NFL Power Poll: Giants Top Thanksgiving Week List

MJ KasprzakNov 26, 2008

The following are my rankings for NFL teams. The top three are elite, and the rest of page one has the contenders, while the rest are pretenders or worse:

New York Giants: As recently as 14 months ago, the dumbest non-firing other than Matt Millen appeared to be Tom Coughlin, and now that seems like the dumbest assessment ever.
Tennessee Titans: One loss does not drop this team below all the rest who have at least three, no matter how bad it was.
Pittsburgh Steelers: Imagine how good they'd be if they were healthy.
New York Jets: They are trending up, but remember they have played one of the league's easiest schedules, and they lost to the Raiders and Chargers.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: They balance on both sides of the ball.
Carolina Panthers: See above.
Indianapolis Colts: Another team trending up with a great quarterback.
Dallas Cowboys: I still think they will lose two more games and miss the playoffs.
Washington "Offensively Named Ones": Watch for them to sneak ahead of Dallas because their schedule will allow them to finish with a better division record.
Arizona Cardinals: They are benefiting from a weak schedule, but with enough firepower to beat anyone.
New England Patriots: The real Matt Cassell is somewhere between his last two games and his first four, but shut down Randy Moss and any good team beats them.
Baltimore Ravens: A great defense and a capable offense, but QB Joe Flacco will be over-matched if they make the playoffs.
Atlanta Falcons: The fact that they will almost certainly miss the playoffs does not detract from what is the most surprising success story of the 2008 season.
New Orleans Saints: They are the Cardinals-light, with maybe even a better offense, but their defense makes them a pretender.
Philadelphia Eagles: Donovan McNabb is auditioning at this point, and Reid better update his resume.
Miami Dolphins: Does anyone know another job where you can be publicly insubordinate like Joey Porter was and face no consequences? The man is a cancer, no matter how good he is on the field.
Minnesota Vikings: Their slim playoff hopes were revived when the Saints exposed the Packers.
Chicago Bears: How bad must the Bears have been to score three points against the defense New Orleans racked up 44 of their 51 points against?
Buffalo Bills: Dr. Jekyll in the first six weeks, Mr. Run-and-Hide in the next four; last week they played a JV team.
San Diego Chargers: Should be 5-6 and in the lead for the division, but they are running out of time.
Denver Broncos: Remember when so many of you thought this team was good, and I kept saying they were MOST OVERRATED TEAM IN FOOTBALL?
Green Bay Packers: Injuries—NOT THE 10TH-RANKED PASSER IN THE LEAGUE, RODGERS-BASHERS!!!—have ruined their season.
Cleveland Browns: Of all the teams that are out of the playoff chase, they are by far the best on paper.
Houston Texans: Again, they beat the teams they are supposed to, but have just faced a tough schedule they are not good enough to overcome.
Jacksonville Jaguars: They haven't had the number of injuries the Packers and Seahawks have, but they had them all to their offensive line. It's just more than they could endure.
San Francisco 49ers: They are a better team under Mike Singletary, despite his unorthodox approach.
Oakland Raiders: Their defensive backfield is actually better without a talented but volatile DeAngelo Hall—that should be a lesson to teams about character guys.
Seattle Seahawks: Mike Holmgren will coach somewhere else because he can't go out on a season like this.
St. Louis Rams: Their two wins obviously were flukes.
Cincinnati Bengals: Their two-game non-losing streak is a thing of the past. They will be lucky to beat Kansas City in the season finale.
Kansas City Chiefs: They are better since making the change at quarterback, and it's unimaginable they ever could have been worse than they are now.
Detroit Lions: If they don't go 0-16, the coach that loses to them will lose his job.