| Rnk | Team (Lst Wk) | Record | Comment |
| 1. | Oakland Raiders (1) | 9-4 | Rich Gannon has thrown for 4205 yards in 13 games and is on a pace to break Dan Marino's single season record of 5084 passing yards. |
| 2. | Philadelphia Eagles (2) | 10-3 | The Eagles 9-0 conference record means that if they can keep winning the road to the Super Bowl in the NFC goes through Veterans Stadium. With all 3 of their remaining games against the rest of the rather weak NFC East that is a distinct possibility. |
| 3. | Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4) | 10-3 | Since returning from injury Brad Johnson has thrown 15 touchdown passes and only 1 interception in 5 weeks of play. |
| 4. | Green Bay Packers (3) | 10-3 | The Packers looked lethargic beating both the Bears and Vikings at Lambeau. Sometimes it's tough to get a team to play hard after they clinch the division so early even when home field advantage and a playoff bye are at stake. |
| 5. | San Fransisco 49ers (6) | 9-4 | The second NFC team to clinch a division title interestingly enough gets to host the first this week as the Packers travel to San Fransisico. |
| 6. | New Orleans Saints (8) | 9-4 | The Saints beat the Bucs twice, the Falcons beat the Saints twice, and the Bucs beat the Falcons twice. Sometimes a team just matches up well against another team. |
| 7. | New England Patriots (9) | 8-5 | The Patriots season comes down to 3 tough contests against legitimate playoff competitors the Titans, Jets, and Dolphins. Will we see the overachieving Super Bowl champions, the underachievers that lost 4 straight earlier this season, or something in between? |
| 8. | Miami Dolphins (12) | 8-5 | Ricky Williams has rushed for 444 yards in the last 2 weeks. He has exactly 1500 rushing yards for the season, which means the Dolphins owe the Saints their first round pick. A pick well spent for the Dolphins. |
| 9. | Atlanta Falcons (5) | 8-4-1 | OK, the Bucs proved you can stop Michael Vick with the right scheme. The problem of course for the rest of the NFL is that few teams have an athletic LB like Derrick Brooks to spy Vick and even fewer have a pair of defensive lineman like Warren Sapp and Simeon Rice to rush Vick. |
| 10. | Tennesee Titans (14) | 8-5 | Took firm control of the the AFC South by completing a sweep of the Colts. |
| 11. | Indianapolis Colts (7) | 8-5 | The Titans reminded everyone how to beat the Colts. Pound the ball between the tackles. The Colts should expect a heavy dose of William Green in the coming week. |
| 12. | New York Jets (15) | 7-6 | The key to Chad Pennington's recent success has been limitting turnovers. Pennington has thrown only 2 interceptions in the last 6 weeks as the Jets have gone 5-1 and climbed back into playoff contention. |
| 13. | Kansas City Chiefs (16) | 7-6 | Won their last 2 games by a combined score of 98 to 10. |
| 14. | Pittsburgh Steelers (10) | 7-5-1 | Serious playoff contenders do not lose in their 13th game of the season at home to an expansion team. They just don't..... |
| 15. | San Diego Chargers (11) | 8-5 | Ladainian Tomlinson continues to role, but the injury to the Chargers only other legitimate offensive weapon, Curtis Conway, has played havoc with the passing game. |
| 16. | Denver Broncos (13) | 7-6 | A three game losing streak has thrown a monkey wrench into the Broncos playoff asperations. Lose to the Chiefs in Denver this week and the Broncos will find themselves alone in last in the AFC West. |
| 17. | Cleveland Browns (18) | 7-6 | The Browns never led the Jaguars in regulation, kicking the game winning extra point after time had expired. |
| 18. | New York Giants (21) | 7-6 | Jim Fassel may have saved his job by outcoaching Steve Spurrier, which these days is really not really much of an acheivement. |
| 19. | Buffalo Bills (17) | 6-7 | Bledsoe always had problems with Bill Bellicheck's schemes, even before Bellichek coached him for a year. |
| 20. | St. Louis Rams (19) | 5-8 | Rams are getting what they deserve for forcing Dick Vermeil out as head coach after winning the Super Bowl because they did not want to lose offensive genius Mike Martz. |
| 21. | Baltimore Ravens (20) | 6-7 | Jamal Lewis and Travis Taylor put up good yardage numbers, but it's hard to win when your feature back loses two fumbles and your go to receiver drops more passes than Plaxico Burress. |
| 22. | Carolina Panthers (26) | 5-8 | The Panthers are proving to be a streaky team, wining their first 3, losing 8, then wining 2 more. If the winning streak continues expect all hell to break lose on the stillers.com message board. |
| 23. | Dallas Cowboys (22) | 5-8 | Leading by 3 with just under 2 and a half minutes remaining the Cowboys tried a 47 yard FG on 4th and 1. Wait, that must be a misprint. If the kick misses the Niners with no timeouts get the ball back at the 37 with over 2 minutes remaining. Billy Cundiff has about as much chance of making a 47 yard field goal as Todd Peterson after he broke his rib. That is the same as saying no chance. Getting a first down means the game is over. At the least getting stuffed gives the 49ers the ball at the 28 instead of 37. It isn't like the Cowboys are competing for a playoff spot anyway. Be bold. Even punting seems like a better idea, giving the 49ers a long field to work with and no timeouts. No, the Cowboys really try the field goal. The result was predictable. Missed field goal, 49ers touchdown, Cowboys lose. Stay tuned for the next logical step in the progression, the firing of Dave Campo. |
| 24. | Washington Redskins (23) | 5-8 | You know the story. Redskins try to pass the ball twice as often as they run the ball. Redskins lose. At least the injury to Danny Wuerffel meant Patrick Ramsey got some playing time. |
| 25. | Jacksonville Jaguars (24) | 5-8 | Tom Coughlin's ultraconservative nature left the door open when the Jaguars settled for a 22 yard FG to take a 6 point lead after running the ball into the line 3 times following an interception and personal foul penalty had given them a first and goal from the Browns' 10 with under 2 minutes remaining. |
| 26. | Seattle Seahawks (25) | 4-9 | The Seahawks were forced to settle for field goals after sustained drives in their first 2 possessions. As is so often the case, that allowed the Eagles to wrestle away the momentum and win going away. |
| 27. | Houston Texans (30) | 4-9 | Beat Pittsburgh by 18 points despite totalling 47 yards of offense and 3 first downs. Yikes. |
| 28. | Arizona Cardinals (31) | 5-8 | Who thought it was a good idea to schedule the Cardinals on Sunday night in prime time a week after The Sopranos season finale? I want to know. |
| 29. | Minnesota Vikings (27) | 3-10 | Daunte Culpepper, Michael Bennett, and Randy Moss give the Vikings an advantage over the rest of the dregs of the NFC North as the focus of the season for sub-.500 teams changes from winning games to evaluating the future. |
| 30. | Chicago Bears (28) | 3-10 | I really don't understand how the Bears coaches couldn't figure out during the week of practice that playing Jim Miller might not be such a good idea because his elbow and shoulder tendinitis were so bad that he could barely throw the ball farther than 10 yards. |
| 31. | Detriot Lions (29) | 3-10 | At least in this week's overtime loss when the offense never touched the ball the Lions actually lost the coin toss. |
| 32. | Cincinnati Bengals (32) | 1-12 | Gave up 52 points to a Panther team that had scored 56 total points in their previous 5 games combined. |