| Rnk | LW* | Team | Record | Comments |
| 1. | 2. | Tennessee Titans | 13-2 | Ended the Colts streak of division championships at five. |
| 2. | 3. | New York Giants | 12-3 | Need Jacobs on the field. |
| 3. | 5. | Indianapolis Colts | 11-4 | Riding an eight game winning streak after an uncharacteristicly slow start. |
| 4. | 1. | Pittsburgh Steelers | 11-4 | Finally hit the wall after a series of come from behind wins. |
| 5. | 4. | Carolina Panthers | 11-4 | Blew eight point halftime and fourth quarter leads before succumbing to the Giants in overtime in the Meadowlands. |
| 6. | 6. | New England Patriots | 10-5 | Free agent to be Cassel continues to make himself a lot of money. |
| 7. | 10. | Atlanta Falcons | 10-5 | Rookies Smith and Ryan led an amazing turnaround that resulted in the unlikeliest of playoff berths. |
| 8. | 11. | Baltimore Ravens | 10-5 | Win and their in. |
| 9. | 12. | Miami Dolphins | 10-5 | Pennington was the game manager that they desperately needed. |
| 10. | 7. | Minnesota Vikings | 9-6 | Still control their own destiny despite the home loss to the Falcons. Visiting Giants unlikely to give them a free pass even though they have already clinched home field. |
| 11. | 8. | Dallas Cowboys | 9-6 | Ware is just two and a half sacks shy of Strahan's single season record. |
| 12. | 9. | Philadelphia Eagles | 8-6-1 | Surprising loss to the Redskins means they need to beat the Cowboys and get help. |
| 13. | 14. | Chicago Bears | 9-6 | Viking left the door open for them even though they still need help to advance. |
| 14. | 13. | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 9-6 | Remember when they were 9-3 and seemed primed for a bye? |
| 15. | 19. | New Orleans Saints | 8-7 | Brees needs 401 yards passing to tie Marino's single second record. |
| 16. | 20. | San Diego Chargers | 7-8 | Final week visit by the Broncos will decide the division. |
| 17. | 15. | Denver Broncos | 8-7 | Left the door open for the Chargers by failing to beat the Bills at home. |
| 18. | 16. | Arizona Cardinals | 8-7 | Continue to struggle after clinching their first home playoff game since 1947. |
| 19. | 17. | New York Jets | 9-6 | Mangini is Man-genius no longer. |
| 20. | 21. | Washington Redskins | 8-7 | Zorn may have saved his job by derailing the streaking Eagles. |
| 21. | 23. | San Fransisco 49ers | 6-9 | Singletary will reportedly be named the full time head coach after Sunday's game. |
| 22. | 24. | Buffalo Bills | 7-8 | Jauron may have saved his job in Denver although Wilson probably wouldn't have fired him and paid two head coaches for multiple years anyway. |
| 23. | 18. | Houston Texans | 7-8 | Four game winning streak snapped and chance for the first winning record in franchise history prevented in Oakland of all places. |
| 24. | 22. | Jacksonville Jaguars | 5-10 | Lost their seventh of the past nine and fell to 2-6 at home. |
| 25. | 25. | Green Bay Packers | 5-10 | Defense failed them again. |
| 26. | 27. | Cincinnati Bengals | 3-11-1 | Best team in Ohio. |
| 27. | 28. | Seattle Seahawks | 4-11 | Victory over the Jets a rare bright spot in Holmgren's swan song season. |
| 28. | 30. | Oakland Raiders | 4-11 | Hard to envision things getting better while Davis is at the helm. |
| 29. | 26. | Cleveland Browns | 4-11 | Fans thought not making the playoffs last year with 10 wins was a disappointment. |
| 30. | 29. | Kansas City Chiefs | 2-13 | Gonzalez passed Shannon Sharpe to become the all time leader in reception yardage for a TE. He is also the first TE to ever top 1000 yards receiving four times. |
| 31. | 31. | St. Louis Rams | 2-13 | Only thing resigning team president Shaw did right in 29 years was hiring Vermeil and that was probably dumb luck. |
| 32. | 32. | Detriot Lions | 0-15 | First team ever to start a season 0-15. |
*Last week's ranking