The State of the NFC After Week 7- Supposedly Elite Teams Look Awful
Coming into this season, the elite teams in the NFC were thought to be the Rams, Packers, Bucs, and maybe the 49ers. And now 7 weeks in, only the Eagles have played well enough among the NFC teams to be considered an elite team. Meanwhile, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady look mortal. The Rams look all out of sorts. And the 49ers are stuck with Jimmy Garoppolo again. Which is very good if you are an Eagles fan. All 4 of those teams now find themselves with records of .500 or below. By now we know the Eagles are the best team in the NFC. But how do the other 15 teams stack up? Here is the state of the NFC after week 7.
Tier 7 (Hopeless)
17) My spelling and Grammar
When I saw some Facebook comments under this article last week taking digs at the spelling and grammar in my article, I figured it was the typical trolls. Nitpicking misplaced commas or incredibly minor mistakes. But then I rechecked the article. And man, it looks like I had a stroke when writing the intro paragraph. So this week my spelling and grammar comes in last place, deservedly so. That one is on me.
16) Carolina Panthers(2-5)(Last Week- 16)
Really impressive win. But, this is still going to be a very bad team the rest of the way. They fired their coach and traded away two of their best players. There could be more trades to come. This feels like the type of win a team pulls together when everyone is doubting them. But it is highly unlikely to last. PJ Walker is not an NFL starting QB. And after the trades they made, there is not much in the way of talent left around him.
15) Detroit Lions (1-5) (Last Week- 13)
It feels like things are getting worse for them. In the first 4 games, they scored 140 points. In the last 2, they have scored 6. Without D’Andre Swift they are far more pedestrian. What looked like a resurgent season for Jared Goff, has quickly fallen back to Earth. Now they are 1-5 and look worse than they did even under Matt Patricia. It all seemed so promising for them. Lions fans were genuinely excited for once, especially coming off Hard Knocks. But reality has a way of punching you in the face just when you begin to feel hope.
14) New Orleans Saints (2-5) (Last Week- 12)
Things could get ugly for this Saints team. If they had a healthy Jamies Winston they could maybe be semi-competitive. But they don’t. Instead, they have Andy Dalton. Andy has been around the NFL for a while. By now we all are well aware of who he is, and it is not very good. And he went back to his turnover-happy ways vs the Cardinals. The Cardinals of all teams. They have no first-round pick either. Thank you for that by the way. At this point, it might be worth cutting their losses, and selling off some assets, so they can have some chance to rebuild in this following off-season.
13) Chicago Bears (3-4) (Last Week- 15)
Justin Fields showed why he was considered a top NFL prospect this past week. And that only further serves to show just how poor of a job they did helping him out this year. Even elite QBs still need elite weapons. Look at Aaron Rodgers. If a seasoned MVP can look like that because of a lack of weapons, imagine what it will do to a second-year QB still developing. We have seen early struggles ruin talented QBs confidence in the past. I just hope the same doesn’t happen to Fields. He deserves better. Even though they won this week, this is still a bad team. Just one with a potential star QB.
Tier 6 (Close To Falling Apart)
12) Washington Commanders (3-4) (Last Week- 14)
Man, Carson Wentz has to be thinking not again. He gets hurt, the backup comes in, and his team wins. Things were not going well for Wentz the last few weeks. But I don’t think his not being there was the reason they won this week. Taylor Heinicke didn’t come in and fix things. Them beating the Packers has more to do with the Packers than it does with the Commanders. And despite the win, this is still not a very good team. They are playing in the toughest division in the league, and still have 5 more games in it. They kept their heads above water for now, but the tide is coming in fast.
11) Arizona Cardinals (3-4) (Last Week- 11)
It is not a coincidence they won once they added a talented WR back to the mix. Having a top-end WR is invaluable to having a good offense. But while Deandre Hopkins did help, it didn’t fix everything. Outside of two pick-sixes, this offense was still mediocre. Kliff Kingsbury put off his demise for a bit, but he is still very much on the hot seat. Especially after he and his Qb got into it. If that relationship sours, the Cardinals are more invested in Kyler Murray than they are in Kliff.
Tier 5 (Better Than We Thought)
10) Atlanta Falcons (3-4) (Last Week- 9)
For the first time all season, the Falcons did not cover. This is not a good team. But they have least shown more fight than the teams behind them. But it is hard to move past how little there is here to build on. Kyle Pitts continues to fail to live up to the lofty hype placed on him coming out. But is that his fault, or Marcus Mariota’s? To me despite them exceeding expectations thus far, it is time to see what Desmond Ridder can do. Because Mariota is not it.
Tier 4 (Elite Teams That Suck Right Now)
9) Los Angeles Rams (3-3) (Last Week- 8)
The Rams got a week off, and man did they need it. Their loss in week 1 was ugly but understandable. The Bills are a very talented and very hungry team. Like the 2004 Eagles, they came oh so close to a Superbowl multiple times in a row, just to miss out. So them blowing out the Rams in week 1 checks out. But the losses to the Cowboys and Niners were bad. This offense looks awful. The O Line cant protect Matthew Stafford, and Stafford can’t protect the ball. They may end up in 3rd place in a mediocre division if they don’t figure things out.
8) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-4) (Last Week- 5)
Now, what is the excuse for this offense looking so bad? Earlier it was that Tom Brady didn’t have Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. But he got them both back, and they still only put up 3 points on an awful Panthers team. They are now 1-4 in their last 5 games. They have been held under 20pts in 4 of 7 games, and under 25 in 6 of 7. This is a bad offense. Tom Brady being Tom Brady only gives you so much of a leash before we have to admit it. He is 45 years old, and going through personal turmoil. Maybe this is just the book on Tom Brady ends. It is like a Stephen King book. It had a great beginning and middle. But the ending sucks.
7) Green Bay Packers (3-4) (Last Week- 6)
The Packers are officially a bad team. This makes 3 losses in a row. Losing to scrappy Giants and Jets teams can maybe be overlooked. But losing to this Commanders team? That is bad. Two is a bad stretch. Three is a pattern. Aaron Rodgers looks mortal for the first time in a long time. He is like Thor without his hammer. They took away his prized weapon. And now they are 2.5 games back from the Vikings and have 1 loss to them already. They have the Bills coming up next, and the Cowboys and Eagles not long after. Things could get very ugly for the Pack. They are supposed to be elite. And right now you can’t even say they are good.
6) San Francisco 49ers (3-4) (Last Week- 7)
How does a team lose yet still improve in the rankings? Well because the Bucs and Packers had even worse losses. Christain McCaffery’s debut did not go so well for the 49ers. But to be fair they were playing the Chiefs, who can make a lot of teams look bad. Still, we are used to this with the Niners by now. They are very talented, except for the position that matters most. Jimmy G is an ok QB at best. The fact they are 3-4 shows that. And the fact the Niners were so desperate to improve at QB does as well. A RB, no matter how talented, is not going to change that. They will never be among the elite of the NFL until they have a better QB.
Tier 3- Somehow Good?
5) Seattle Seahawks (4-3) (Last Week- 10)
Cue the Paul Rudd “Hey look at us, how did we get here?” meme. Who would have had the Seahawks as one of the only winning teams in the NFC 7 weeks in? Not me. I billed them as the worst team in the NFC and maybe the NFL before the season. But then Geno Smith decided to have the best year of his career. What a story. A guy who has struggled everywhere he went in the NFL finally finds a home. And with how bad Denver looks, perhaps Russell Wilson was the bad energy in that locker room, and now his leaving boosted their morale. Whatever it is, they are not great, but in this NFC they are better than most.
Tier 2- Definitely Good, But Not Elite
4) Dallas Cowboys (5-2) (Last Week- 4)
The return of Dak Prescott was not as grand as many in Dallas would have hoped. But they still won. It is reasonable to give them some time to figure things out with Dak back in. Still, playing against an awful Lions defense, you would have expected more. The offense with Dak looked awful in the season opener, and mediocre on Sunday with him back in. Too small of a sample size to draw definite conclusions from, but the play of this offense is something to watch closely. Still, they have a great defense, which will keep them in most games.
3) Minnesota Vikings (5-1) (Last Week- 2)
The Vikings did not play this week. But with how impressive the Giants have been, the Vikings got bumped down. But still, they are 1 of 5 NFC teams with a winning record. One of 4 with five wins. Also one of 3 with only 1 loss. Their only loss is to the best team in the NFC and maybe the league. Are they an elite team? No. But they are a good team, and that is a rare thing in the NFC this year.
2) New York Giants (6-1) (Last Week- 3)
They just keep winning. It took a late comeback again. But at a certain point, it stops being luck and becomes a pattern. They have a legit good young defense, a star RB, and while Daniel Jones is still no star, he is playing well enough to help his team win. Brian Daboll is easily the coach of the year so far. Can they keep it up? Who knows. They have mostly the same easy schedule the Eagles have. Many of the toughest games on their schedule are behind them. I think it is past time to start taking this scrappy team seriously. Because as of now, they have a very good chance to make the playoffs.
Tier 1 (Elite)
1) Philadelphia Eagles (6-0)
The Eagles did not play this week, but they still had a pretty good week. The teams who are supposed to be the elite of the NFC along with them, continue to lose. The Bucs, Packers, and 49ers continue to dig themselves a hole. The Rams didn’t play, but they are still in the hole they already dug for themselves. All they did was take a break from digging for one week. At this point, there are only 3 teams who are competitive with them. The Cowboys, Giants, and Vikings. And they already have wins over two of them. Not to mention they have one of the easiest schedules remaining in the NFL. They only have 4 games left vs teams with winning records. 3 are in division games, the other is the Titans. The Eagles have every chance to snag the top seed and a bye week. And they are the only NFC team that you can call elite right now.