Last week’s rankings and playoff projections.

The only change in the AFC is that Jets are projected to be back in and Buffalo is out after one week as the projected 6 seed.

Green Bay is still the projected 1 seed as they have been since after week 1;  Detroit has been the projected 5 seed since after week 2.  San Francisco moves up to the 2 seed with their win over the Lions and the NFC South teams Tampa Bay and New Orleans swap as projected division winners for the fourth week in a row, with Tampa Bay projected at 3 and New Orleans projected at 6.  Washington falls out of the playoffs and the Giants are projected to get in as the 4 seed.

Cheers.

SITW NFL Rankings after week 6.  (Last weeks NFL rankings) (And check out my NCAA Football Rankings)

Cheers.

SITW NFL Rankings after week 5.  (Last weeks rankings.)

No changes in the top 7 this week.  New Orleans and Tampa Bay flip flop at 8 and 9.  The biggest movers were Oakland and Indianapolis, in opposite directions of course.  Oakland is up 5 spots to number 17 after beating Houston and Indianapolis falls 6 spots to number 21 after losing to lowly Kansas City.  Indianapolis is the first team to five losses, but probably only because Miami and St. Louis had bye weeks.

And finally, for the first time all season we have a new team at the bottom.  Congratulations Denver Broncos!

Projected playoffs after week 5.  Nothing changes in the AFC except for the 6 seed: The Jets are out and Buffalo is in.  Unlike the AFC, there are some big moves in the NFC.  I now haveNew Orleans as the 2 seed, which drops Tampa Bay to the second wild card slot.  San Francisco moves up from the 4 seed to the 3 seed, and, after two weeks out of the projected playoffs, Washington is back in as a 4 seed after the Giants disgraceful loss to the Seahawks.

Cheers.

SITW NFL Rankings after week 4.  (Last weeks rankings.)

Projected playoffs after week 4.  All that I’m changing from week 3 in the NFC South Champion.  Tampa Bay and New Orleans are still both projected to make the playoffs, but Tampa Bay is more likely to win the division.  In the AFC, New England returns to the number 1 projected seed.  Pittsburgh drops all the way from 1 to 5 as they are now projected to be division runner-up with Baltimore winning the AFC North.  I still have Buffalo missing the playoffs.

Cheers.

How can I reasonably still have Miami ranked above Buffalo?  I don’t know.  But Buffalo has climbed 10 spots in the SITW rankings this year, so it’s not so crazy.  The reason they aren’t higher is because they did only win 4 games last year.  That’s pretty bad.  They are basically starting from such a low position that its going to take more than 3 wins to move into the NFL’s elite.

SITW NFL Rankings after week 2.

Here are my projected playoff seeds after week 3.  I’ve made four sets of predictions so far this season and I have thus far picked a different AFC South team to make the playoffs each week.

New England’s loss the the Bills drops them out of the projected number 1 spot and Pittsburgh takes over.  New Orleans and the New York Giants make their debut in the playoff projections at number 2 and 3 in the NFC respectively.  Everything else remains largely the same, with the Bills being so close to a playoff projected team.

Cheers.

The ESPN Power Rankings for Week 3 have Houston at number 5; a good reason why I think most sports writers are idiots.  The reason for such a high ranking is because Houston sits at 2-0.  However, they have only beaten lowly Miami and an Indianapolis team without Peyton Manning; not enough for me to move them into the top ten yet, let alone top 5.  It seems just a tad early to proclaim that Houston is an elite NFL team this year.  They were 6-10 last year.   Maybe Houston really is that good, but they’ve got to win more than 2 games to prove it.

SITW NFL Rankings after week 2.

Here are my projected playoff seeds after week 2.  (You can see my projected playoff teams prior to the start of the season here.)  New England and Green Bay are still the one seeds in the AFC and NFC, respectively.  I’ve swapped Pittsburgh and Baltimore since last week in the 2 and 6 seed spot, and I am now projecting Houston to make the playoffs as a three seed out of the AFC South. (In three weeks I have picked three different teams to win the AFC South so far.)  In the NFC, I’ve moved Atlanta up to the 2 seed after beating Philadelphia and Washington now gets the 3 seed as they are projected to win the NFC East, and I’ve dropped Philadelphia from the playoffs entirely.  I’m sticking with San Francisco out of the NFC West (at least for one more week).  Chicago has steadily dropped all three weeks in the playoff projections from 2 seed to 5 seed to 6 seed this week.  They have been passed over by the Detroit Lions who are projected to be the 5 seed in the NFC.  You heard it here first, Washington, San Francisco, and Detroit in the playoffs.

Cheers.

If other sites get to do an Absurdly Premature Playoff Picture, then so do I. Here are my projected playoff seeds after week 1.  (You can see my projected playoff teams prior to the start of the season here.)

I’m keeping new England as my one seed in the AFC and I’ve moved Baltimore from a wild card team to a division winner at the 2 seed.  I’m replacing Indianapolis with Jacksonville out of the AFC South and San Diego replaces Kansas City out of the AFC West.  I’ve also bumped the Jets up to 5 from 6 and dropped Pittsburgh to the final wild card spot.

In the NFC, I dropped Atlanta from the 1 seed to the 3 seed and moved Philadelphia up to 2.  I’ve flipped division winners in the NFC North with Green Bay now being my pick out of that division earning a number 1 seed.  Chicago is now project to the the 5 seed and San Francisco limps into the playoffs rather than Seattle out of the NFC West.

An finally, my boldest prediction to date, yes, you did read that correctly: Washington.  Why not?  There next 10 opponents are Arizona, Dallas, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Carolina, Buffalo, San Francisco, Miami, Dallas, Seattle.  Assume they won’t beat Philadelphia.  That leaves 9 games where they have a legitimate chance to win.  Through there first 11 games at something like 8-3 (which isn’t totally crazy (right?)),  they would probably only need to close the season out by winning 2 of their final five games, which are not exactly easy games, against Jew York Jets, New England, New York Giants, Minnesota, and Philadelphia.

Cheers.

SITW NFL Rankings after week 1.

Cheers.