Loose Talk: The Editors’ Take
With week five in the books, we are a little less than a third of the way through the NFL season and have a pretty good idea of where things stand: who’s good, who’s bad and where the enticing playoff races lie. I think a division-by-division break down is the best way to capture the current state of the league as a whole.
In the AFC East, the Bills and the Jets have displayed marked improvement from last season (for the Jets, it was hard to get much worse). Many believed this division would not be a cake walk for the Patriots, and some even picked the Bills or the Dolphins to win the division. But the Patriots have proven to be on another stratosphere compared to almost every other team in the league, scoring twice as many points as they have given up and beating Buffalo handily. The Dolphins are a mess; they finally fired head coach Joe Philbin but still have to find a way to fix the tragedy that is Ryan Tannehill. When you’ve been arguably the worst QB in a division that has Ryan Fitzpatrick in it, things are pretty bad.
The AFC North is once again one of the toughest divisions in the league. The Bengals are good. I mean really good. They’ve had a tough schedule to this point and have remained undefeated and done it in convincing fashion. Their win over the Seahawks this week proved their legitimacy. They are crazy talented. They are likely the same old Bengals though and will crash and burn come the playoffs. For my Patriots’ sake, let’s hope they haven’t truly figured out how to win in January. The rest of the division is formidable as well. The Steelers will just try to stay at .500 until Big Ben comes back, and they will be a scary wild card team as their defense improves each week. The Browns and the Ravens are still good teams, but each had some tough luck in close losses.
The AFC West is another good division. With the Raiders finally showing some life as an organization, there isn’t a bad team in this division. But there isn’t a really great team in it, either. With Jamaal Charles’ torn ACL, the Chiefs’ season is over. The Broncos’ defense has been unbelievable and they’ve had some nice wins to stay undefeated thus far, but their offense has been lackluster and their run game has been flat out atrocious. With Peyton Manning already reaching the twilight of his career and his tendency to wear down as the season goes on, I don’t see this team making much noise in the playoffs.
I have no words for the AFC South. Unfortunately, someone has to win it, and the Colts will be the winners by default, but that division is horrendous. The only bright spot is that Marcus Mariota has been good thus far and Blake Bortles has shown that he could be pretty good eventually. But I don’t expect any team in this division to be relevant come the playoffs. The Colts are soft and extremely beatable.
Same ol’ same ol’ for the NFC East. All of those teams are destined for mediocrity. Just when the Cowboys were poised to run away with the division for the second year in a row, they lose their two best players to injury and are on a three game losing streak. If the Cowboys can sneak into the playoffs and Romo and Dez Bryant could return to near full health, they can be scary, but those are big ifs. This is anyone’s division at this point.
The NFC North is 100 percent the Packers’ division. The Bears and Lions are painful to watch, mostly due to the quarterback play for each of those teams, and the Vikings haven’t lived up to their preseason hype. If there is any silver lining this week for any other team in the NFC, it was that Aaron Rodgers looked human against the Rams. Nonetheless, the Packers are well on their way to the number one seed in the NFC, despite Jordy Nelson’s absence.
The NFC West is an odd division. The Cardinals have been remarkable to this point and rightfully stand atop the division. The Seahawks are the most talented team in the division, but haven’t beaten any good teams thus far, in large part due to their poor offensive line. However, it’s the Rams who have been the most enigmatic. The Rams have beaten both the Cardinals and the Seahawks, but have lost to teams like the Redskins and the Roethlisberger-less Steelers. The Rams season hinges on their quarterback, even more so than other teams rely on their QB. If Nick Foles can put together performances like he has against the Cardinals and the Seahawks on a more consistent basis, then we are looking at one of the best teams in the NFC. All I can say about the 49ers is that they are very bad.
The battle between the Falcons and the Panthers to win the NFC South will be intriguing. Both teams have shown the ability to grind out wins, with the Falcons winning four of their five games despite fourth quarter deficits, and the Panthers being able to win ugly. With the emergence of Devonta Freeman, the Falcons have one of the most potent offensive attacks in the league, and it would be hard to not expect them to win the division, but I’m buying stock in Cam Newton right now. The guy has shown he knows how to win. The Panthers defense has been stellar as well. Despite having almost no offensive weapons at their disposal, the Panthers find a way to win this division.
So there we have it, an unexpected start to the season for many teams. Many injuries to key players have sent some teams’ seasons into limbo, and many quarterbacks are just underperforming and leading their teams down the drain. With 11 or 12 games left for every team, however, there is still a lot up in the air with how the standings will shake out.