After a brief two week hiatus, One (pun intended) of us is finally back writing things again. I like to think that last week was basically my bye week since I haven't had one this season. And with that out of the way, I have returned with my final Power Rankings of the year. I won't really go into too many specifics with each game today as I really want to look at each team's final record and whether it reflect what they were trying to achieve this season. Is this where each team should be? Did a team live up to its potential? Did they overachieve? Also, before you even think about asking it, Patrick Mahomes is my MVP and maybe Offensive Player of the Year (actually I'll give that to Todd Gurley for the sake of spreading the wealth). Finally, did you realize that no team went 8-8 this year? This is the first time that has happened since 2005!! That's crazy! I personally blame the Steelers for tying the Browns. But you could also blame the Browns for tying the Steelers as well. Well with that preamble done with, time to unveil the final rankings of the year.
32. Cardinals. They clinched the first pick in the draft this year so it's only fitting they are the final spot in the rankings.
31. Raiders. They have been towards the bottom all year. Why stop putting them here now? It's safe to say this has been a bad season on the field for the Raiders. They traded away most of their talented players and their record reflected that. Off the field it was better. They have four first round picks in this upcoming draft so that's a great thing to go into the offseason with. There's just one small problem though, Jon Gruden may be the ones making those picks for you.
30. Jets. It was only fitting that in the final game of the year, the Jets folded over and handed the Patriots their first round bye and homefield in the playoffs until the AFC Championship. Truly incredible. Also Todd Bowles was fired. Yeah this was a bad year for them. They were going to be bad, but I think after Week 1 in Detroit, Jets fans had higher expectations for this team.
29. 49ers. Bad news, you lost Jimmy G early on in the year which basically eliminated you from the playoffs. Good news, Nick Mullens is better than Jimmy G...so did you really lose this season? (I'm kidding about that by the way. Mullens is good though!)
28. Jaguars. What a truly disappointing team. They didn't even have the pride to put up a fight against the Texans to end the season this week. They have to be the second most disappointed team in the AFC this year. I think you all know who number one is.
27. Bills. Josh Allen is a runningback playing quarterback. Nothing you say can convince me otherwise. He just happens to have a fantastic cannon for an arm.
26. Dolphins. This is the perfect record for them (7-9). They aren't any worse than this and they certainly aren't any better. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be. (Did I use this meme properly?)
25. Buccaneers. So I was wrong about Dirk Koetter being able to keep his job. He's out. I still have a chance to be right about Jameis getting his extension, although he may be the next man out in Tampa Bay.
24. Lions. Matt Patricia's first season in Detroit didn't go as well as planned, but they did beat the Packers (and maybe injure Aaron Rodgers further) in Week 17 so that's a victory in any Lions' fans season. One major concern for me though is that the Lions ranked 6th overall in defense last year, and this year they were 23rd. A major drop-off for this team. I'm not sure if their defense will be back on track next season or not though. I'd be interested to see what happens though.
23. Giants. Saquon Barkley was all he was hyped up to be this year. The Giants clearly have a player who will be a top ten runningback for the next five to seven years in the NFL. Unfortunately, one of those years may be next year with Eli Manning. The Giants have a very tricky situation to address this offseason because no clear answer presents itself to them this year. Draft a QB and dump Eli? From what I've seen, most of the QBs in this draft aren't ready to start and/or are returning to college. So should the Giants ride it out for another year with Eli. It's tough to say. Statistically this was one of his best years ever. Visually though it was never pretty. I do not envy the Giant's front office this year.
22. Bengals. Once a historically poor defense, the Bengals finished the last few weeks as a very bad one. This is a team in limbo however. They have no real direction and all of their star players (I guess Andy Dalton is one) are injured. I have a feeling that when I do this next year, the Bengals will be around here again.
21. Packers. The Packers had no pride and no offense to finish the year. Aaron Rodgers was injured and the Packers were dominated at home. I think they were also finally eliminated from playoff contention this week. Everyone held out hope for so long that this team could make a run, but they just couldn't ever do it for a multitude of reasons. First was because of bad coaching. The next was because of bad defense. Finally, the friction Aaron Rodgers created with the coaching staff had to have affected the locker room somehow. I feel like there's no way a player can say the things he said about his coach and the play calling without having ripple effects throughout the team. This team could blame just about anyone for their struggles.
20. Falcons. It's only fitting that the Falcons ended the season in a shootout with a bad team and that Julio Jones had one of his best games of the season. If the Falcons had five more weeks of football they may just be the best team in the NFL. This team had a lot of defensive injuries this season, but I still think they had enough talent on the other side of the ball to win more games than they did. It's crazy to think how close they were to winning a Superbowl 2 years ago.
19. Redskins. I think the Packers and Falcons are both better than the Redskins in terms of rosters, but I refuse to put two teams who were so disappointing and lacked such enthusiasm from week to week ahead of a team that (despite massive injuries) played hard despite having every reason not to.
18. Panthers. I'm glad Cam finally acknowledged his shoulder was injured. It's better to get this done before the season ends. It's also important that Cam takes all the time he needs to get better. Andrew Luck was out for multiple years with his shoulder injury because it was mismanaged. If Cam Newton tries to rush back and be tough then he will have the same timetable for his recovery. Learn that this is about the long-run. Not just next season, but five seasons after that.
17. Broncos. This year was about the future. Phillip Lindsay has the potential to be a diamond in the rough for them and he's certainly a piece they can start to build their offense around. Now if only they could get a more permanent solution to the Quarterbacking position rather than relying on Case Keenum as a placeholder.
16. Titans. This team was only so far high up in the rankings because too many good teams lost two weeks ago. Now that the Titans are officially eliminated from contention and lost to the Colts I can safely put them in the bottom 16.
15. Vikings. Case Keenum just can't win big games. This isn't a hot take anymore. This isn't subjective. This is just a fact. This team was the most talented team in the NFC North going into the year and they wasted it away.
14. Browns. This was the best Browns' season in I don't know how long. They made the right pick with Baker Mayfield and he single-handily re-invigorated an entire football depressed city. They also fired Hue Jackson and have a phenomenal young core to attract any big time coach that they want. Things are looking up for Cleveland.
13. Steelers. Remember when I mentioned the Jaguars were the second most disappointing team in the AFC. This is number one. They had drama all season long. They had memorable quotes, memorable games, and finally memorable losses. Goodbye sweet Steelers, you will be missed these playoffs.
12. Eagles. Well if I was any NFC team ever I'd be terrified to face Nick Foles in a playoff game. The Eagles seemed to have corrected a once lost season in an incredibly quick fashion as soon as Foles took over as QB. Big Dick Nick is in the playoffs and every team needs to hide if they want to live.
11. Ravens. Lamar Jackson is better than Joe Flacco. There. I said it. Anyone else who wants to agree with me is more than welcome to. He beat a good playoff team in the Chargers last week and he beat the Browns to get the Ravens into the playoffs. He can make plays on a big stage. He is ready for the big time and, once again, I can't believe 31 teams passed up on him.
10. Seahawks. Seattle certainly didn't look like a playoff team this week, but they definitely did last week against the Chiefs. Also why do teams always call timeout with :03 left to kick field goals. Why not :01? Make sure there's literally no time left no matter what...
9. Cowboys. I understand if you're a Cowboys fan and it was frustrating to watch Dak Prescott take hits today when he didn't need to. I think it was important though that he played this week and carved up a bad defense so that he has confidence going into next week. It was also important that the Cowboys won a game without Zeke. I think next week against Seattle is going to be an awesome match-up (I don't think that's too much of a hot take).
8. Patriots. They just somehow do it every year. All the drama, all the poor play, everything else in between and the Pats are somehow back in the 2 seed with a Wild Card Week bye. Their infrastructure is just incredible and they are the absolute model of consistency in the NFL. Love them or hate them, it's impressive.
7. Colts. I think just about everyone was rooting for this final Sunday Night game to go into Overtime so we could see the absolute chaos of a tie loom over the heads of the Colts and Titans. But in the end I think that the Colts deserve to be in the playoffs over both the Steelers and Titans anyway so it's only appropriate the Colts made sure that never happened.
6. Texans. I am astonished Deshaun Watson made it through this whole season. He was hit on 5 of the Texans' first plays on offense today and that basically epitomized the Texans' season when it came to protecting Watson. They did crush the Jaguars in every way possible though so I have to say props to them for finishing the season strong on the defensive end. It seems like every good team that needed to dominate and win today did just that.
5. Bears. A perfect example of what I just said a sentence ago is what happened in this game. The Bears made sure that this game was never in doubt from the start of kick off. The Bears have almost nothing to worry about going into the playoffs except for one thing...and you all know exactly who he is.
4. Chargers. As I mentioned before. This was a good team that needed to take care of business and that's what they did. They now have a shot to avenge their loss last week to Baltimore.
3. Rams. After a couple week slump, the Rams have gotten their offense back together again. I think they were purposely not running Gurley as much as they should have the past couple of weeks. They probably figured they couldn't catch the Saints for the 1 Seed in the NFC so why waste carries that Gurley could use in the playoffs. As a result, they suffered some losses and looked kind of bad. A price that, if they go to the Superbowl on Gurley's back, they will gladly pay again.
2. Chiefs. Your MVP and most exciting player of the year...Mr. Patrick Mahomes. This team followed his lead all season long and he has rewarded them with the Number 1 Seed as a result. A truly commendable and historic performance for a first year starter. How far this team can go in the playoffs though, rests solely on the shoulder of Andy Reid and his decision making in the 4th quarter. We all know that and we all want to see it play out.
1. Saints. This team has been consistency at the top all season long and so they should end the season atop everyone. The road to the Superbowl goes through New Orleans and I am sure no one in the NFC wants to go play there.
Disclaimer***
I am also sticking without original preseason Superbowl picks now that the playoffs have started. I have too much confidence in the Saints to change it now and the Chargers made the playoffs so why not go with them to go all the way as well?