10. Dallas Cowboys
9. Green Bay Packers
8. Los Angeles Chargers
7. Baltimore Ravens
6. Buffalo Bills
5. Cleveland Browns
4. Arizona Cardinals
3. Kansas City Chiefs
2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
1. Los Angeles Rams
The Cardinals are so damn fun. This time, they beat a top-3 team in the NFL without Kyler Murray being all-that spectacular. What saw from the Cardinals was a well-rounded offense. Chase Edmonds tallied 120 yards on the ground, 67-yards receiving for both DeAndre Hopkins and AJ Green, and 66-yards receiving for Maxx Williams. Noone dominated individually, but Arizona ended up dominating their NFC West foe to take the division lead and stay undefeated.
It’s time to start talking about Dallas being a threat to win a playoff game. Trevon Diggs has given a jolt of life to what normally is a defense that can be shredded to pieces. With another pair of interceptions verse previously unbeaten Carolina, the second-round pick in the 2020 draft out of Alabama is someone you want to keep an eye on for the next decade. When Dak needs to be special and carry his team, he’s capable, as we saw in the first game of the season against Tampa Bay. This weekend? His workload wasn’t much. Only 22 pass attempts and 14 completed passes. Ezekial Elliott showed a glimpse of his peak self, pounding the rock for 143 rushing yards. I see this Cowboys team makeup as the Chiefs with a similar defensive unit, and an offense with a step down at QB and TE but a step up at RB. With a weak NFC East, the Cowboys should win 11-12 games in this expanded season.
After a brief down stretch during Phil Rivers’s last years with the team, Los Angeles is back to their 2018 form. But now, they have a QB who’s only getting better, a weaker Chiefs team than in years past, and a coach that doesn’t unintentionally sabotage his own squad. Every week we see how Justin Herbert was the right choice at #6 in the 2020 draft when the decision was between him and Tua Tagovailoa. Herbert was NFL-ready, Tua was not. This is especially true when the offense is largely built on short-medium range targets like workhorse WR Keenan Allen and PPR fantasy football icon RB Austin Ekeler. I’m not ready to say that the Chargers will pull the heist of the year and steal the division, but with an extra playoff team in 2021, you should expect them to grab a wildcard spot.
