Another week of the NFL has come and gone, and everything still makes no sense.
Random teams thrive, unexpected teams collapse, and there's a whole lot of action in between.
Thankfully, we Skinny Post We're here to sort it all out for you guys. We're Michael Peterson and RJ Ochoa. Now we're going to get into some fun stuff.
Let's rank the remaining unbeaten teams in the NFL from best to worst: Could the hot start be down to coincidence?
RJ:
There's really no need to panic, but a 3-0 start is significant and all these teams should be proud. If I had to rank them, and I probably will, I'd rank them like this:
1. Kansas City Chiefs (Of course.)
2. Buffalo Bills (Secretly good)
3. Minnesota Vikings (hey hey!)
4. Seattle Seahawks (NFC West winner?)
5. Pittsburgh Steelers (Let's be realistic.)
Obviously the Chiefs are in their own stratosphere, so it's foolhardy to compare anyone to them, but the biggest takeaway from this experiment is that I think the Vikings are really good. Let's give Kevin O'Connell the Coach of the Year award now and fast forward to next spring's toxic debate about whether Sam Darnold should remain the starter.
Michael:
It's only been three weeks and I'm already a bit drunk on this season.
The Vikings are 3-0. 49ers and TexansYou see, these two teams were unanimously recognized as top 10, maybe even top 5, teams in the NFL this year.
And with a porous offense backed by an elite defense, coach Mike Tomlin led the Steelers to their first three-game winning streak since 2020. I still don't know what magic this guy has been blessed with all these years, but I still can't believe it.
Of course, the Chiefs, Bills and, to a lesser extent, Seahawks have also benefited from relatively easy schedules thus far, which is good for them, but I'm not entirely convinced.
Now, the rankings. Here's how these teams are ranked:
1.) Kansas City Chiefs
2.) Minnesota Vikings
3.) Buffalo Bills
4.) Seattle Seahawks
5.) Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers are the luckiest undefeated team. I credit them with beating the Falcons, who I still rate highly. Then they beat the Broncos and rookie Bo Nix. Chargers On Sunday, they finally got a win after losing four first-round draft picks through the first 35 minutes of regulation, all of whom play the biggest and most important positions on the football field (quarterback, edge rusher and two offensive tackles).
If they continue to do that against the best teams, I will take back these words, but I don't believe it at this point yet.
So let's rank the teams that are 0-3. Are there any that still have hope?
Michael:
I love topics like this because sometimes you think you have enough teams to make a respectable list, only to discover that you actually only have three teams, and two of them are in the same division.
But for the sake of this topic:
1.) Bengals
2.) Jaguar
3.) Titans
I don't know what's going on with Will Revis, but he likes to do wacky things with the football so he's ended up being a meme. Looks like Derrick Henry is gone too. Free Jeffrey Simmons! He's too good a defensive tackle to be on a team that doesn't win games. Why not trade him to a team that wears powder blue uniforms?
Huh? Who said no?
Okay, let's go Jaguars.
So what's going on with this team? They have some really good players, and they're 0-3. Trevor Lawrence is a capable quarterback. Travis Etienne was considered one of the best young backs in the league as recently as last year, and Josh Allen Hines is getting paid like a top pass rusher. So what's going on?
Well, I'm a Chargers fan so I know how it feels when a team doesn't live up to the expectations of its fans, and while it seems like a tough start to this season, I believe the Jaguars will bounce back from it as the year progresses.
Finally, it's really weird that the Bengals are 0-3 with both Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase. Like the Jaguars, they have a great edge rusher in Trey Hendrickson. It feels like they have the ingredients to win consistently, but something just isn't working. I can understand losing to the Chiefs, but what if they lose to the Commanders? Now I'm really worried.
RJ:
Ultimately, I think this is pretty standard.
1. Cincinnati Bengals
2. Jacksonville Jaguars
2. Tennessee Titans
The Bengals and Jaguars both have franchise quarterbacks and are consistently ahead of the game, while I have no idea what Will Revis does or why he has at least one awkward, clumsy moment every week.
I still rate the Houston Texans highly, but let's not forget that they're trailing the Jaguars and Titans when we talk about Houston's dominance in a few months. That's my main request.
Do you agree with the trend that the NFL is currently moving back to being a running league?
RJ:
I definitely believe this a little bit, as the season has also gotten a lot deeper (though not quite as deep).
The pass is down and the rush is up. Amazingly, Miami Dolphins He had the fewest rushing yards above expectation, so it's possible he noticed this trend a little too early and was plagued by injuries when he really got going.
The debate over the two high safeties has blown up on the internet in the last week, and I won't pretend to be able to predict the trends the NFL will face, but this has been a quarterback's league for a long time, and I expect things to stabilize to some degree at some point.
For now… I'll run.
Michael:
Running. Bucks. It matters!
At least, that's the case for the first three weeks of the season.
Personally, I love it. But what about my fantasy team? Sure, I'd like more than 10-12 points from the quarterback, but at least the football… feels fresh. It might sound silly, but I don't care, because an old trend is just making a comeback. Long live the run game!
Are we not giving Matt LaFleur enough credit for what the Packers have done?
Michael:
I saw the tweet on Sunday, Packers The offensive captions before the Titans game listed how the Packers had acquired players: Malik Willis had obviously just been acquired in a trade, the offensive tackles were both Day 3 picks and the running back was former undrafted free agent Emmanuel Wilson.
That's pretty impressive! If they can win games with a roster that they spend very little on, their cap situation will be healthy. I think Matt LaFleur deserves a lot more credit than he has. Their skill position group is still one of the youngest in the NFL. Their receivers aren't high draft picks either.
LaFleur has done great things with what he has, and I am incredibly impressed every time I think about how good the Packers are on offense.
It's his work that has helped the Packers remain competitive in a division that includes the Lions and the on-trend Vikings.
RJ:
It's been amazing to see how the Packers have played since Jordan Love's injury.
Given the caliber of Indianapolis and Tennessee, is the competition in question? Probably.
But it's very hard to win without a franchise quarterback, so I'm not ruling anything out, and while we're in the middle of a season where the NFC is in a weird spot, I'm starting to feel more and more confident that Matt LaFleur's Packers are going to win.
