Quarter Pole Power Poll
With most teams having played 4 games at this point, lets see how the league stacks up according to Kazzy. My general rule of thumb is to rank teams based on who I think would win the most games were any two teams on the list to play a 10 game home-and-home series.
- Denver: They look dominant in all phases of the game right now.
- Seattle: Elite defense, elite team.
- New Orleans: Elite offense, elite team.
- New England: I think their luck runs out when they play better teams, but they’ll have more weapons by then.
- Kansas City: I might have been wrong… Reid and Smith are a great match for one another and the defense looks stout.
- Chicago: Inconsistent but possibly the best team in the NFC North.
- Detroit: I know they beat the team directly ahead of them, but I can’t help but feel they are too top heavy.
- San Francisco: Injuries and inconstant play knock down the preseason favorite, but I think they’re far from done.
- Cincinnati: I don’t think they’re the elite team some others do, but they’re well-rounded and better than what they showed this past week.
- Indianapolis: Good, not great.
- Houston: Iffy at QB in a QB driven league makes it hard to excel.
- Baltimore: I’m not sure this team has an identity, which is something that tends to be more cliché than reality in the NFL, but even the players are murmuring about a lack of leadership
- Dallas: The best team in the NFC East, thanks to the two best words in the English language: default.
- Green Bay: Rodgers is not Rodgers, which means the Pack is not the Pack.
- Miami: Are they for real? I dunno, but they are definitely much improved.
- Atlanta: I feel they’ve been paper tigers for years and it is starting to show.
- Tennessee: Frisky and they know it.
- San Diego: A few plays away from 4-0. My hunch is they’ll be saying that all year.
- Carolina: The coach must go.
- Buffalo: Very inconsistent, but you expect that from a rookie QB and head coach.
- Cleveland: Brandon Wheeden, I hear Appleby’s is hiring.
- Arizona: I’m not sure if this is a bad good team or a good bad team…
- Minnesota: They’ve looked better than their record indicates, but last year’s playoff run was a fluke.
- Oakland: A few tough losses, but that doesn’t count for much here.
- NY Jets: Bleh. Is there a less fun team to watch?
- Philadelphia: Fun to watch at times, but no better. I think the Chip Kelly experiment might already be a failure.
- Washington: Overachieved last year and out of sorts this year. Are we sure Shanahan is a good coach?
- St. Louis: Explain to me the difference between Sam Bradford and Mark Sanchez.
- NYGiants: Ready to challenge their roommates for least fun to watch, though “most painful” seems more appropriate.
- Tampa Bay: Schiano has lost the ship (get it?!?!).
- Pittsburgh: Name five players on this team that are actually still good. Go ‘head… try. You can’t.
- Jacksonville: Ugh.
Got a beef? Take it up in the comments.
Not ranked: Tim TebowReport
I’d put him between Minnesota and Oakland.Report
Tebow lies between no one! Not without a ring on his finger, at least.Report
I chuckled.Report
“27.Washington: Overachieved last year and out of sorts this year. Are we sure Shanahan is a good coach?”
This is Shanahan’s last season as a coach. He will not find another team.
Can there be a four way tie for positions 28-31? The Jags have 32 sealed up though.Report
I call him “M. Night Shanahan”. His first couple of seasons were really good but his last few have been laughably bad.Report
I had more trouble sorting through the bottom than the top. And given that I think the Jets and maybe the Raiders will sink down to that tier, it could get very ugly for a full quarter of the league.Report
Put a healthy Terrelle Pryor under center against Washington and Oakland wins. Matt Flynn was a fencepost behind a porous offensive line. Pryor’s speed and agility turns many of the sacks Flynn took into positive gains.Report
I mostly agree, though at the top, I’d move KC up a spot and New England down a couple of spots, especially with the Wilfork injury, bumping up Detroit and Indy to follow KC, with Chicago moving flipping with Indy. KC actually isn’t surprising me with how well they’re playing – they’ve had the talent everywhere except QB and coach for a couple of years; even with the bad QB and terrible coaching situation, they still would have been a middle of the pack team were it not for some absolutely devastating injuries and the horrible Jovan Belcher murder-suicide last year. Reid’s a great coach who historically has been saddled with a combination of a circus media atmosphere and horrible personal demons – KC is the perfect place for him and Alex Smith is the perfect QB for his system, as Jamaal Charles is the perfect RB.
On the flip side, even though New England’s offense is coming to life again, it’s not going to quite get back to its previous dominance; meanwhile, their defense has largely been getting by on “bend but don’t break,” which I don’t think is sustainable in the long run, and definitely not sustainable without a dominant defensive tackle to clog the line of scrimmage in the red zone.
After the top 7 or 8 teams, everyone else in the top 20 kind of blends together, and I can’t really make any distinctions, though Cincinnati’s got some real problems and I’d move them significantly lower while maybe bumping Cleveland up a couple of spots – they’ve got the potential to put together the football equivalent of the Cleveland Indians’ season in Major League.
I think you’ve got my Bills a couple of spots too high – both their wins have been at home, and they’ve only got four true home games left thanks to the Toronto series, plus a rapidly growing list of key injuries to overcome. Still, if and when Stephon Gilmore and Leodis McKelvin return and if Jairus Byrd returns (I’m half expecting that he’ll get traded for 25 cents on the dollar before he plays a down this year), that defense is going to be scary good since the front 6 are already pretty solid, and getting better every week thanks to Defensive Rookie of the Year Kiko Alonso.Report
New England was probably the hardest team to place. If you asked me if they were the 4th best team in the league, I’m not sure I’d say yes. But I’m not sure who I’d feel comfortable putting ahead of them, especially given the “10 game series” approach. New England just gets it done, one way or another. They could be 1-3, but they’re not. And they never seem to be. It wouldn’t shock me if they finish 10-6, win the division, and bow out in the first round of the playoffs.
During the off-season, when there were slight rumors of the Eagles acquiring Alex Smith, I remember thinking about how odd it was that San Fran had a perfect west coast style QB during a time when they wouldn’t be running the WC and how the Eagles had just fired a WC coach and now might be bringing in a perfect WC style QB. Of course, it turned out that Reid and Smith would unite and the Chiefs are fo del. I want to see how they do playing from behind, something they haven’t really had to do this year. I’m still not sure I’d be confident picking them against any of the top three teams on my list.
Ultimately, right now, the league feels like Denver and Seattle and then everybody else.Report
As mentioned above, KC is playing with, for the most part, the same personnel as the 2-14 team last season. Sean McGrath at tight end has been a pleasant surprise (fear the beard!) and the play of the defense makes us all misty-eyed with comparisons to the dominant units of the 90’s. Tamba Hali has finally found his footing as a dominating defensive end and the play of Eric Berry and Brandon Flowers has put the swagger back in the secondary (have to wonder if Cruz would have gone 69 yards had Flowers been healthy…). I’m beginning to believe that they’re good enough to claim a wild card, but they’re not better than Peyton’s Broncos.Report
I went to high school with Tamba. He immigrated from Africa sometime around middle or high school and never played football until arriving state side. He was quickly dominant at it. Senior year he picked up basketball just to stay in shape, and averaged something like 18-9… just because. It is fun to watch him excel.
Also, dude was a huge pot smoker then. I hope he’s either quit the habit or is discrete enough that it doesn’t impact his career.Report
You missed WhoWouldJesusDraft. They’re surging.Report
I thought you were to turn the other cheek. Instead you are laying the smack down on the others. Not very nice.Report
I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword.Report
Both SF and GB are, like SD, only a few plays each away from being undefeated. Of course, they were defeated.
The entire NFC East stinks.Report
SF was a few plays from being undefeated? The ‘Hawks slapped them around to the tune of 29-3. And even that score doesn’t tell the story of how lopsided that steamrolling was.Report
Well, okay, maybe not that game.Report
With rare, notable exceptions, SF is nearly undefeated.Report
San Francisco is missing basically the entire receiving cadre. Vernon Davis, out. Michael Crabtree, out. Mario, out.
Kinda easy for Seattle to key in on Bouldin and Gore when there aren’t many other reliable options to go to.
If Vernon is at 90% or better and Crabtree is back on December 8th, throw in the 12th man and I see the Niners taking the second of two.
Grudge will be for who goes to the ‘Bowl, say I.Report
I worry about the losses that are piling up for SanFran. Playing St. Louis masked how big a loss Smith and Willis might prove to be, to say nothing of the offense.Report
And the Broncos are doing it with three first- or second-team all-pro players sitting out (Clady gone for the season). John Elway has done an amazing job of assembling a roster and coaching staff.Report