Vic Carucci's NFL Rankings

This is how the NFL's 32 teams stack up after Week 1:

In the hunt
Teams that look good enough to be among the 12 playoff qualifiers, but not based on conference.
Rank Team Record Comment
1. Dallas Cowboys 1-0 It didn't figure to be quite so easy in Cleveland, but that's the type of thing a legitimate Super Bowl contender does.
2. New York Giants 1-0 The defending champs should make it two in a row at St. Louis.
3. Green Bay Packers 1-0 Brett who?
4. Carolina Panthers 1-0 A healthy Jake Delhomme makes an enormous difference -- enough to overcome the absence of Steve Smith.
5. San Diego Chargers 0-1 Tough loss, but this team still has all of the ingredients to be a major factor in the wide-open AFC.
6. Chicago Bears 1-0 Making the Indianapolis Colts look feeble is no easy task, yet the Bears did exactly that.
7. Indianapolis Colts 0-1 The Colts can't really be that bad ... can they?
8. Buffalo Bills 1-0 Knocking off the perennial NFC West kingpins is a big deal, especially in as thorough a fashion as the Bills did.
9. New Orleans Saints 1-0 No team adapts better in a crisis than the Saints.
10. Pittsburgh Steelers 1-0 The Steelers won big with a familiar formula: Powerful running game and smothering defense.
11. Philadelphia Eagles 1-0 Disposing of the hapless Rams was easy. A much harder test is coming in Dallas.
12. Denver Broncos 1-0 A win's a win, but how much can you really gauge from beating up on an opponent as pathetic as the Raiders were Monday night?

The rest
Teams listed alphabetically

Middle of the Pack
Arizona Cardinals (1-0)
Atlanta Falcons (1-0)
Baltimore Ravens (1-0)
Jacksonville Jaguars (0-1)
Minnesota Vikings (0-1)
New York Jets (1-0)
New England Patriots (1-0)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-1)
Tennessee Titans (1-0)
Washington Redskins (0-1)


Needs Work
Cincinnati Bengals (0-1)
Cleveland Browns (0-1)
Detroit Lions (0-1)
Houston Texans (0-1)
Kansas City Chiefs (0-1)
Miami Dolphins (0-1)
Oakland Raiders (0-1)
St. Louis Rams (0-1)
San Franscisco 49ers (0-1)
Seattle Seahawks (0-1)



Is it just me or is this dude smoking crack?????

Funny

This is a pretty accurate list. 7 or 8 of the 12 teams he listed are in solid contention for a playoff spot. Some of his middle of the pack teams are playoff contenders while some of his playoff contenders are middle of the pack. The teams he has as needing work pretty much are out of contention. There are always going to be surprises in the nfl, even by the week. Carucci did a good job on this and thats just after week one. For the most part, this list has stayed pretty true to form. One thing that cant be taken into account with these predictions is injuries. Indy, SD, and Philly have all struggled in large part due to injuries of key players like Merriman, Manning, and Westbrook.

I don't wanna hear about Indys injuries they had almost there whole starting offense!!!

You dont have to hear about it but its the truth. Manning and Saturday have both been injured. Manning had multiple surgerys and clearly wasnt 100% early in the season. Maybe Indy isnt a good team but without a doubt, they have had key injuries.

bob sanders??

its a totally diff team when sanders is playing

yep, forgot about Sanders. No Bob Sanders, no run defense.

and no #1 starting running back for Indy.

addai is great too, not having him is a huge hit


and marvin has lost his mojo a lil bit, and d clark didnt have any TDs until monday.


i hate indy with a passion, but they are still a good team when they are healthy.

Steve Young and Emmitt Smith both agreed that Manning is not anywhere near a hundred percent. Factor that in with the rest of his ailing team, there's your problem. If they were healthy this year, they would win the AFC esp in the absence of Brady.

Steve Young also said Indy had all their big names on the field and still came up short!

Rhodes is a good running back, they did win the superbowl with him!

I admit they didn't have Bob but their run defense looked pretty good Monday!

They still had

75% Manning, Rhodes, Marvin, Wayne, Clark, and Gonzales Monday night!!!!

Rhodes was on the team but Addai was the key running back for the Super Bowl run. Quit making a fool of yourself.

WTF How I'm I making a fool of myself???

Rhodes is a good back and hell he did help them get there!

But what do you have to say about the rest of the offense???

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">But what do you have to say about the rest of the offense??? </div></div>

They had a rookie starting at guard, another rookie playing at the other guard 50-75% of the rest of the time, Ugoh came back for his first game after being out since the 2nd week and was no where near being in game shape, Marvin coming off knee surgery and looking nothing like he has at any point in his career, and what you called a 75% Manning.

actually in the playoff addai had 122 yards against KC on 25 carries 39 against batlimore on 18 carries and 56 against ne on 14 carries

the last game of that year against the LOLphins he had 64 yards on 21 carries

thats basically their super bowl run.......he didnt do much

I don't think that's what he's saying. Rhoads was the starter all year, but Addai had the bulk of the carries. Unless I'm mistaken, I think he's talking about the run earlier than that and not just the playoffs. He had over 1000 yards for the year and Rhoads had around 600. I think he got banged up early in the playoffs I think against KC (knee or ankle maybe). The NE game they got behind early and had to throw, which will scue the numbers, and running on Baltimore is no easy task at all.

Maybe they wasn't all 100 percent but they was all there! Rhodes is a good back always has been!

How were they all there when both starting (week 1) guards were out and they had to reshuffle the whole offensive line with Charlie Johnson and the other rookie guard at the guards? Not to mention Sanders being out, both starting DT's they were supposed to have were out. One got booted during the season, the other retired 2 weeks before the season started.

you can't argue with him about this one.

VY doesn't need an offensive line, so that means they are useless.

Their run defense was fine Monday without Bob Sanders.

Did you watch the freaking game?!!! Tennessee has a stout D line and they never got to Manning their line pass blocked and run blocked fine!!!

So let me see here, their line played well monday night they had most of their weapons on the O side of the ball.

The biggest thing I seen in the game was they were getting hurt in the short passing game!

missing bob sanders hurts their pass defense not their run defense

if a DB being out hurts your run defense he was making too many plays against the run to begin with

I watched the game. If they played as well as you thought with 1/4 of their second team, it wouldn't have been close with the regular starters. The biggest weapon they have on offense outside of Manning, is that offensive line the way it plays when it's cohesive and working togther not missing blocks and getting absolutely steam rolled the way Charlie Johnson and Dan Federkeil did on the 4th and 1 play. The biggest thing that hurt them in that game was having 1/4 of their starters out, 1/4 of their starters injured and still playing. They're a pisspoor team this year and the Titans struggled with them for 3/4 of the game. I thought Tennessee was much better than they were, Monday night changed that a lot.

Think whatever ever you like but you must be one of the few people I've heard give them every excuse in the world!

They had Manning , Rhodes, 4 big threats at WR!!!


Their line was solid they just got out played in the 4th! Tennessee and Indy games for the last couple of years are always close!!

when Indy gets outplayed four times in seven games they aren't at full strength.

I'm not saying the Titans are bad, but that was more of a mental victory than anything b/c the colts have owned them and that division for so long.

I think it is crazy that the sot hasn't been sacked in five and half games though. Figured he would have at least stumbled aroudn and fell down on his own at least twelve times by now.

They only excuse then need is, they are bad. They're bad for 1 reason, they're playing with what's mostly a second team.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">They had Manning </div></div>

Who you said was at 75% at best

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Rhodes </div></div>

A second teamer

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> 4 big threats at WR</div></div>

They only have 3 wr's. Harrison isn't a threat to a jv high school team right now. Gonzales is a slight step up from that. Wayne is the only one that could be considered a threat.

at WR the colts have wayne.....a broken down harrison.......conzalez who is a 4 anywhere else and a TE named dallas clark

what other WR do they have?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> what other WR do they have? </div></div>

Jacob Tamme, Tom Santi, Pierre Garcon. Tremble in fear.

like i said

Those are 3 big threats right there. Threats to take your seat on the bench.

I was talking about Marvin, Wayne, Gonzales, and Clark!

Clark is not a receiver he's a te and only one of those 4, could be considered a real big play threat.

Clark is overrated IMO. He has been made to look alot better by Wayne and Harrison.

Clark is ok. He's small and slow. He's helped out tremendously by the system. Whitten in the best TE in football and it's a long way to #2.

Clark is incredibly smart though...

You'll hear no argument from me about Witten. He was a steal that's for sure. He is the piece that makes Dallas' offense click I think.

If I was a gm, i would never take TE in the first round. They never live up to it or they are biotches about everything or a combo of both.

ahhh now gates is still lights out


lets put it this way


if marvin harrison wasnt marvin harrison, im not sure he would make the team, if he did, hed be a slot warrior, nothing more.

people give anthony gonzales all this credit, hes not great, hes not even good. hes not fast, and he doesnt have "it". peyton made him look acceptable

but, i think people underrate reggie wayne.
hes one of the three best WRs in football right now.

Reggie's very good. He has a tendency of drop easy balls at times though.

yep, Andre Johnson, Santana Moss, and Reggie Wayne...the top three [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif[/img]