Believe

SO, YOU'RE READY FOR SOME PLAYOFF FOOTBALL? With few exceptions, NFL fans across the country are emphatically optimistic about their teams' postseason possibilities. And who can blame them? Over the last three seasons 24 of the league's 32 teams have advanced to the playoffs. Three of the four NFC division champs in 2005 (the Bears, Bucs and Giants) had finished last or tied for last in their respective divisions in '04.

There's great hope for teams like ... the Titans. They went 4-12 a year ago, and they're in the AFC South with the powerhouse Colts, yet at the team's training camp in Clarksville, Tenn., their fans looked upon rookie quarterback Vince Young as their instant salvation. Radio play-by-play man Mike Keith, fresh from hawking the Titans on the rubber-chicken circuit in four states, said, "The fans think we're making the playoffs. Pittsburgh barely got in last year and won the Super Bowl, so [the fans'] attitude is, Why not us?"

The Lions are coming off a 5-11 season. They imported a new coach, disciplinarian Rod Marinelli, and a Steady Eddie quarterback, Jon Kitna. Suddenly, their fans are acting as though Barry Sanders just put on pads. "This is the first time in a long time I've felt we're going to the playoffs," said an airline agent at Detroit Metro airport. "This is finally the year for us."

And so it went this summer during SI's annual swing through all 32 camps--from Saints fans in Jackson, Miss., certain that Drew Brees and Reggie Bush will work magic together, to a Cowboys fan on the sideline in Oxnard, Calif., who said, "Watch out for us in January. Parcells finally has a defense like he had with the Giants 20 years ago."

You can't imagine what it was like at the camps of teams that had good reason to be insanely upbeat. The Panthers, in their 12th summer training at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., broke the overall camp attendance record set last year, despite having five fewer practices than in '05. The 22 rating in the Charlotte area for the Aug. 24 telecast of the game against Miami was the highest for a preseason game in club history.

The Super Bowl--champion Steelers drew 24,000 to a night practice in Latrobe, Pa., an hour east of Pittsburgh, so overwhelming the bucolic St. Vincent College campus that people had to park as far as two miles away. "We've never seen enthusiasm like this in the 40 years we've had camp here," said Steelers owner Dan Rooney. The excitement carried over to a bake sale: Terrible Towel cookies were selling for $2.

TWO GENERATIONS ago commissioner Pete Rozelle convinced America that ... On any given Sunday ... a bad club was capable of beating a good one. With teams more evenly matched today, putting a wild card within reach of all but the truly downtrodden, maybe new commissioner Roger Goodell's catchphrase should be ... In any given January ...

Some might laugh at the blind faith of Titans fans--even general manager Floyd Reese says Tennessee is probably a year away from playoff contention--but they might also have laughed at the Falcons before the start of the 1998 season; that is, until Atlanta morphed from the 7-9 also-ran of '97 into a 14-2 Super Bowl team. Dallas was 5-11 three years in a row beginning in 2000 then jumped to 10-6 and the playoffs in '03. And the Bears, Bucs and Giants, 16-32 combined and out of the playoffs in '04, were 33-15 and playing beyond Jan. 1 last season.

Here are three factors that contribute to a team's rapid rise: 1) a smart front office that uses the free-agent market and the salary cap to its advantage; 2) a quality coaching staff that can quickly school its players in a new system; and 3) a willingness to take risks. In 1999 the Rams had a quarterback crisis after Trent Green was injured in the third preseason game; admit it--you thought Dick Vermeil was nuts for handing the job to Kurt Warner. And where would the Patriots be if Bill Belichick hadn't chosen Tom Brady over a healthy Drew Bledsoe before Super Bowl XXXVI?

The Titans could well be this year's quick-turnaround act (complete scouting report, page 132). They swallowed all their nasty salary-cap medicine last year: $26 million in contracts for players no longer on the team. Following the insightful recommendations of director of pro personnel Al Smith, and using $17 million in cap room in the 2006 off-season, Tennessee signed four proven veterans at need positions-- center Kevin Mawae, wideout David Givens, outside linebacker David Thornton and strong safety Chris Hope--then drafted Young to replace Steve McNair. On Monday, for quarterback insurance, the club signed veteran long-ball thrower Kerry Collins.