| Rnk | LW* | Team | Record | Comments |
| 1. | 1. | Baltimore Ravens | 4-1 | Getting Rice back on track makes the offense scary. |
| 2. | 2. | Pittsburgh Steelers | 3-1 | Big Ben is back. |
| 3. | 3. | New York Jets | 4-1 | Revis' hamstring seems like it will be a problem all season. |
| 4. | 4. | Atlanta Falcons | 4-1 | Still undefeated in the conference and division. |
| 5. | 11. | New York Giants | 3-2 | Back-to-back dominating defensive performances against teams that are a combined 7-3. |
| 6. | 8. | New England Patriots | 3-1 | I really didn't want to move them up when the only thing they did on the bye was trade Moss and make their team worse. The poor play of other teams previously ranked above them made that impossible. |
| 7. | 10. | Indianapolis Colts | 3-2 | Toughed out a victory against the resurgent Chiefs despite Manning not throwing a TD pass. |
| 8. | 5. | New Orleans Saints | 3-2 | Hard to win when you give up a fumble and interception return for touchdowns. Does Bush�s presence really make this much difference to the offense? |
| 9. | 12. | Chicago Bears | 4-1 | Forte's breakthrough performance on the ground allowed them to overcome Collins completing only 6 passes and throwing 4 interceptions. |
| 10. | 18. | Tennessee Titans | 3-2 | Reaped the rewards of taking the shackles off VY and Britt. |
| 11. | 19. | Washington Redskins | 3-2 | Winning ugly. |
| 12. | 20. | Philadelphia Eagles | 3-2 | Kolb was fine after a full week of work with the first team. |
| 13. | 6. | Green Bay Packers | 3-2 | Have been outscored by the Lions on the season. Seriously. |
| 14. | 7. | Houston Texans | 3-2 | Supposed offensive juggernaut managed only 11 first downs at home. |
| 15. | 22. | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 3-1 | Took full advantage of Palmer�s late game implosion. |
| 16. | 15. | Kansas City Chiefs | 3-1 | Every team has a loss after 4 games for the first time since 1970. Last year there were still 5 undefeated teams after week 5. Probably gained more respect for their close loss to the Colts than their victories. |
| 17. | 9. | San Diego Chargers | 2-3 | Lost despite outgaining the Raiders by 506 to 279 yards after giving up 2 blocked punts and 12 points in the first 5 minutes. |
| 18. | 25. | Arizona Cardinals | 3-2 | A different team at home. |
| 19. | 13. | Cincinnati Bengals | 2-3 | Palmer's 3 interceptions (2 in the final 2 and a half minutes) led to 17 points (10 in the final 86 seconds). |
| 20. | 26. | Jacksonville Jaguars | 3-2 | Turned their season around after blowout loss to the Eagles. Visit from the Titans is suddenly a big game in the AFC South. |
| 21. | 21. | Miami Dolphins | 2-2 | Undefeated '72 team gets to pop the cork on the champagne early this season. |
| 22. | 14. | Dallas Cowboys | 1-3 | Couldn't overcome Romo's 3 interceptions. Wins by the surging Giants, Redskins and Eagles put them behind the 8 ball. |
| 23. | 16. | Minnesota Vikings | 1-3 | A lot like this week's opponent the Cowboys. A pair of desperate teams that thought they were legitimate contenders with only a single win each. |
| 24. | 17. | Denver Broncos | 2-3 | Failed to gain 50 yards rushing for a third straight game. Trade for Maroney proving to be a waste. |
| 25. | 24. | Seattle Seahawks | 2-2 | Can Lynch overcome poor offensive line play and improve the running game? |
| 26. | 29. | Oakland Raiders | 2-3 | Broke 13 game losing streak to Chargers. |
| 27. | 31. | Detriot Lions | 1-4 | Snapped their 10 game losing streak. |
| 28. | 23. | St. Louis Rams | 2-3 | Crashed to earth quickly after 2 game winning streak with embarrassing blowout loss in Detroit. |
| 29. | 27. | Cleveland Browns | 1-4 | High ankle sprains for both Delhomme and Wallace mean McCoy or Ratliff will be forced into the lineup in Pittsburgh. |
| 30. | 28. | San Fransisco 49ers | 0-5 | Team president York still expects them to win the division. He must be smoking what those players from Washington St. were growing in their basement. |
| 31. | 30. | Carolina Panthers | 0-5 | Managed only 147 yards of total offense. Time to blow this up and start over by trading Williams and Smith. Was Kiper�s rating of Claussen as a top 10 pick a function of his close relationship with agent Wichard as alleged in SI this week? Seems like it so far. |
| 32. | 32. | Buffalo Bills | 0-5 | Utterly hopeless to steal a phrase from Peter King of SI. |
*Last week's ranking