It’s been said before, but seriously, how many great teams are there in the NFL this season? After another week of several of the league’s better teams losing, it’s hard to gauge what teams have very minimal flaws. Currently, it looks like San Francisco, Baltimore, and Dallas are the teams that need to be taken most seriously. Last year’s Super Bowl participants, Philadelphia and Kansas City, may need to go back to the drawing board to figure out what is going on with their teams. The regular season is winding down and the playoff picture is more cloudy than ever.
Week 15 Game Watchability Rankings
16. Chargers vs Raiders: Justin Herbert is the latest quarterback to see the end of his season due to injury. For Herbert and Chargers fans, that might not be a bad thing. After another loss, this Los Angeles team is going nowhere. Las Vegas was part of a 3-0 snooze fest with Minnesota and they were the team to lose. Two terrible AFC West teams. Nothing left to be said about this game.
15. Falcons vs Panthers: Carolina is undoubtedly the worst team in the NFL this season and they won’t even get a first round pick. Ouch. Atlanta needs to keep winning after a loss to Tampa Bay that pushed them out of the division lead in the NFC South. This division is feels like a minor league division compared to others in the NFL.
14. Giants vs Saints: Tommy Devito is making a name for himself in the social media and football world. It’s been a fun story in a tough year for the New York Giants. Devito’s next challenge comes against New Orleans who can’t afford to drop this home game to one of the league’s poorest teams.
13. Commanders vs Rams: Washington comes off the bye and if there is any remaining hope for Ron Rivera to maintain his coaching job, the Commanders better close the season strong. Washington will face a Los Angeles Rams team that put up a good fight against Baltimore, losing in overtime. The Rams offense has plenty of weapons and Los Angeles needs to win this game to keep pace/leap frog some teams in the NFC.
12. 49ers vs Cardinals: San Francisco is fun to watch no matter the matchup, but we can only watch the Niners obliterate teams for so long before we are looking for a better game. With only about five truly competitive Super Bowl contenders, the Niners should be pretty big favorites to add another Lombardi Trophy to their collection. The 49ers are loaded and the Cardinals are not. This will not be pretty for Arizona.
11. Buccaneers vs Packers: Tampa Bay earned a good win over Atlanta and now finds themselves in the driver seat of the NFC South. If Baker Mayfield can show any inch of consistency the Bucs would have a larger lead in the division. Speaking of consistency, Jordan Love brought those Aaron Rodgers comparisons back down to Earth a bit. The hype after a big win in Kansas City was erased on Monday night after the Packers were defeated in New York by Tommy Devito and the Giants. Love has had moments of brilliance, but still struggles with some accuracy issues. This could be a competitive game between two potential playoff teams that don’t really look like playoff teams.
10. Chiefs vs Patriots: This is the worst Chiefs team that Patrick Mahomes has been the starting quarterback for. That doesn’t mean they should’t be the favorites in the AFC or even potentially win the Super Bowl, but this team has had plenty of issues. The lack of offensive weapons after Travis Kelce and Isaiah Pacheco has been a problem. When it comes to problems the New England Patriots might have more than just about any team. New England did earn a win over Pittsburgh, but this Pats team is pretty poor and having Mahomes comes to town after he was visibly frustrated last week does not bode well for New England.
9. Vikings vs Bengals: Two of the many teams who lost their starting quarterbacks for the season at some point. Kirk Cousins and Joe Burrow won’t be playing in this game, but both Minnesota and Cincinnati have plenty to play for. Nick Mullens will start for the Vikings after another dismal Josh Dobbs performance in which he was benched during a 3-0 Vikings win. Former Vikings backup quarterback Jake Browning has had two straight strong performances and given the Bengals new life. These aren’t Super Bowl contenders, but these are realistic playoff teams in the 2023 NFL season.
8. Bears vs Browns: It may be hard to believe, but he Chicago Bears are playing good football right now. Chicago is 3-1 in their last four and coming off their best game of the season in a 28-13 win over Detroit. Justin Fields has been running and throwing all over the field, but Cleveland will give him a stiff test with the Browns physical defense. Joe Flacco is coming off a game in which he threw over 300 yards, giving the Browns a much needed jolt to their offense. Browns will be favorites, but if Flacco comes back down to expectations, don’t count out the Bears.
7. Texans vs Titans: You can’t call it a “welcome to the NFL moment” because of how well he’s played the whole season, but C.J. Stroud had his first truly poor game against a rejuvenated Jets team. The bad weather, no Tank Dell, and an injury to Nico Collins certainly din’t help. The loss to New York was devastating considering the Texans had a really good opportunity to jump up in the standings. They will face a motivated Tennessee team that had one of the season’s greatest comebacks with Will Levis leading the Titans back from a 14 point deficit to Miami in the final four minutes of the game for a win. The AFC South has so many young talented quarterbacks. Watch this one to see what the future looks like at the position.
6. Jets vs Dolphins: Good for Zach Wilson. The Jets beaten down quarterback put together arguably the best game of his career in a dominating win over Houston. Unfortunately for Wilson and New York, they will run into a pissed off Miami team that just lost their top seed in the AFC after blowing a 14 point lead in the final five minutes on Monday Night Football. The most interesting thing about this game will be the Jets elite defense vs Miami’s high octane offense. Wilson may need to play just as well as he did this past weekend for the Jets to have a chance.
5. Steelers vs Colts: Pittsburgh and Indianapolis are the second and third wild card teams as it stands which means the winner of this game will really increase their playoff chances. Pittsburgh has been a very frustrating team with major inconsistencies on both offense and defense. Indianapolis has been a positive surprise this season, but like many surprising teams, always seem at risk for the magic to wear off. This may not seem like a massively big game for two playoff teams, but that’s exactly what it is.
4. Eagles vs Seahawks: Turnovers killed Philadelphia in Week 14. Now the Eagles are behind Dallas in the NFC East for the first time all season. The Eagles are coming off of two blowout losses to the other top two teams in the NFC. Philadelphia will need to get back on track against a Seattle team who has also struggled lately. The Seahawks are now on the outside of the playoff picture and Geno Smith hasn’t been able to reclaim his success of last season. Seattle is a tough place to play, but Jalen Hurts and the Eagles may be too much to overcome.
3. Broncos vs Lions: What is happening in Detroit? They went from dominating mediocre and bad teams and losing to just the best teams in the NFL to struggling against all opponents. Denver on the other hand continues to play well and has chipped away at the AFC standings. With the way the Broncos have been improving this may be a team that no one wants to see in the playoffs.
2. Ravens vs Jaguars: Trevor Lawrence miraculously played last Sunday after rolling his ankle the previous week, but it wasn’t enough for to help the Jaguars defeat the Cleveland Browns. With the top three teams in the AFC South losing, Jacksonville remained on top of the division. Baltimore now holds the top seed in the AFC after losses by every other currently playoff team outside of that Cleveland win. Baltimore and Jacksonville have a reasonable chance to meet up in the playoffs so this will be an interesting matchup for both teams. A home loss for Jacksonville could also be devastating in their hopes to claim a second straight division title.
1. Cowboys vs Bills: The two teams who knocked off the two Super Bowl participants from last season. Dallas is playing great football and Dak Prescott deserves to be a top three name in the MVP conversation. To me, it’s either Prescott or Christian McCaffrey at this point. It may sound crazy, but in an AFC that has not truly great team, if Buffalo can get in the playoffs and play consistently good football they could find themselves playing deep into the postseason. The Bills have a roster that is about as good as any in the AFC, but they haven’t played consistent enough. With Dallas trying to hold off Philadelphia and Buffalo working their way back into the playoff picture, this is a massive game of importance for both teams.
The Brewball NFL Power Rankings
- San Francisco 49ers (10-3)
- Baltimore Ravens (10-3)
- Dallas Cowboys (10-3)
- Philadelphia Eagles (10-3)
- Kansas City Chiefs (8-5)
- Miami Dolphins (9-4)
- Cleveland Browns (8-5)
- Buffalo Bills (7-6)
- Denver Broncos (7-6)
- Detroit Lions (9-4)
- Houston Texans (7-6)
- Jacksonville Jaguars (8-5)
- Minnesota Vikings (7-6)
- Cincinnati Bengals (7-6)
- Indianapolis Colts (7-6)
- Los Angeles Rams (6-7)
- Pittsburgh Steelers (7-6)
- Seattle Seahawks (6-7)
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-7)
- Green Bay Packers (6-7)
- Atlanta Falcons (6-7)
- New Orleans Saints (6-7)
- Chicago Bears (5-8)
- Tennessee Titans (5-8)
- New York Jets (5-9)
- New York Giants (5-8)
- Las Vegas Raiders (5-8)
- Los Angeles Chargers (5-8)
- Arizona Cardinals (3-10)
- Washington Commanders (4-9)
- New England Patriots (3-10)
- Carolina Panthers (1-12)