NFL Power Rankings Week 16: Pittsburgh Steelers Lose a Big Game, 49ers Pushing Towards a Playoff Bye
What a crazy week of football.There are teams out there who just have no desire to make the playoffs. The Titans had a great opportunity to make a final push for the playoffs, but fell flat against the Colts. not to be outdone the New York Giants got steamrolled by the Washington Redskins at home. The New York Jets got their doors blown off by the Philadelphia Eagles. Who wants to make the playoffs? We’ll find out these next two weeks.
#32. Indianapolis Colts-
The Colts are terrible. Peyton Manning for M.V.P. Jim Caldwell might have saved his job by winning one game this season, which is just funny to me. If you win one game you had a better season than if you lose all 16 games? They’re both still terrible and I don’t think Caldwell is that great of a coach anyway.
#31 St. Louis Rams-
The Only thing the Rams are playing for is to be slightly better than the Minnesota Vikings, the problem is the Vikings look competitive most weeks, while the Rams look forever away. Sam Bradford has had a brutal second year mired by injuries. The Rams need to know if Bradford is the answer next year and the best way to do that is to get better up front and at the WR position. Give him a chance. Will it be with Spags seems less likely every week.
#30 Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings, surprisingly only have two wins. When you watch them play you think they are better than a two win team, but they make too many mistakes to win some of these tight games. What sucks for Jared Allen is that he is having a career year, a defensive N.F.L. Player of the year, kind of season, but isn’t even in that conversation.
Christian Ponder looks like he’s a guy you can rely on to win a few games for you and manage most, but that’s not a knock. The Vikings might actually be better off losing out and hoping the Rams win one to get Franchise LT Matt Kalil in the N.F.L. draft. Picking third is going to be a tough position for them without the kind of value you’re looking for at third overall if you don’t need a quarterback
#29 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Buccaneers are just lifeless. They have lost 8 games in a row and look like they are years away from competing. What happened to Josh Freeman?
#28 Cleveland Browns
From a draft perspective, the Browns are one of the most interesting story-lines to follow in the N.F.L. draft. They have two first round picks, one which will be a top ten pick. And a questionable quarterback situation, do they take one of the very talented Quarterback at the top of this draft? Stay tuned.
#27 Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jaguars have come a live a little bit here since the Del rio firing, but this is a team that is short on overall talent and they have a lot of work to do to be competitive moving forward against the young and talented Texans and the Titans, two teams on the rise in the A.F.C. South.
#26 Buffalo Bills
Extremely disappointing end of the season for the Buffalo Bills, but not one that should be a surprise. Straight-up this Bills team has no depth and they can’t sustain injuries. What you are excited about as a Bills fan is that for the first time at full strength the Bills can out-talent some N.F.L. teams and it’s been awhile since you could say that. I still don’t think they have a franchise quarterback though.
#25 Carolina Panthers
The Panthers are a really young exciting team with a franchise quarterback.
#24 Washington Redskins
The Redskins have really played hard during the final stretch, and Grosssman has shown that he’s a viable backup quarterback in this league because he’s the kind of a guy who can come in and actually win some games, which is not what you can say about most backup quarterbacks in this league.
#23 Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins is another team that is playing hard down the stretch and another quarterback that has established himself as a viable N.F.L. quarterback. And how about Reggie Bush? Good for him. He’s caught a lot of flack since coming into the league, but he has had a good season. He’s 27 yards away from a 1,000 yards and is averaging 5 yards per carry (obviously the 200 yard game inflates those stats a bit) but a solid year for Reggie Bush.
#22 Oakland Raiders
Three losses in a row when in a position took take control of the division and a playoff spot. Carson Palmer is great one week terrible next week, but this team just continues to beat itself. The Raiders have enough talent to make a run at the palyoffs if they could ever figure out how to get out of their own way.
#21 Chicago Bears
And now the new favorite person in Chicago is Jay Cutler! This team is absolutely awful without Jay Cutler, there won’t be any questions about him next year. And think about thisCutler was doing this with THAT Bears OL and THAT Bears Wide receiver corps.
#20 Kansas City Chiefs
Wow! I think i wrote recently the Chiefs have given up. Well that’s why I’m an idiot!
#19 Tennessee Titans
I love the Titans next year. Jake Locker has looked really impressive in limited duty. He’s been in the game in big moments and it’s hasn’t been too big for him. His talent level is obviously plus. The Titans had, early on, the best draft in the league this year with contributions from Akeem Ayers, Colin McCarthy, Karl Klung, and Jamie Harper. That doesn’t even mention their first round, potential franchise quarterback Jake Locker. Bright future in Tennessee.
#18 Arizona Cardinals
One of the hottest teams in the league. Who knew the Cardinals had their franchise Quarterback on the roster already in John Skeleton (I kid, I kid), but seriously the Cardinals are 6-1 in their last 7 games with impressive wins against teams like the Eagles, Cowboys, and Ravens. You can’t ask from much more, most of those wins where with Skeleton at the helm. If they started two weeks earlier they could be locking up a playoff spot this week.
#17 New York Giants
I’m a Giants fan and my mother told me if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.