| Rnk | Team (Lst Wk) | Record | Comment |
| 1. | Philadelphia Eagles (1) | 12-3 | Jay Feeley has won all five of his starts as a professional, four straight this season after injuries to Donovan McNabb and Koy Detmer. Feeley didn't even start as a Senior at Oregon, spending the year backing up Joey Harrington. |
| 2. | Green Bay Packers (2) | 12-3 | The Bucs loss on Monday night once again puts the Packers in the drivers seat for a bye. DT Vonnie Holliday deserves special mention this week. Playing less than 24 hours after the death of his 16 year old cousin from a congenital heart defect, Holliday sacked Drew Bledsoe 5 times and forced 3 fumbles. |
| 3. | Oakland Raiders (5) | 10-5 | Flirtation with Deion Sanders ended when most of the AFC teams in playoff contention put in claims for Sanders after he was waived by the Redskins off the reserved-retired list. |
| 4. | Tennesee Titans (6) | 10-5 | Hottest team in the AFC trying to claim home field advantage throughout the playoffs. |
| 5. | Pittsburgh Steelers (10) | 9-5-1 | Defense has surrendered a total of 303 yards and 22 first downs in the last 3 games. Factor in Tommy Maddox only throwing 1 interception since the debacle against the Texans and things are looking up. |
| 6. | Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3) | 11-4 | Nothing has changed in Tampa with Jon Gruden. The offense is in the bottom half of the league and the defense still folds in a tough spot. |
| 7. | San Fransisco 49ers (8) | 10-5 | Have looked lethargic down the stretch and do not seem capable of challenging the upper echelon teams. |
| 8. | Atlanta Falcons (13) | 9-5-1 | After gaining 6 yards on 1 catch for the entire season, unknown WR Quentin McCord exploded for an unfathomable 186 yards on 7 catches. |
| 9. | New York Giants (14) | 9-6 | Now hold their playoff destiny in their own hands, although a win against Philadelphia in the Meadowlands will not be easy. |
| 10. | Miami Dolphins (4) | 9-6 | December continues to be a month to forget in Miami. |
| 11. | Indianapolis Colts (7) | 9-6 | Pass defense was exposed by of all people Kerry Collins and Amani Toomer. |
| 12. | New Orleans Saints (9) | 9-6 | Inexplicable back-to-back losses to already eliminated Minnesota and Cincinnati mean the Saints now need help to make the playoffs. |
| 13. | New York Jets (18) | 8-7 | Chad Pennington is the top rated passer in the NFL among QBs with over 350 attempts, but to be honest I am still happy the Steelers drafted Plaxico Burress over Pennington. |
| 14. | Kansas City Chiefs (17) | 8-7 | CFL import Mark Boerigter immortalized himself by tying an unbreakable record with a 99 yard TD reception. |
| 15. | Cleveland Browns (20) | 8-7 | Went 92 yards on the road for a touchdown in slightly under 2 minutes with no timeouts to win by a single point. Quite frankly I didn't think Couch had it in him. |
| 16. | Denver Broncos (11) | 8-7 | Continue to underacheive in the post-Elway era. |
| 17. | New England Patriots (12) | 8-7 | Just do not have the same fire after winning last year's Super Bowl. |
| 18. | San Diego Chargers (15) | 8-7 | Have gone 2-6 after starting the season 6-1. |
| 19. | Buffalo Bills (16) | 7-8 | Display of offensive futility at Lambeau Field included being shutout for the first time this season, 46 yards rushing on 20 carries from Travis Henry, and a 41.6 passer rating for Drew Bledsoe. |
| 20. | Seattle Seahawks (23) | 6-9 | Playing hard to save Mike Holmgren's job. |
| 21. | Baltimore Ravens (21) | 7-8 | Punted on 4th and 2 from the Cleveland 35 with 2 and a half minutes remaining with the Browns out of timeouts instead of going for the first down to put the game away or letting Matt Stover try a field goal to go up by 9 points. Just another example of a conservative decision backfiring. |
| 22. | Carolina Panthers (24) | 6-9 | Won a very sloppy game that included 21 punts and 7 fumbles. |
| 23. | St. Louis Rams (19) | 6-9 | Lost for the first time with Marc Bulger starting. Of course Bulger was knocked out with three cracked vertebrae after taking only 4 snaps. |
| 24. | Minnesota Vikings (25) | 5-10 | Hoping that 2 straight wins over playoff contenders Miami and New Orleans is a sign of a brighter future. |
| 25. | Jacksonville Jaguars (22) | 6-9 | Tom Coughlin is 19-28 over the past three seasons, but what might ultimately lead to his firing is the paid attendance of 51,033 in 73,000 seat ALLTEL Stadium. |
| 26. | Washington Redskins (27) | 6-9 | Ended a 3 game losing streak against Houston, which doesn't sound that impressive except perhaps to the Steelers and Giants. |
| 27. | Arizona Cardinals (26) | 5-10 | The Cardinals leading receiver this week was Kevin Kasper despite entering the season with David Boston, Martay Jenkins, Frank Sanders, and Freddie Jones. Kasper was signed off the street at the begining of December. |
| 28. | Chicago Bears (28) | 4-11 | The Bears contacted Jay Feeley earlier in the year when Feeley was briefly released by the Eagles to clear roster space due to injuries. Feeley decided to resign with the Eagles and the Bears are still looking for a QB. |
| 29. | Houston Texans (29) | 4-11 | David Carr set the single season record for most times sacked at 73 when he was taken down by DE Bruce Smith. Interestingly enough, Smith is only 4 shy of Reggie White's career sack record of 198. |
| 30. | Dallas Cowboys (30) | 5-10 | Emmitt Smith carried 8 times for 30 yards in what was probably his final game as a Cowboy in Texas Stadium. In his place the eminently forgetable Troy Hambrick carried 6 times for 4 yards. The game meant nothing to the Cowboys, but Jerry Jones wants Smith out of Dallas and instead of honoring an all time great chose instead to ignore him. |
| 31. | Detriot Lions (31) | 3-12 | If the Lions lose at home to Minnesota and the Bengals can win in Buffalo, the Lions will do what was thought to be impossible last week at this time and claim the first pick in the draft instead of the Bengals. |
| 32. | Cincinnati Bengals (32) | 2-13 | Backup FB Nick Luchey changed his name from Nick Williams before the season and nobody noticed. The Saints have now noticed. Luchey scored twice after an injury to Corey Dillon, celebrating the second score by doing the Icky Shuffle |