State of the NFC After the Trade Deadline
The NFL Trade Deadline has come and passed. Did it change the state of the NFC? Did any teams get good enough to launch themselves back into the NFC race against the Eagles? Let’s explore that, and more, in this week’s State of the NFC.
16) Detroit Lions (1-6) (Last Week- 15)
The Lions have officially thrown in the towel. They shipped out TJ Hockenson. In their defense, this season is pretty much over. At 1-6, they are way out of the playoff race. But it is yet another wasted year. They have been rebuilding since they fired Jim Caldwell, and it gets worse for them every year. maybe they should have stuck with him. Their only hope now is that they get a top 2 pick, and get one of the great QBs coming out in this year’s draft. Because CJ Stroud could turn a franchise around.
15) Carolina Panthers (2-6) (Last Week- 16)
The Panthers ended up holding onto some of their key pieces some thought would be on the move. Which is for the best. Trading Christain McCaffrey and Robbie Anderson make sense because they are win-now-type players. But DJ Moore and Brian Burns are guys you can continue to build on. But they are still a bit hopeless for this year. Like the Lions, their hope now is that they get a top pick and a new franchise QB.
14) Chicago Bears (3-5) (Last Week- 13)
The Bears had a weird deadline. On one hand, they sold off much of their talent on defense. Which okay, stack draft picks, and shed salary, so you can rebuild. On the other, they gave up assets to get Chase Claypool. Fair enough, you needed to get help for Justin Fields. But getting a guy with one more year left is the curious part. Maybe it was the only deal they could make. But they run the risk of losing him after next year.
13) New Orleans Saints (3-5) (Last Week- 14)
The Saints did nothing at the trade deadline. They didn’t sell off players or acquire any picks. Their division is bad enough that they are still technically in it. But no one who has watched this team thinks they are competitive. They will probably still end up with a bad record even without trading away anything. This is a team in need of a rebuild, but stubbornly holding onto to the present. They showed that when they foolishly traded away next year’s pick. And they showed that again by doing nothing at the deadline.
12) Los Angeles Rams (3-4) (Last Week- 9)
It’s not a question anymore. They suck. This has been one of the worst offenses in the NFL. They are 28th in the NFL with 16.8 pts per game. And now Cooper Kupp may be hurt. You can almost put a nail in them. They now have two losses to their division rival the Niners. And that rival got better at the deadline bringing in an elite RB. That may be a foolish move for their future but certainly helps them right now. The Rams meanwhile did not get better, when they needed to more than anyone.
11) Arizona Cardinals (3-5) (Last Week- 11)
The Cardinals got their deadline move out of the way early by acquiring Robbie Anderson, though he has yet to make an impact. But their bigger acquisition was getting DeAndre Hopkins back from suspension, who has had a big impact. You see all over the NFL the impact elite WRs have. We in Philly see it with AJ Brown. The Cardinals’ offense looks better. But they still do not seem to be a good enough team. And the clock continues to tick on Kliff Kingsbury’s time in Arizona.
10) Washington Commanders (4-4) (Last Week- 12)
Uh oh. Two wins in a row without Wentz. Is it happening again? Heinicke is not exactly playing great, but they won again. Coincidence, or is there something about Wentz that hurts his teams apart from his play? Now they are 4-2 vs teams outside of the NFC East. Maybe they are not quite as bad as we thought.
9) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-5) (Last Week- 8)
Yes, it was versus the Chiefs. But when you have lost to so many bad teams, you don’t get a pass for losing to a good one. This team is bad. It is getting harder and harder to envision Tom Brady turning this team around, no matter how great his career has been. The Bucs may be in for a long season. And they did nothing to mitigate those issues at the deadline. The only positive for them is that the NFC South sucks.
8) Green Bay Packers (3-5) (Last Week- 7)
See everything I said about the Bucs, except swap Chiefs for Bills, Brady for Rodgers, and obviously Bucs for the Packers. They are in the same situation. Two teams, with all-time great qbs, playing awful Football and on losing streaks, with some bad losses to bad teams in there. But in their case, the NFC North does not suck, and they continue to fall further behind the Vikings.
7) Atlanta Falcons (4-4) (Last Week- 10)
The Falcons almost Falconed. But a missed extra pt and a missed FG in OT bailed them out, and they managed to survive with a win. It was ugly, but it has been ugly all year for them. And that ugly win has them at the top of the NFC South. The Bucs are 3-5, the Saints 3-5, and the Panthers 2-6. Can they hold onto it? Who knows? But who had this Falcons team in 1st place 8 weeks in? Not many people whose phone number doesn’t start with 404.
6) San Francisco 49ers (4-4) (Last Week- 6)
When the 49ers play the Rams, they look like an elite team. Too bad they are 2-4 vs everyone else. They do have one win in the bank over the Seahawks, which helps. But their only other win is vs the Panthers, who are terrible. Otherwise, they looked awful vs the Broncos, the Cardinals, the Chiefs, and the Bears. The addition of Christain McCaffrey will likely be enough to carry them to the postseason despite the middling record. But I don’t know if it is enough to make them true contenders.
5) New York Giants (6-2) (Last Week- 2)
They were going to lose at some point. The Giants have played really well, but also have had to rely on some dramatic wins. It came down to the last moments against the Packers, Ravens, and Jaguars. A team can only pull off so many miracles. They lost to a Seattle Seahawks team having a similar magical start to their season. But this team still has been impressive. One loss doesn’t change that.
4) Seattle Seahawks (5-3) (Last Week- 5)
Geno Smith is one of the best stories of the season. A guy who came into the NFL with a chip on his shoulder after sitting there on day 1 and going unpicked. Being the last guy live at the draft the next day. His career got off to such a poor start. But now, he has finally found a home and is playing pretty damn well. He has this Seahawks team in contention for the NFC West. With the Rams and Cardinals a mess, and the 49ers struggling to beat anyone other than the Rams, they can really pull this off.
3) Dallas Cowboys (6-2) (Last Week- 4)
The offense finally clicked. The defense took a week off though. They have played well enough to get the benefit of the doubt, but it does continue a troubling sign for their rush defense. They are now giving up 135 yards a game. The Giants, Eagles, and Bears ran all over them. Granted those are 3 very good running teams anyway, but they are going to have to compete with two of those teams more times this year. They did add Jonathan Hankins, which could help, but the Eagles didn’t beat them by running at the DTs, they beat them by running at Micah Parsons.
2) Minnesota Vikings (6-1) (Last Week-3)
Vikings continue to beat everyone not named the Eagles. Are they the most impressive of opponents? Not really. Are they making those games too close? For sure. But no other team besides the Eagles has less than 2 losses. And if your only loss is to the best team in the NFC, that is a pretty good thing. Now they have added TJ Hockenson to the fold at the deadline. A lot of people are being a bit disrespectful to this team. They are not great, but they are better than most teams.
1) Philadelphia Eagles (7-0) (Last Week- 1)
Still undefeated. 7 straight wins. 6 straight games where the defense gave up less than 20 pts. Now 10 total interceptions, and 6 forced fumbles. 26 sacks. And they just added Robert Quinn. This team does nearly everything well. The only exception is special teams. But if you were concerned about the lack of passing touchdowns, Jalen Hurts threw 4 beautiful passing touchdowns this week. 3 to AJ Brown, who is well on his way to the best season from an Eagles WR ever. And that is no exaggeration. He is on track to break the single-season record for receiving yards.
