| Rnk | LW | Team | Record | Comments |
| 1. | 1. | New England Patriots | 1-0 | Already firing on all cylinders. |
| 2. | 3. | Indianapolis Colts | 1-0 | Was defensive dominance a function of improved personnel or the poor play of Boller and Wright? The answer is probably a bit of both. |
| 3. | 5. | Pittsburgh Steelers | 1-0 | Won their fifteenth regular season game in a row. Led on offense by a pair of second year players. Roethlisberger had a perfect quarterback rating despite only throwing 11 passes and Parker exploded for 209 total yards from scrimmage. The future's so bright, they have to wear shades. |
| 4. | 6. | Atlanta Falcons | 1-0 | Got revenge for last year's NFC Championship game loss. |
| 5. | 7. | Kansas City Chiefs | 1-0 | Holmes and Johnson combined for 211 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns. Now that is a running back by committee. |
| 6. | 2. | Philadelphia Eagles | 0-1 | Seventh straight Super Bowl loser to lose their opener. |
| 7. | 11. | Jacksonville Jaguars | 1-0 | Thirteen year veteran Smith proved that he isn't over the hill at the age of 36. |
| 8. | 16. | Buffalo Bills | 1-0 | Again showed they can beat a subpar opponent. How they fair against tougher competition will determine whether they are legitimate contenders. |
| 9. | 4. | Carolina Panthers | 0-1 | Things couldn't have started out worse. A close home loss to a divisional rival is bad enough. The loss of Jenkins for the season to a torn ACL only pours salt into the wound. |
| 10. | 8. | San Diego Chargers | 0-1 | Hard to believe that Gates wouldn't have made a difference if he wasn't sitting out because of a one game suspension. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Especially considering Gates reported only one day after the Chargers' self imposed deadline. |
| 11. | 17. | Cincinnati Bengals | 1-0 | Palmer is coming into his own. |
| 12. | 21. | Dallas Cowboys | 1-0 | Parcells appears to have righted the ship. Bledsoe looks like an acceptable caretaker at quarterback as long as Jones can carry the offensive load. The revamped defense has some nice young talent. |
| 13. | 10. | New York Jets | 0-1 | Pennington fumbled six times and threw an interception. Ouch. |
| 14. | 13. | Baltimore Ravens | 0-1 | Offense was as bad as expected and the defense faded in the second half. After one week this looks like a team on the decline. |
| 15. | 9. | Minnesota Vikings | 0-1 | Culpepper failed to produce an offensive touchdown for the first time since October 25, 2001. |
| 16. | 12. | Denver Broncos | 0-1 | The 4-0 preseason proved meaningless. |
| 17. | 22. | Detriot Lions | 1-0 | Joey Harrington threw two touchdowns and most importantly didn't turn the ball over. That qualifies as progress. |
| 18. | 23. | New Orleans Saints | 1-0 | America's team for at least one week. |
| 19. | 25. | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 1-0 | Kiffin confused Culpepper and rookie RB Williams helped make Gruden again look like an offensive genius. |
| 20. | 15. | Seattle Seahawks | 0-1 | A nondescript team going nowhere fast. Things weren't supposed to be like this when Holmgren was first hired. |
| 21. | 18. | Green Bay Packers | 0-1 | The problem was supposed to be defense. For a week at least it ended up being the offensive line. The loss of Walker for the season doesn't help. |
| 22. | 19. | Oakland Raiders | 0-1 | Same old Raiders. A solid early effort against the defending champs was torpedoed by lousy pass protection, a porous pass defense and penalties. Lots and lots of penalties. |
| 23. | 14. | St. Louis Rams | 0-1 | Managed to lose in San Fransisco despite out gaining the 49ers by almost 200 yards. Could the Martz era be coming to an end? |
| 24. | 27. | New York Giants | 1-0 | Burress provided a deep threat for Manning. The real key though was the new thunder and lightning duo of Barber and Jacobs. |
| 25. | 20. | Arizona Cardinals | 0-1 | Fitzgerald is a man among boys. The rest of the team does not seem worthy of the offseason hype. |
| 26. | 28. | Washington Redskins | 1-0 | Already benched Ramsay and named Brunell the starter despite giving Ramsay assurances that he would get a fair opportunity. Doesn't Gibbs remember how bad Brunell was last season? |
| 27. | 30. | Miami Dolphins | 1-0 | Saban makes an immediate impact. The ineptitude of the Wannstedt regime would be laughable if I wasn't a Pitt alum. |
| 28. | 32. | San Fransisco 49ers | 1-0 | In sole possesion of first place. The winner of the NFC West might have a sub-.500 record. |
| 29. | 24. | Houston Texans | 0-1 | Capers is firmly on the hot seat in his fourth season at the helm. |
| 30. | 26. | Tennessee Titans | 0-1 | Defense could be historically bad. |
| 31. | 29. | Chicago Bears | 0-1 | Forced to start a rookie QB that was drafted on the second day for the second straight year. GM Angelo may be looking for a new job in the off season. |
| 32. | 31. | Cleveland Browns | 0-1 | Managed to hang tough for a half before fading. |