• last month
The Dallas Cowboys struggles have them in a free fall in the NFL. Peter Klein breaks down that and all the other big stories from the league in the NFL Power Rankings heading into Week 7! The Washington Commanders hung with the Baltimore Ravens but couldn't get the win, where do they land? Also, how did this week's big trades by the New York Jets, Las Vegas Raiders, Buffalo Bills, and Cleveland Browns put all those teams in the ranks?

Apple Pod: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/couch-potato-diary/id1564122189
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3QgazeHcSKSteZbBIubcuM
Twitter: twitter.com/primetimeklein
IG: instagram.com/primetimeklein
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Couchpotatodiary
Twitch: twitch.tv/primetimepk
Email: couchpotatodiary@yahoo.com
We Had No Idea: every Wednesday morning,
instagram.com/wehadnoideapodcast
Transcript
00:00NFL Power Rankings, heading into week number seven.
00:15These ones, a couple of big movers, but a lot kind of stays the same.
00:19As this, this NFL week almost felt like the first week where things started to make sense
00:25a little bit, right?
00:27Like it was just okay.
00:28It wasn't a wild and crazy, Oh wow, how did this happen?
00:31What an upset?
00:32But for the first six weeks of the season, the whole year has kind of felt like the red
00:37zone witching hour thing.
00:39But now it's, it's kind of settled in a little bit more.
00:42So at 32, it's Carolina.
00:45We continue to see that while it was fun when they played Cincinnati and the Raiders and
00:50everything was moving well, now that they are facing real football teams, there's resistance
00:56and they are not handling it super well.
00:59So there's that.
01:01At 31, it's New England.
01:02Yes.
01:03Drake May came in and played quarterback.
01:04No, it didn't look good for a half.
01:05Yes.
01:06It looked better in the second half.
01:07No, it does not make them a good football team.
01:09At 30, it's the Cleveland Browns.
01:11They move on from Omari Cooper and the race to the bottom is on.
01:16And for these three teams in the, well, we'll talk about this in a sec, at 29, it's the
01:21Vegas Raiders.
01:22They move on from Devante Adams and the race for the bottom is on.
01:26At 28, it is the Miami Dolphins.
01:29They did not play this week and so they moved up a spot because things got substantially
01:33worse for the Raiders.
01:35And so our bottom five, Miami, Vegas, Cleveland, New England, and Carolina.
01:40Not necessarily how the standings sit right now, but let's just say for argument's sake
01:46that these are the, this is the draft order when we get to April.
01:53That's a lot of interesting decisions to be made.
01:56For Carolina, is it quarterback again?
01:59Because that feels like a waste.
02:01That feels like a gigantic, now there's sunk cost and all of that, but oh boy.
02:09I think that if you're Carolina right now and you do get that first overall pick, I
02:15think you have to try to take advantage and hope that there is another, quite frankly,
02:20Carolina out there who is desperate to move up and try to get a, yours or whoever is going
02:26to be the number one quarterback.
02:29Hope that they are desperate enough because this team, when they went out and made that
02:33move for Bryce Young, they were not a quarterback away.
02:36And now here we are a couple of years later and you are still not a quarterback away.
02:41And so I think if the Panthers went out and drafted a kid again first overall, they would
02:46just be making the exact same mistake that they did and clearly not doing anything to
02:54grow from that.
02:55New England would obviously not be taking a quarterback.
02:57That would be best O-lineman or wide receiver available.
03:01The Cleveland one's interesting because a lot of people are saying that the only way
03:04you get rid of Deshaun Watson is to attach your first round pick to it.
03:08If the first round pick is top three, do they?
03:13Or do they just kind of like, hey, Deshaun, we're going to pay you to not be here and
03:17we're going to draft this kid and they're going to be the starter.
03:21You will collect your paycheck and just sit at home and stay so far away from this kid,
03:26it's not even funny.
03:27I wonder what they would do there.
03:28The Raiders, I think, would just draft a quarterback and move on, even though again, I don't think
03:32that foundation is set.
03:33And the Miami one is really interesting because of the Tua situation.
03:39And Walt Grizzley in the chat, why do you think the Dolphins are worse than the Jags
03:43or the Titans right now?
03:45Interesting question.
03:46The Titans did beat Miami a couple of weeks ago and Jacksonville, yes.
03:52And I honestly, I probably didn't move Jacksonville down far enough in my rankings.
03:56So a very good point.
03:57It is just, it's how bad it has looked.
04:00And a big part of that is Tua not being in the lineup.
04:03But let's remember, it didn't look good for Tua in week one.
04:08They do get the win against Jacksonville.
04:09And so, yes, my argument of, well, the Titans did beat them, it goes out the window because
04:12Jacksonville won.
04:13But don't only pay attention to the stuff I want you to, but no.
04:17And then week two, they are getting just curb stomped by Buffalo.
04:21And then the Tua injury happens.
04:23And now like this offense can do nothing.
04:26Like, they, they look like the worst offense in football.
04:30And there are still a lot of talented pieces on this team.
04:33But quite frankly, I think that teams like the Raiders in New England have more of a
04:38beef with being below Miami than Miami has of being below a Tennessee or a Jacksonville,
04:44just based off of how it looks.
04:46Now if we were to project, like, there's still a world Miami makes the playoffs.
04:50Tua comes back, and we have the same conversation we've had for a bit where, oh well he's one
04:54big hit away.
04:55And then I counter with, well, yeah, so is fucking everybody.
04:58And then we see what happens on that Thursday night game, it's like, well, maybe he's just
05:01a medium hit away.
05:03And there is all of that conversation, but I, for right now, it has just looked so bad.
05:09And this defense has not recovered in the way that I think a few people assumed it would.
05:14And now part of that is they're on the field all the time, because again, the offense can
05:17do nothing.
05:18But I just think this offense is not moving the football at all.
05:22And it has made for a really bad product.
05:25At 27, it's the Tennessee Titans.
05:27I still think this is a decent roster, just a quarterback who continues to make mistake
05:32after mistake.
05:34And this last week was, I think, the kind of, um, the nail in all of it.
05:41This just, I don't think it's going to work.
05:43And I don't like writing a kid off in his first full year of starting.
05:47But we have talked time and time again, the Indianapolis Colts do not alter their defense
05:52at all.
05:53And so for Will Levis to be thrown off by that is, I think, very concerning going forward
05:58for this team.
05:59At 26, it's the Rams.
06:01Maybe they get a little bit healthier and move on up.
06:03But it has been a bit of a slog so far this year.
06:05At 25, the Denver Broncos.
06:08They made a bit of a comeback against the LA Chargers, but the first three quarters
06:11of that game did not look very good for them.
06:13At 24, it's Jacksonville.
06:15Again, probably should be a little bit lower on this list.
06:18I think part of it is just, I have them a little high to begin with.
06:21And so, they are moving down incrementally a little bit.
06:24But yeah, if I just was starting brand new over, maybe I shouldn't have them this high.
06:30But it is also tough to… like, I guess Denver does have three wins.
06:35But I have not been impressed by Denver at all.
06:38And I still think I would take Jacksonville's roster right now.
06:42And just kind of go with them.
06:43So that's where I'm at.
06:44At 23, it's the Giants.
06:46The defense is legitimately better than I thought it was going to be.
06:50Now the offense is… not.
06:53But with neighbors there, there's at least something.
06:56I think they found something in Tracy.
06:57I'll be interested to see what they do with him when Singletary is back.
07:01But I think this defense is actually legitimately pretty good.
07:04At 22, it's the Bears.
07:05The offense is starting to figure it out a little bit more.
07:07And this defense is very, very good.
07:10And so, they're starting to put together a pretty good football team.
07:14At 21, it's the Indianapolis Colts.
07:16They have this weird thing where even when they win, none of it looks impressive.
07:21It just… it all looks like a grind.
07:23It all looks really just like, well, I guess we found a way to win.
07:27Like, it never feels like they fully win a game.
07:29It's just that their opponents kind of run out of time.
07:32And that's not a great way to be building things.
07:36But I have them close to the middle.
07:38At 20, it's a big fall for the Dallas Cowboys.
07:42We have enough evidence now that I think we can clearly say on this podcast, on Wednesday,
07:47October 16th, at 1029 a.m. Mountain Time, the Dallas Cowboys are a bad football team.
07:55This is just a horrendous group that cannot defend, nor can they move the football.
08:01Also, the coach is dumb.
08:03Also, the owner is kind of insane.
08:07There are no redeeming qualities of this football team.
08:10They have CeeDee Lamb.
08:13That's it.
08:14Dak Prescott seems like he'd kind of be a good, fun dude to hang out with, but I don't
08:19think I'd want to be paying him a lot of money to be the quarterback of my football
08:22team.
08:23It's just that there's not a whole lot going on in Dallas right now.
08:26At 19, I have the Cincinnati Bengals.
08:30It's getting a little bit better, but again, the offense… it's weird.
08:33Like, I can't say, well, the offense can't really do anything, but also the Giants defense
08:37is legitimate.
08:38Trust that.
08:39I do think that the offense is kind of rounding out a little bit, and I think more Chase Brown
08:45would certainly answer a lot of things that this team needs.
08:48And defensively, it looked good against the Giants, but again, it's the Giants, so I
08:53don't think we can take that all that seriously.
08:54So I think that this is a Cincinnati team that is good, not great, and will probably
08:59continue to rise up a little bit.
09:01At 18, it's Arizona.
09:02They are another one that dropped quite a bit.
09:04I believe I had them around top 10 last week.
09:06I just can't.
09:08The offense is now too inconsistent, and the defense is now too bad.
09:15It's just… it's not… it's not clicking and it's not progressing.
09:18We saw this at the early part of the season, like, okay, this is meshing, it's going
09:22well, and it's just… it hasn't… it hasn't taken that next step yet.
09:26And that has been, I think, a real concern for the Arizona Cardinals, is how inconsistent
09:32it seems right now.
09:34Toxic in the chat.
09:35The Cowboys being bad is good for the NFL.
09:37Oh boy, is it.
09:39I do, like, it is a little bit more fun when the Cowboys are good.
09:43They are one of those teams where, even if they aren't good, we're still going to
09:48have to deal with them a lot, you know?
09:51And so, because they're going to be on primetime five or six times a year, and we're always
09:55going to get them on the Thanksgiving Day game, and we're always going to be talking
09:58about them, um, like, and I'm guilty of it too, guess who's going to be the thumbnail
10:06this week for this?
10:07It's going to be Dak Prescott and the Cowboys plummet in power rankings, you know?
10:11Because people pay attention to them.
10:12And because we get them, like, just kind of plunged down our throats, I would kind of
10:18just rather them be good.
10:20You know?
10:21If I'm going to have to watch them anyway, I would rather they be good.
10:24So, not great, to the point where it's absurd, but like, you know, give me a good football
10:28team.
10:29But, to your point, Toxic, every now and then, when they just slip in a nice little, like,
10:33oh, wow, they're 6-11 type of a season, that makes it fun.
10:38And then it also makes draft time fun, because you have this marquee franchise, and everyone's
10:41focusing on draft stuff.
10:42So, yes, the Cowboys being bad is very good for NFL fans, and very much enjoyable.
10:49At 17, it is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
10:52They put up a whole lot of points against the New Orleans Saints, and also gave up a
10:57whole bunch of points to Spencer Rattler.
10:59Although some of that was, uh, pick sixes and fumbles and all that stuff, but, um, they…
11:06this is where they should be.
11:08I have been caught in thinking too highly of Tampa Bay, and also I have at times been
11:12caught thinking too lowly of Tampa Bay, but we are now, I think, course-corrected and
11:17figured out what this team actually is.
11:20At 16, it is the Los Angeles Chargers.
11:23Again, offense, mid, defense is quite good, but not to the point that it carries them
11:30up to being anything beyond a middle-tier team.
11:33At 15, it is New Orleans.
11:35Probably a little bit too high, but still, um, up there a little bit, based off of how
11:40well things went in the beginning part of the season, and again, I have incredible respect
11:44for what they can do on the defensive side of the football.
11:47Really interested in the Thursday night game.
11:49Sorry, against the Denver Broncos.
11:52At 14, it's Seattle.
11:53Again, maybe a little bit too high, but again, this is one of those things where, okay, well
11:56I think Seattle's too high.
11:57Well, can I confidently put New Orleans ahead of them?
12:00No.
12:01Chargers?
12:02No.
12:03Bucs?
12:04No.
12:05Cards?
12:06No.
12:07Bengals?
12:08No.
12:09Cowboys?
12:10LOL.
12:11Like, all of these teams, like 14, when you watch Seattle play, it's like, well that
12:12is not the 14th best team in the NFL.
12:13And then you watch the 18 behind them, or 17 behind them, it's like, well, I mean, maybe.
12:18You know?
12:19There's just, there's a lot of mediocre, as we've discussed.
12:22And Seattle, I think is a step above that.
12:26They need to get healthy on defense, because it's starting to become really very much
12:30a problem for Seattle.
12:32At 13, it is Pittsburgh.
12:34Some talk that Russell Wilson could get the start this week at quarterback, that is a
12:38good way to fall down in the power rankings, but that defense continues to be a problem.
12:42At 12, it's the New York Jets.
12:45They lose but move up because they end up getting Devontae Adams, and we broke the trade
12:49down yesterday.
12:50Maybe not necessarily the biggest need that this team has right now, but it is certainly
12:55a team that I think could be, or it's certainly a move, that I think could help this team
13:01out a little bit further on.
13:03And it definitely puts them ahead of like, Pittsburgh, Seattle, New Orleans, LA for now.
13:07Even though they sit at 2-4.
13:11Coming in at, where are we?
13:12Number 11.
13:13It is the Philadelphia Eagles.
13:16They are not impressive at all.
13:20And I just, I wanted to believe, I wanted to buy in, and we said, going into last week,
13:25this was the week where it needed to be dominant.
13:27And so many times when we have that, it just doesn't get there.
13:30And this week, it just didn't get there.
13:32And so I am, I am done taking Philadelphia seriously as any kind of a threat.
13:36Which is not great when we have a ticket that says Philadelphia Eagles, number one seed
13:40in the NFC, doesn't feel good.
13:42I mean, they got the win, so that's great.
13:45But it hasn't looked like it at all.
13:47At 10, it is San Francisco getting back on track with a Thursday night win over Seattle.
13:51They are getting healthier, they are getting better, even though, I guess they're not
13:55getting all that much healthier with Mason getting hurt, but we'll see what his status
13:58is this week.
13:59At 9, it's Atlanta.
14:01It's becoming very apparent that what we saw week 1 for Atlanta against Pittsburgh was
14:05just working out some kinks, given that they didn't use a whole lot in the preseason, and
14:10we're starting to see, as the weeks go on, a little bit more creativity in the offensive
14:15play calling, better execution in the offensive play calling, and the defense is pretty good
14:19as well.
14:20At 8, it's Washington.
14:22They do take a bit of a dip after a loss against the Baltimore Ravens, but they held with Baltimore.
14:26Or they hung with Baltimore, sorry.
14:28And so I think they are still deserving of a top 10 spot.
14:31At 7, it's Green Bay.
14:33This was the most convincing victory and performance that Green Bay has had all season against
14:39Arizona, so that is, that is a good sign, again, for us.
14:44We were kind of on the Green Bay bandwagon.
14:46They are getting better as the season goes on, and it's kind of similar to last year.
14:51Only this year, they're not starting at 3-6, and making that push.
14:55They're starting right around 500, and making a push.
14:57So I think they're going to be dangerous.
14:59Walt's saying that Mason is practicing, he should be able to play against Kansas City
15:02on Sunday.
15:03That's fantastic news, especially for those of us who have Mason in fantasy leagues.
15:08At where do we go?
15:09At 6, it's Buffalo.
15:10They move up in the power rankings, getting Amari Cooper, and getting a big win over the
15:14New York Jets.
15:15I think Amari Cooper is exactly what this offense needed, and I think gets them back
15:20into kind of Super Bowl contention.
15:22Now as we talked about yesterday, defense still needs to be addressed, but it's looking
15:26up with Amari Cooper there.
15:28At 5, it is the Houston Texans, 41 points over the New England Patriots.
15:34Another strong showing against a defense that we think is supposed to be pretty good, although
15:37I think that is also changing a fair amount.
15:40At 4, it's Detroit.
15:43The Lions, boy did they feel a certain kind of way about playing the Dallas Cowboys last
15:50week.
15:51Hey, like that was a loss that really stuck with that team, and they pounded the hell
15:56out of them in this game, and just any nightmares they had from a season ago have all gone away
16:02based off of that one, because holy crap.
16:04And then our top 3 remain the same.
16:07At 3, it is the Minnesota Vikings, who still, it's still Sam Darnold, so we still can't
16:12get them in that top 2 yet, but they find their way on the podium.
16:15At 2, it is the Baltimore Ravens.
16:17Still some long-term concerns about that defense, but that was a good win against Washington.
16:21And at number 1, no one has knocked them off the perch yet.
16:24They are the Kansas City Chiefs.
16:27So those are the NFL Power Rankings as we head into week number 7.

Recommended