Midseason NFL rankings

By Rick Morris

As with our rankings that we published around the ¼ mark of the NFL season, we will utilize fantasy sports principles here in terms of separating the teams by tier. Just as it was at that point, it remains striking that more than half the league constitutes a vast middle level not separated by much, at least in terms of remaining playoff opportunities. Note by the records of the Steelers and Ravens that this is being published prior to the Week 9 Monday Night Football game.

TOP LEVEL: MUTANT SUPER-TEAMS

1. New England (9-0)

2. Indianapolis (7-1)

SECOND LEVEL: CERTAIN PLAYOFF TEAMS

3. Dallas (7-1)

4. Pittsburgh (5-2)

5. Green Bay (7-1)

6. Tennessee (6-2)

7. New York Giants (6-2)

THIRD LEVEL: POTENTIAL PLAYOFF TEAMS, ALL WITH SIGNIFICANT FLAWS

8. Washington (5-3)

9. Jacksonville (5-3)

10. Detroit (6-2)

11. Seattle (4-4)

12. Tampa Bay (5-4)

13. Cleveland (5-3)

14. San Diego (4-4)

15. New Orleans (4-4)

16. Carolina (4-4)

17. Baltimore (4-3)

18. Kansas City (4-4)

19. Philadelphia (3-5)

20. Houston (4-5)

21. Buffalo (4-4)

22. Arizona (3-5)

23. Denver (3-5)

24. Chicago (3-5)

25. Minnesota (3-5)

FOURTH LEVEL: HORRIBLE FOOTBALL

26. Cincinnati (2-6)

27. San Francisco (2-6)

28. Oakland (2-6)

29. New York Jets (1-8)

30. Atlanta (2-6)

31. St. Louis (0-8)

32. Miami (0-8)

Additionally, to measure the cumulative strength of each division, we added up the above rankings of each team in a division to form a division power number. Keep in mind that the lower the number, the better.

1T. AFC South (37)

1T. NFC East (37)

3. AFC North (60)

4. NFC North (64)

5. NFC South (73)

6T. AFC West (83)

6T. AFC East (83)

8. NFC West (91)

NOTES: Clearly, top-to-bottom, the AFC South and NFC East are by far the deepest divisions in football at the moment. The AFC East is horrible outside of the Patriots, but their strength of schedule this year is still very tough due to also facing the tough AFC North and NFC East. I had forecast the NFC West to be football’s toughest and deepest coming into the season and they are by this measure by far the worst! In my defense, injuries have battered these teams disproportionately relative to other divisions, but I clearly overestimated how far along these young squads were as well. I maintain that the division will be very, very tough by 2008 or 2009. Also, for as much as the AFC has dominated the NFC in Super Bowl play over the last decade as well as interconference games, the public has had it drilled into its collective mind that the American Conference is far superior. Well, when the division totals are added together, the AFC comes out ahead by the slimmest of margins, 263-265. What is the moral of the story that you will not hear anywhere else in the media, at least for months to come? It is that the utter dominance of the Patriots and Colts has hidden the fact that the NFC has pulled very close to parity from top-to-bottom. Now, surely they don’t have a team capable of winning Super Bowl XLII, and perhaps XLIII, but just as we saw in the late 1990s, the tide is turning once again.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: On the occasion of the 100^th post here at The FDH Lounge blog, I thank the readers who have catapulted us to a level I did not honestly think we would reach within three months (roughly at the level of the top one million websites on the Internet, according to Alexa.com). We have worked to bring the same diversity of topics you hear and see on The FDH Lounge Internet television program to this blog and we are happy and grateful that you are responding to it as you are.