We're just about a quarter of the way through the NFL season, and we've learned quite a bit about every team in the league. There's plenty of time for teams to either continue as they've been or surprise us by reversing course. But we have enough information to start making educated guesses about who is good and who is not, and who is probably just average.
That's what we're here to do today. We're sorting all 32 NFL teams into the following tiers: The dregs of the league, the teams that are probably not that good, the teams that are probably average, the teams that are probably pretty good and the teams that look like inner-circle contenders. Note: Teams within each tier are listed in alphabetical order.
These two teams are really, really bad. They're not the only 0-4 teams, but they're clearly the ones with the least amount of hope. These teams range from 0-4 to 1-3 to 2-2 to even 3-1, but the underlying performance and/or schedule they've faced indicates that they're probably not going to be legitimate contenders.
Some of them may make the playoffs, but they're not likely to make much noise, if any. Arizona scored an at-the-time surprising victory over the Chargers in Week 1, but it has since gone 0-3, including a loss to the Jameis Winston-led Giants last week. Cleveland is 3-1, but each victory has required a game-winning score in the final five minutes, and the Browns have only out-gained their opponents once.
Green Bay's defense without Micah Parsons is eminently beatable, and its offensive line looks like a disaster. That's probably untenable unless Parsons drastically changes the Packers' defensive fortunes when he returns. Houston is 0-4, and its defense does not look as good as expected.
The passing offense has been good when Nico Collins has been active, but the Texans can't run the ball at all. The Colts have scored back-to-back victories, but their offense has looked nothing like it did last year as Daniel Jones works his way back from injury and the defense remains too friendly for them to be considered a good team just yet. The Chargers are the NFL's most disappointing team, and the less said about them, the better.
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