1. New England Patriots (5-0; Last Week- No. 1)
The Patriots continue to look nearly unstoppable.
New England is averaging an incredible 36.0 points per game (No.1 in the NFL), while Tom Brady has thrown 14 touchdown passes, just one interception, and has a 118.4 QB rating. That QB rating leads the NFL, and is better than any QB rating Brady has ever had in his decorated career. Yes, better than his 2007 season (117.2 QB rating), in which he threw 50 touchdown passes compared to just eight interceptions.
2. Green Bay Packers (6-0; Last Week- No. 2)
The Packers have their flaws, but it’s hard to imagine a better year in the NFC for that to be the case.
They have a Bye this week, and face a difficult stretch of their schedule after that: at Broncos, at Panthers, vs Lions, at Vikings. If the Packers can win at least three of those games (and especially if the Panthers are one of those games), it’s hard to see a scenario where they’re not the top seed in the NFC (provided Aaron Rodgers stays healthy, of course).
3. Cincinnati Bengals (6-0; Last Week- No. 3)
Nobody can be happier with their first six weeks of the season than the Cincinnati Bengals.
Cincinnati enters their Bye Week undefeated and with Andy Dalton looking like a completely new quarterback this season. We showed Tom Brady’s amazing stats earlier, and what’s even more amazing is that Dalton has almost matched him: 14 touchdowns, two interceptions, and a 116.1 QB rating for the Bengals quarterback. Compare that to last season, when Dalton threw 19 touchdowns, 17 interceptions, and had an 83.5 QB rating.
Crazy improvement from Dalton, and it has his Bengals looking like a very real Super Bowl contender.
4. Carolina Panthers (5-0; Last Week- No. 7)
Incredible fourth-quarter comeback win in Seattle. We’ve questioned whether or not they have enough weapons on offense to keep it up all year, but that game showed they can find ways to win regardless. It also says a lot about how good Cam Newton is.
5. Denver Broncos (6-0; Last Week- No. 4)
It’s the same stuff weekly to this point, as we keep pointing out: The Broncos keep winning, but thanks to a tremendous defense, and in spite of terrible play from Peyton Manning (as well as a terrible rushing attack).
Peyton ranks 33rd of 34 qualified quarterbacks in QB rating at 72.5, and has thrown an NFL-leading interceptions.
Peyton’s TD/INT/QB Rating line by year as a Bronco…
2012: 37/11/105.8
2013: 55/10/115.1
2014: 39/15/101.5
2015: 7/10/72.5
That is alarming. Is it time to send Peyton to the bench and give Brock Osweiler a chance at quarterback? It seems like a crazy idea when the team is 6-0 (and when we’re talking about PEYTON MANNING), but again, the reasons they have that record have nothing to do with Manning.
6. New York Jets (4-1; Last Week- No. 9)
The Jets having the NFL’s best defense (both in yards per game and points per game) to this point under new head coach Todd Bowles isn’t a huge surprise, but that they lead the NFL in rushing yards per game (146.0) is most certainly eye-opening.
27-year-old running back Chris Ivory has been an undervalued in most of his career with the Saints and Jets, but is getting the chance to be the clear feature back for the Jets this year, and is going off.
7. Pittsburgh Steelers (4-2; Last Week- No. 8)
Without Ben Roethlisberger, they went on the road to beat the Chargers on Monday Night Football in Week 5, and beat a very good Cardinals team 25-13 in Week 6.
When they get Ben back (perhaps this week), they have the firepower and balance on offense to put up points against any team in any setting. Really, one of the very few AFC teams that would probably have a realistic chance to go into New England and win in January.
8. Arizona Cardinals (4-2; Last Week- No. 5)
Disappointing loss for the Cardinals in Week 6, but the Seahawks’ disastrous start still has this rock-solid Arizona squad sitting atop the NFC West standings.
9. Atlanta Falcons (5-1; Last Week- No. 6)
Their first loss was a very ugly one in New Orleans, but it’s hard to take Thursday Night Football results seriously, and the Superdome in primetime is a very difficult environment to play in (especially on a short week).
The Falcons have a pretty easy stretch of games coming up (starting with the Titans and Buccaneers), so they should be able to get back on track quickly.
10. Minnesota Vikings (3-2; Last Week- No. 11)
3-2, and their next four games are against teams that are all currently below .500. The Vikings still seem to be overlooked when people talk NFC playoff contenders, but they won’t be if they can take advantage of this favorable stretch of games.
11. Indianapolis Colts (3-3; Last Week- No. 14)
Andrew Luck looked much more like the Andrew Luck we expect to see, albeit in a losing effort to the Patriots. The Colts are going to win several games if he keeps that up.
But that special teams play the Colts ran… what even?
12. Philadelphia Eagles (3-3; Last Week- No. 17)
DeMarco Murray over the last two games: 42 carries, 192 yards. Both games were Eagles wins.
DeMarco Murray in his previous three games: 29 carries, 47 yards. All three games were Eagles losses.
13. Seattle Seahawks (2-4; Last Week- No. 10)
Another game blown in the fourth quarter. Over the last three games, the Seahawks are being outscored 40-3 in the fourth quarter, and they have blown a fourth-quarter lead in all of their losses.
14. San Diego Chargers (2-4; Last Week- No. 16)
Yeah it was a loss, and they’re now 2-4, but that was a really impressive performance at Lambeau.
The Chargers are a better team than their record would indicate, and the wins should start coming soon. They will likely be favored in all of their next five games (vs Oakland, at Baltimore, vs Chicago, vs Kansas City, at Jacksonville).
15. St. Louis Rams (2-3; Last Week- No. 15)
A pretty ideal Bye Week for the Rams with the Cardinals and Seahawks both losing. They have a great chance to get to 4-3 with home games against the Browns and 49ers up next.
16. New York Giants (3-3; Last Week- No. 13)
A dumpster fire of a performance on Monday night in Philadelphia.
17. Buffalo Bills (3-3; Last Week- No. 12)
The Bills seem exactly what their record says they are, a .500 team. They need to take care of business against the Jaguars on Sunday in London.
18. New Orleans Saints (2-4; Last Week- No. 26; Biggest Riser)
Great win over a Falcons team that came into the game undefeated.
Drew Brees doesn’t appear to be on the decline just yet. The 36-year-old has a 96.5 QB rating and 68.4 completion percentage on the season.
19. Dallas Cowboys (2-3; Last Week- No. 18)
Matt Cassel gets his turn at quarterback after Brandon Weeden couldn’t get the job done. Who knows if that makes much of a positive difference for the Cowboys, but it will certainly help for Cassel if Dez Bryant could return this week.
20. Oakland Raiders (2-3; Last Week- No. 20)
The Raiders come out of their Bye Week with a game at their AFC West rival Chargers, and then three straight games against teams that currently have winning records (the Jets, Steelers, and Vikings). We’ll get a pretty good idea of where this young team stands after those games.
21. Miami Dolphins (2-3; Last Week- No. 28)
That looked much more like the Dolphins team we expected to see entering the season.
Is it possible that Joe Philbin was that big of a problem, and that new head coach Dan Campbell can get the Dolphins playing like the team they’re capable of being?
22. San Francisco 49ers (2-4; Last Week- No. 28)
Colin Kaepernick has played much better football over the last two weeks, throwing for four touchdowns and no interceptions in that span, with a 62.9 completion percentage.
23. Cleveland Browns (2-4; Last Week- No. 22)
Two straight overtime losses really hurt, with the most recent one being a chance to take down the undefeated Broncos.
24. Chicago Bears (2-4; Last Week- No. 19)
The new coaching staff has been a great thing for the Bears, but they were largely to blame for the team’s Week 6 loss. Two of the complaints about John Fox’s in-game coaching have always been about clock management and being too conservative, and both of those issues showed up in this loss. Adam Gase’s play-calling was also too conservative late in the game, and perhaps that was influenced by Fox. Whatever the case, the Bears had no business losing that game and blew an opportunity to be feeling really good about themselves as a surprise .500 team.
25. Washington Redskins (2-4; Last Week- No. 21)
Jay Gruden is very much in denial about Kirk Cousins.
26. Houston Texans (2-4; Last Week- No. 31)
It would be fun to watch DeAndre Hopkins play with a good quarterback. Who knows if that will ever happen in Houston. To be fair, Brian Hoyer played really well in Week 6… but it was against the Jaguars, so it’s hard to take too much away from that either.
27. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-3: Last Week- No. 27)
The Bucs come off the Bye with a chance to get to 3-3 if they can beat the very beatable Redskins. Coming into the season, who would’ve seen this team having a shot at .500 entering November?
28. Detroit Lions (1-5; Last Week- No. 32)
Hey, a win!
29. Kansas City Chiefs (1-5; Last Week- No. 24)
This offense could be as bad as any in the NFL without Jamaal Charles.
30. Baltimore Ravens (1-5; Last Week- No. 23; Biggest Faller)
You kept waiting for this team to maybe snap out of it, given their history, the big-name players, John Harbaugh, etc. But they’re just not good. They’re likely to fall to 1-6 with a Monday night game at Arizona in Week 7.
31. Tennessee Titans (1-4; Last Week- No. 25)
Four straight losses, and all vs teams without a winning record.
Now they may be without Marcus Mariota for at least a week, after their rookie quarterback suffered a sprained MCL in the Titans’ Week 6 loss to the Dolphins. They’re not going anywhere this year, so they’d be wise to wait until Mariota has fully recovered from that injury before they even think about playing him.
32. Jacksonville Jaguars (1-5; Last Week- No. 30)
Just feels like the same old Jaguars, doesn’t it? There are promising pieces on offense (Blake Bortles, T.J. Yeldon, Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns, Julius Thomas, etc), but it’s still pretty shaky. They don’t even have a rushing touchdown through six games.
There are only two teams remaining on the Jaguars’ schedule that currently have winning records (the Jets and Falcons), but this team is going to have an extremely difficult time beating anybody if they don’t make improvements quickly.
