NFL Blitz bracket: Do Patriots, Packers, Falcons, or Steelers have the most exciting offense?

Only four teams remain in our NFL Blitz bracket to decide which team has the most exciting quarterback, running back, wide receiver, and tight end combination: the New England Patriots, Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons, and Pittsburgh Steelers. The Patriots are so deep their B-squad would have been a top 16 team. A Jimmy Garoppolo-Chris Hogan-Malcolm Mitchell (or Danny Amendola)-Dion Lewis-Dwayne Allen lineup would have been good enough to ride the right matchup to a first-round victory.

That seems unfair on several levels.

They’ll ride the pine as the A-team Pats (Tom Brady-Brandin Cooks-Julian Edelman-James White-Rob Gronkowski) inch closer to another title. New England dispatched a serious challenge from Oakland in the Elite Eight to earn its spot in the Final Four. It’s joined by the rest of the top seeds to create a thoroughly predictable semifinal.

We’ve gotten tantalizingly close to it happening, but the football gods have deprived us of the Patriots-Packers Super Bowl we deserve. The Blitz Bracket gets it done by pairing the game’s two best offenses up in the semifinals.

Green Bay can match New England’s athleticism at wideout, and counters the Pats’ Super Bowl record-setting receiving tailback with one of its own. While Rob Gronkowski is an upgrade over former teammate Martellus Bennett, his solid performance in one injury-plagued year under Bill Belichick shows the two aren’t so different.

That leaves Tom Brady vs. Aaron Rodgers as the deal breaker. Brady is turnover averse and accurate, while Rodgers may be the greatest big-play passer of his generation. Their merits on the actual gridiron can be argued, but NFL Blitz is designed for excitement to the point its most popular play is just called “Da Bomb.” In that scenario, the advantage goes to the guy who can throw a football 70 yards in the air while almost clipping the roof at Ford Field.

Winner: Packers.

The Falcons have a pretty effective counterpunch to Pittsburgh’s All-Pro pairing of Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell. Julio Jones is one of the only receivers in the league who can claim to be on Brown’s level, and Devonta Freeman has quickly developed into an All-Pro tailback as part of a dangerous platoon with Tevin Coleman — who, unfortunately for Atlanta, doesn’t make the cut for his team’s five-man roster.

They also have the edge under center with 2016 NFL MVP Matt Ryan, whose big-play ability outpaces Ben Roethlisberger. But the Mohamed Sanu-Austin Hooper combination isn’t enough of an advantage to make up for the Brown-Bell gap, making this a 51-49 percent edge for the AFC runners-up. Each team has a pair of all-world scoring threats on the roster, but Pittsburgh has just a little bit more in the tank, denying Atlanta of a title once more.

Winner: Steelers.

Well, the 2017 Blitz Bracket led us to a bizarro Super Bowl showdown between the Packers and Steelers in the finals. Pittsburgh’s big three faces a Green Bay team with major matchup advantages at both WR2 and tight end.

But in a game where speed is at a premium, the biggest advantage might just be the quarterback who can drop a ball into a mailbox from 70 yards away. Rodgers is mobile enough to be useful and has the arm strength to connect on any play you dial up. With a bevy of targets and no way to cover them all, the Packers can’t be stopped.

Winner: Packers.

There it is. The full NFL Blitz bracket. While the final four may not have been surprising, the overall champion was. The Packers have been an offense-first team in the past, but it was never more evident than the final half of the 2016 season, when Rodgers started playing like he’d unlocked a cheat code and Green Bay unveiled a rich new tradition of adding a new cornerback to the injured list every Tuesday.

The club only got stronger this offseason after adding Martellus Bennett, who should give Rodgers another dynamic playmaker while clearing a path for the still-developing Ty Montgomery to shine. That doesn’t address the Packers’ concerns on the defensive end, but it was enough to carry them to a title in 2017 -- at least based on an 18-year-old arcade game.