NFL Power Rankings: Week 4

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have started the season 3-1 after a big win last night vs the Colts. It did’nt come easy, but a win is a win. Where does that put them in my power rankings? What about the Colts who have now started the season 0-4.  Has anyone been able to unseat the Green Bay Packers? Are the Patriots still the A.F.C. front runners?

32.  The Miami Dolphins (Previously Kansas City Chiefs)

The Dolphins are not the 31st least talented team in the league, but this team can not win Sparano as their head coach. I’m 100 percent convinced that failing to jettison Sparano is going to cost this team. In the summer after the draft, I ranked the Dolphins as the worst team in the league much to the dismay of many Dolphins fans precisely because of the coaching situation. Bad coaching situations rarely ever work out. Football is too much of a motivational sport.  The Dolphins have played their way back into the worst spot. This is contingent on Chad Henne being hurt. Henne’s not good, but he’s better than Matt Moore. Yikes. The Dolphins are in a for a very, very long season.

31.  The Minnesota Vikings ( Previously Miami Dolphins)

I’ve always admired and respected Donovan Mcnabb and even though he’s not the biggest reason the Vikings are playing so awful (0-4). He’s one of them. The Vikings will start playing Christian Ponder after a nother loss or two. The Vikings need more help on their offensive line. They need another wide receiver and they need to learn how to play a full game. They are one of the best teams in the league in the first half, worst team in the league in the second half.

30.  Colts (Previously the Indianapolis Colts)

Their defense looked really good vs the Pittsburgh Steelers, but then on Sunday we saw just how bad the Steelers offense really is.  Then the defense showed up vs the Buccaneers as well. The biggest question for the Colts is, if they continue to lose will they draft a QB if they are picking high? Right now I think the odds on favorite is that they will go an Offensive linemen (no defensive linemen worth this pick that fits the Colts system). I think they should consider Justin Blackmon or Ashlon Jeffrey. Their WR don’t look so good without Peyton throwing them the ball. Pierre Garcon’s big game notwithstanding (he’s too inconsistent and drops too many passes). At least the defense has realized the offense is terrible and is stepping it up. There might still be some hope for the Colts season if they defense continues to play at a high level, but they won’t win a lot of games.

29. Kansas City Chiefs (Previously the Minnesota Vikings)

They are actually looking better and better every week, but they still suck. That’s actually a bad thing for them. If they win four or five more games they might lose out on the two very good quarterback prospects, which means Matt Cassel will remain their QB for the foreseeable future, which means unless they get another ridiculously soft schedule like they did last year. They could be in trouble. So if you’re a Chiefs fan root hard for some more losses. it looked more promising being the 32nd best team in the league than it does now being the 4th best team in the league.

28. Denver Broncos (previously Seattle Seahawks)

Ouch. I’m glad I didn’t have to watch this game. Brutal. The Broncos finally put up some points, but that’s only because the Packers defense looks really, really poor early in this season. This team has a lot of work to do. I wrote the other day about whether or not it was time to start Tim Tebow. In Denver. That’s a question that will get asked more and more over the next few weeks if the Broncos continue to lose. What do you gain by starting Orton if you’re not going to make the playoffs? The Broncos are a young team, and in many respects are talented, but they still need a lot of players on offense and defense.

27.  Seattle Seahawks (previously Cincinnati Bengals)

The only promising thing about the Seahawks right now is Sydney Rice. Everything else on that team looks poor. They somehow managed to keep up with the Falcons today. The Seahawks have a ridiculous amount of roster turnover over the past two years, but still have so many holes. It’s very good. They should count their lucky stars that they play in a division that only takes one good off-season to be top dogs in the division.

26.  St. Louis Rams (Previously Denver Broncos)

I know, I know they have looked terrible and they should be further down the list, but this is my argument for them staying higher. They are the only team so far who’s been ranked that has a chance of making a real impact on this season. They have played a pretty tough schedule up to this point and will soon get to play a lot of division games where they have a chance to make an impact. But I can’t continue to give them the benefit of the doubt anymore. They have to play much better than they are right now. If they weren’t in the N.F.C West and were instead playing in the N.F.C. North they would probably be ranked 32nd overall.

25.  Jacksonville Jaguars  (previously St. Louis Rams)

The Jaguars are brutal. They aren’t talented enough to win pretty, but they might not even be talented enough to win much at all. They are ahead of some of these other teams because they will get to beat the Colts twice this year . This is probably the last week they will be any higher than 25th. The Saints made the Jaguars look inept. Gabbert is going to see a heavy dose of blitzes over the next few weeks. Unfortuantely, for Gabbert he doesn’t have a Steve Smith to bail him out like Newton has in Carolina.

24.  Carolina Panthers (previously the Jaguars)

The Panthers have found their franchise quarterback. He had another three touchdowns this week and nearly 400 yards passing. The Panthers defensive line is pretty bad though. They have some young talent there, but they could really use a dominant force (a Julius Peppers) along the defensive line and some more help in the secondary. Sunday, they looked even worse because they were missing two starting linebackers. This team is gelling, they have a lot of their young players locked up to long term deals. Now they just need one more good draft and free agent period to compete for the playoffs. But they have to be ranked this low if they are going to keep losing games.

23.   Cleveland Browns (previously Rams)

The Browns have won two games this year, but have looked really bad in the two they have lost. They are transitioning to a 43 defense and a whole new offensive system. They are lacking play makers on both sides of the ball. But at least they seem to have their franchise QB already with Colt McCoy. McCoy has been much better in the N.F.L. than I thought he would be already. Good for him

22. Cincinnati Bengals (previously Arizona Cardinals)

The Bengals get a big jump because of what I saw out of Andy Dalton. I already knew that their defensive front seven was the most under-appreciated front seven in all of football. It’s really much better than average. But Dalton showed me a lot by having that huge second half after being down early in the game. He showed some grit with some big running plays and made a good amount of night throws. Good, good game by the Bengals today. They won’ twin a lot of games this year, but they are the most talented bad team in the league.

21.  Philadelphia Eagles (Previously Carolina Panthers)

I still expect them to compete for a playoff spot when all is said and done, But right now in this moment, they are a bad football team. They struggle finding balance. Vick is turning the ball over a lot (at least one interception in every game this year and like the last five or six games last year) and they can’t stop the run. They let the San Fran 49ers come back on them. The 49ers aren’t a terrible team, but they are a pretty terrible passing offense. Brutal performance by the Eagles. A loss next week to the Bills could be crippling to their season.

20. Dallas Cowboys (previously Chicago Bears)

First half superstars this week and then the second half happened. This team was suppose to be different under Jason Garrett, but it still looks like they keep shooting themselves in the foot to me. They are still losing games they should win. They are still too talented to play this bad. It might not be the coach (cough* Jerry Jones *cough)

19.  Arizona Cardinals (Previously Cleveland Browns)

The Cardinals looked better than I thought they would on defense today as they really did well in limiting the Giants run game. However their passing defense was pretty bad. They let the Giants go right up the field on them twice in the waning minutes. The Cardinals passing game and offense as a whole also looked pretty bad vs the Giants. Don’t let the 27 points fool you. The Giants gift wrapped two scores inside their own 20 yard lines with fumbles. The problem with the Cardinals offense was it was only two players making plays. Fitzgerald and Beanie Wells. They need a lot more offensive depth.

18. Chicago Bears (Previously Atlanta Falcons)

Worst coaching moves in the league all involve punting to Devin Hester (or DeSean Jackson).  The Bears offense was pretty bad on Sunday, but they were bailed out as they scored two return touchdowns (Defensive one and Hesters touchdown) to beat the upstart Carolina Panthers. What you don’t like is how many passing yards this Bears defense has been given up every week. I thought they might finally slow down Cam Newton a bit, but they were unable to.

17. Oakland Raiders (previously Philadelphia Eagles)

It’s a shame that Al Davis can’t find a franchise quarterback because if he could, people wouldn’t be talking about how Crazy Al is out of touch. This Raiders team is loaded with talent. They physically beat up their Opponents. They need more help in the secondary, but their front seven is good. Their running game is excellent. And their pass blocking is not bad either. Jason Campbell is the definition of an average quarterback. That’s not a huge knock. It’s just a fact. He’s average. If he was above average I’d really consider putting the Raiders at 13 or 14 (top playoff contenders).

16. New York Jets (previously Washington Redskins)

You can make a fair argument that they deserve to be higher, but what game have they played well in? They’ve won two games, but this team has lost its offensive identity. They can’t run the ball anymore and Sanchez was a turnover machine tonight. Their defense played really well vs the Ravens passing offense, but I put as much of that on Flacco’s poor performance as I do on the Jets defense. There were a lot of plays to be made and Flacco missed a lot of throws. If this team can’t figure out how to run the ball, their defense won’t be as good and they won’t be playing into the playoffs deep this year.

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