November and December, their quarterback is playing the best quarterback in the NFL. … Philip Rivers is playing the best quarterback in the National Football League. He’s the most dominant player right now. They’re getting healthy again. They’re a veteran group. They’re a mentally tough group. They don’t flinch when they go on the road. I have no idea, and I don’t think anyone does, why they start so poorly each year, but they get hot when it matters.

“Next week’s game in Indy is going to be a real challenge for them. If they can get through that, they’ll probably run away with the division, and there’s not going to be anybody in the NFL that wants to face the Chargers.”

As for the Colts, Dilfer said Manning can only carry them so far. “I’ve always said Peyton could win the MVP every year, and he kind of does,” Dilfer said. “But for about the last seven years, he really could win the MVP every year, not because he plays better than most, but because he has the greatest burden every week. That’s just not a very good football team. That’s a 4-12 to 6-10 football team without Peyton Manning. And he carries such a tremendous burden. … You’re just asking too much, to absorb too many injuries, too much dysfunction, too much tactical flaws, schematically flaws. You just ask him to do so much, that at the end of the day I don’t think he can continue to do this year after year after year.”