Most of the heavyweight teams won their opening games even though there were few blowouts and some had to stage late comebacks to survive. Opening week is always a little weird since you combine opening day jitters with starters having to play 60 minutes for the first time…. With that in mind, there wasn’t much to convince me to shuffle much in the “first class” section, most of the changes were in “commercial”…
HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION
1. Pittsburgh – Becoming a pass first team, but Big Ben can handle it..
2. New York Giants- Best defense in NFC, looked good against Redskins.
3. San Diego – This is now Darren’s Sprole’s team, can LT handle it?
4. New England– As long as Brady’s slinging it, this team is a contender.
5. Baltimore- Offense is much improved, look out for this team.
6. Philadelphia – Can they survive Chunky Soup McNabb’s absence?
7. Indianapolis – All eyes are on new coaches, but Manning is still there.
8. Tennessee– No shame in a 3 pt OT loss at Pittsburgh.
9. Atlanta– So far, showing they were no fluke last year.
10. Minnesota– As long as Brett Fart keeps handing off to AP, they’re fine.
11. New Orleans – Not a good sign for defense giving up 27 pts to Lions.
12. Seattle – Impressive win, but was it them or is St. Louis that bad?
MIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISION
13. Green Bay – Good start, but they need to pass block better.
14. Arizona – Superbowl loser hangover syndrome is alive and well.
15. New York Jets -Gonna find out if they can play with big boys Sunday.
16. Dallas – Jury’s still out on the T.O.-less Cowboys. Time will tell.
17. Buffalo -Played well for 55 min. on Monday, too bad game is 60 min.
18. Miami – The bloom is off the rose for “Tough-guy” Sparano’s squad.
19. Jacksonville– Can’t beat Indy, can’t win the divison, period.
20. SF – Are they improved or is Arizona crashing back to earth?
21. Chicago – Cutler morphed into Brett “pick machine” Farve at Lambeau.
22. Carolina – Have you ever seen a clueless duo like Delhomme & Fox?
LIGHTWEIGHT DIVISION
23. Washington- Not a terrible team, but weak at QB position.
24. Houston– A perennial sleeper team, but aren’t ready for prime time.
25. Oakland – Looked good on Monday, but always find ways to lose.
26. Denver – Is the defense really that improved?
27. Cincinnati – Not going to win many playing like that on offense.
28. Tampa Bay – On-the-job-training at head coach continues.
29. Cleveland– Mangina marches on to his eventual firing.
30. Kansas City – Good effort at Baltimore, but culture change takes time.
31. St. Louis – In a heated race with Detroit for the last spot in rankings…
32. Detroit – Sorry fellas, you’re in the this spot until you WIN a game.