Sunday, November 26, 2006

One Man's NFL Power Rankings

We are 12 weeks into the NFL season, and I must admit I still pretty much don't have this NFL thing figured out (Raiders almost beating the Chargers? Titans scoring 24 unanswered points?). Of course, this only makes me all the more qualified to contribute a list of my NFL Power Rankings, or at least the Top 10 teams as I see them. But I will delay no longer.

1. Indianapolis Colts - Edgerrin James who? As The Edge wastes away down in Arizona, Joseph Addai is doing just fine, thank you very much. Despite Indy's seeming insistence on giving Dominic Rhodes carries, Addai managed to rush for a not-so-pedestrian 171 yards and 4 TD against the Eagles. And just for good measure he had 37 receiving yards. Yeah, he's pretty decent.

2. San Diego Chargers - Ok, so they squeaked by the Raiders. I'll give them a pass. They still have league MVP LaDainian Tomlinson joining talented Philip Rivers in the backfield. The defense ain't so shabby either. They sometimes lose focus against lesser teams, but now that it looks like Marty Ball has gone out the window, the Chargers are a force to be reckoned with.

3. Baltimore Ravens - All season long I've been ragging on "Air" McNair and saying that he's pretty much washed up, and while he's not his old self, he's still got something left in the tank. And with the Baltimore defense, that makes them very dangerous. However, if I were a Ravens fan, the biggest concern for me would be with the fact that Jamal Lewis is averaging only 3.5 YPC, and that could put a lot of pressure on McNair come playoff time.

4. New England Patriots - I have a hard time figuring the Pats out... by all accounts, you should lose when you turn the ball over 5 times, but I never really felt like they were not in control against Chicago. Maybe that's just because I've become such an unbashed Tom Brady lover. He moves around better in the pocket than anyone in the NFL.

5. Chicago Bears - The Bears will not win the Super Bowl with Rex Grossman as their quarterback (for the record, I wrote this even before I read The Sports Pulse!) I don't care how tantalizingly good he's looked at times this year, or how good the Bears defense is. Put a little pressure on Rex and he starts to rush throws, make bad decisions, force the ball, and throw off his back foot. His two best plays against New England were when he threw ducks off his back foot and then got bailed out by pass interference calls. He was awful today.

6. Denver Broncos - I fully endorse the move to Jay Cutler as starter and think it will benefit Denver. Plummer is ok when you have a great run game and a great defense, and at times the Broncos have had that. At other times the run game has become inconsistent, and they've tried to rely on Plummer. More often than not that has failed miserably.

7. Dallas Cowboys - I believe in a thing called Romo. I mean, obviously this has been beaten to death, but how good has he been? Poised, accurate, and fairly mobile. With him at QB I have the Cowboys just a smidgen behind Chicago, but with another week like this one I might have to reconsider that.

8. Kansas City Chiefs - With all due respect to LDT, I would probably take Larry Johnson as a runner over him. Tomlinson's more versatile all-around, but LJ is bigger and stronger as a runner. In the games that Johnson rushes for 100 yards, the Chiefs are 6-1. In the games that he fails to reach the century mark they are 1-3. Correlation does not always equal causation, but suffice to say Johnson is pretty important.

9. Seattle Seahawks - Seneca Wallace did a very nice job of keeping things afloat in Seattle while both Matt Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander out. As a result, the Seahawks still have the division lead and everything is looking rosy in Seattle. As long as they beat GB Monday night.

10. New Orleans Saints - Tomlinson is probably the MVP of the NFL so far, but Drew Brees is on the short list. He continues to be excellent for the Saints, and even has a shot at breaking Dan Marino's passing yards record for a single season. And the rest of the offensive weapons aren't so bad either. Deuce and Reggie Bush are a formidable duo, and the WR corps is getting better every week. This is an offense that is to be reckoned with.

So where did I go horribly wrong? What does your top 5 look like?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK so you think the Ravens are better than the Bears? I don't get it.

Grossman is somewhat still a rookie. Did you expect him to go into NE and dominate?

Brady made some dumb plays too. If the Bears give Grossman time--both in the pocker and on the field--he will be fine.

To say they can't win a SB with him is ridiculous. Of course they can. They have the best defense in the NFL. They don't need 40 points each week like the Colts.

twins15 said...

Yeah I like the Ravens a little more than the Bears... both defenses are superb, but I like the Ravens pass game a little more. Both have had trouble consistently running the ball, but I'd still take McNair over Grossman now.

My opinion so far on Grossman is not just based on the Patriots game... I know they have an excellent D... it's more so based on that almost every time I've seen Grossman play, teams that put pressure on him make him rush passes, force balls, and start to throw off his backfoot, which makes him loft the ball and become inaccurate. He's certainly looked excellent at times, but a lot of other times he's looked awful. I don't honestly think he can string 3 straight good games to win the Super Bowl right now. And to make matters worse the Bears have not really had consistency running the ball which keeps the pressure on Grossman.

At this point I really think they'd be better off with Griese... you watch the Bears more, what do you think?

Pacifist Viking said...

I think the Ravens are better than the Bears, too, if it matters. The Bears have been one of the big stories of the NFL season, while the Ravens have sort of snuck up on 9-2--but now they have the same record as the Bears in a harder conference.
The Ravens might be the most balanced team in the AFC. Predicting right now, I'd say Ravens-Cowboys in the Super Bowl.

Rick said...

Hi; nice blog!

My rankings are at http://olshak.blogspot.com - I am going to link to yours if you don't mind.

Best,

Rick

p.s. I am a fan of Boston teams (Patriots, Redsox, Bruins and Celtics) since 1975-76. Also a UCLA fan, though it has been hard to root against Pete Carroll at USC; my hatred of USC is going away!