Steelers: Loss of best player for much of the year = "barring major injury"
Dolphins: finished just about where expected
Falcons: Given injuries to Ryan and Turner, finished about where expected
Panthers: Delhomme.
Giants: A disappointment
Jets: Finished about where expected
Bengals: Finished generally better than expected, although improvement had been predicted.
Broncos: Finished about where expected
Bears: Finished about where expected
Seahawks: Disappointment
Colts: Finished about where expected
Eagles: Were 11-5, so I don't see what your point is here. They finished as expected
Patriots: Finished about where expected. Last game was a throwaway, and this board had them around 11-5.
So, one could definitely point to the Giants and Seahawks. To a lesser extent, one can point to the Bengals and Carolina, but the Bengals were expected to be better, and people had a big question mark in Carolina because of how poorly Delhomme had finished up the season before.
As I noted, most teams play near expectations.
First, injuries are a big part of the game. So you can't dismiss them. Odds are a large number of teams will have injuries to key players that knock them out for significant time or a rash of injuries that will affect their win loss records.
I disagree with your assessment with a lot of the teams. Many people said that the Broncos might surprise a lot of people and get 8-9 wins. People can't be surprised if they were expecting it. After the Cutler and Marshall things, most had them winning 3-4 games.
As for the Pats and Eagles, both were disapointments compare to where the consensus had them. Both were supposed to be elite teams in their conference and both ended up on the low end of playoff teams. They both underachieved based on their expectations. Both were supposed to be strong Super Bowl contenders. Neither were.
No one had the Jets going to the AFC Championship Game. They may have backed into the playoff, but overachieved based on expectations in the playoffs.
Both Miami was supposed to be 10-11 win team and contending for a division title. Few had them as 7 wins team.
I will conceed the Falcons.
The Colts were a preseason favorite to be the biggest team on the decline, but some still had them in the Super Bowl. For arguments sake, I will conceed them.
As for the Bengals, no one expected them to win the AFC North and most had them around 8-8.
As for the Panthers, they were a division favorite with Delhomme.