1. New Orleans Saints (1) - When you think of the Saints, your first thought is probably an all out passing attack lead by Drew Brees. They certainly have that, but they've proved themselves to be a very well rounded team. They are scary good right now and have another divisional home game this Sunday against a struggling Carolina team.

2. Indianapolis Colts (2) - It may not have looked pretty for the most part, but the Colts got the job done once again against San Francisco. They remain undefeated and have a chance to put a huge gap between them and the Texans in the AFC South when they play Houston at home this week. I think their offense is still a little too pass heavy at this point, but with Peyton Manning at the helm, it's difficult not to rely on him.

3. Minnesota Vikings (5) - The Vikings move right back up to the 3 slot this week after handling the Packers at Lambeau. They let Green Bay back in the game in the 2nd half, but held on for the win and now have a 2.5 game lead on the division heading into their bye week. Favre was spectacular by no means, but he has been plenty effective enough to lead the very good team around him thus far. With Detroit and Seattle at home in consecutive weeks after the bye, the Vikings are primed to put the NFC North in a stranglehold.

4. New England Patriots (4) - With many of the top teams on byes this last week, the upper part of the rankings are going to look pretty similar. The Pats have begun to look like their old selves once again and with the rest of the AFC East floundering, it's theirs for the taking. They are home against Miami this week and then off to Indy for the yearly battle of the power houses.

5. Denver Broncos (5) - I considered dropping the Broncos even further, but with just one loss, they have to remain above some of the other teams still. Baltimore really didn't have any difficulty in taking down Denver at all on Sunday and my season long concern as to whether Denver is for real or not has only grown. Their defense which had looked extremely good up until this week had no answer for the Ravens, who aren't exactly an offensive juggernaut. Meanwhile, Kyle Orton couldn't complete anything but short passes and the running game never got going at all. The Broncos had a total of 200 yards. Perhaps it was just an off week for Denver, but with Pittsburgh coming to town for Monday Night Football this week, we're going to find out just how legit the Broncos really are.

6. Cincinnati Bengals (6) - The Bengals had the week off after impressively taking care of Chicago in Week 6, and hopefully used the bye to their advantage as Baltimore is coming to town this week. The AFC North is going to be a battle throughout and if the Bengals can continue to beat division opponents at home, it would go a long way towards them making the playoffs. Cinncy better study the Broncos/Ravens game tape thoroughly and come up with a better plan of attack for the Ravens defense if they want to hang on to this spot in the rankings.

7. Philadelphia Eagles (9) - The Eagles have been floating around in the 7-10 range of our rankings all season and an impressive win against the Giants moves them back to the 7 spot this week. Philly is now tied with the Cowboys for the NFC East lead and are a half game up on the Giants as well. This division looks like it's going to take all year to decide at this point and you never really know what you're going to get on a weekly basis. They have a tough three game stretch coming up, hosting Dallas in a huge game on Sunday night this week before heading to San Diego and then off to Chicago. I expect them to continue to bounce the rankings for a few more weeks.

8. Pittsburgh Steelers (7) - The Steelers didn't do anything to deserve a drop in the rankings, but being idle while the Eagles beat up on the Giants gives them the bump. They're currently 5-2 and tied atop the AFC North with the Bengals, though they did suffer a loss to them already this season. The Steelers have relied heavily on Big Ben this year in contrast to past season where the running game and their defense were their strong suits, and he'll get a chance to prove the Steelers are still for real at mile high altitudes on Monday night. Week 10 brings a huge rematch against the Bengals, this time at Heinz Field, but I'd suggest the Steelers don't look past Denver in the meantime.

9. Baltimore Ravens (12) - The Ravens have been a real question mark so far this year, showing flashes of being a top level team, mixed in with equal amounts of "are these guys really any good?". Well, knocking off one of the last remaining unbeatens in very impressive fashion is a good way to gain credibility. The next few weeks will tell us what we need to know though. This week it's at the Bengals, then a breather in Cleveland on Monday Night Football, followed by hosting Indy and Pittsburgh in consecutive weeks. Baltimore probably needs to win 3 out of those 4 if they want a shot at the AFC North and the playoffs in my estimation.

10. Dallas Cowboys (11) - The Cowboys have rather quietly looked impressive lately and now sit in a tie at the top of the NFC East at 5-2. The Sunday Night game at Philly is a big one for this reason, but the whole division will likely change multiple times between now and late December. Tony Romo is 12-0 as a starter in November, but we all know how well he's fared in December too. The Cowboys looked impressive in beating Atlanta, but otherwise have not beaten anybody of quality, so they need to prove themselves, starting with this week.

11. Green Bay Packers (10) - Green Bay frustrates me, because they are really difficult to get a finger on. They seem like they are a pretty good team, but then they struggle at times. Losing twice to Minnesota is a killer in terms of having a chance to win that division and now they face an uphill battle at making the playoffs with so many evenly matched teams in the NFC. If Aaron Rodgers had any real pass protection, I think Green Bay would be an upper tier team in this league, but instead he's constantly pressured and has to force throws or eat sacks. Some of that falls on him though too as he tends to not have great pocket presence and move away from the heat at times. Playing Tampa this week is always a good cure for what ails you though.

12. New York Giants (8) - The Giants have done a great job of reminding us just how quickly the wheels can come off in the NFL. After getting out to a 5-0 start and looking like the best team in the league, they've lost 3 straight. Not only did Philly beat them on Sunday, but they pretty much embarrassed them in the process. They host San Diego this Sunday and absolutely need to win that game before they head to their bye week to try and create a little momentum for the second half of the season. I really don't know what exactly the problem is for New York, but as competitive as the division is, they need to get a handle on it sooner rather than later.

13. Atlanta Falcons (13) - I know the Falcons lost last night, but it was to the best team in the league and they played fairly well. Additionally, the teams below them in the rankings didn't do much to prove that they belonged ahead of Atlanta. The Falcons are similar to the Packers for me, as both teams seem to have the potential to be very good, but hit too many bumps in the road along the way. Atlanta looked solid last night in New Orleans and I definitely believe Matt Ryan is the real deal. Michael Turner finally got going and that could be big for them in the 2nd half of the season. The defense is the glaring issue it seems and needs to pick up their play. They have Washington and Carolina in consecutive weeks now and could very easily be 6-3 afterwards. With the Saints having the keys to the division, the Falcons focus now should be entirely on the Wild Card.

14. San Diego Chargers (15) - Not a lot of movement in the middle of the pack, as nothing much changed this week. The Chargers got another win, but again looked far from impressive against the Raiders. Well, other than LT anyways, who absolutely owns Oakland. The Chargers are 4-3 and their wins are Oakland twice, Kansas City, and Miami... not exactly impressive. Then again, they pull this every year and then get hot late to make the playoffs. It's too early to determine their fate this season, but middle of the pack seems about the best this team is going to manage.

15. Houston Texans (18) - I realize it was only the Bills that they beat this week, but they did drop 30 on a defense that hasn't allowed too many points as of late. A running back nobody knew about had 3 TDs and a ton of yards, but I wouldn't be running to pick him up in your fantasy league just yet. Again, it was the Bills, and EVERYBODY gets 100+ on the ground against them. You can't ignore the fact that they are 5-3 however, and that Matt Schaub has been one of the most effective quarterbacks in the league so far this year. They are at Indy this week before their bye, which is going to be a daunting task. I'd like to see them finally finish above .500 this year and have a shot at the postseason. They've been trying to build things the right way in Houston, it's just been a slow process.

16. Miami Dolphins (16) - The Dolphins pulled off the sweep of the Jets, but needed 2 Ted Ginn kickoff return TDs to do it. We all laughed at Miami for drafting Ted Ginn 9th overall in 2007 and said he'd never be more than a kickoff returner. That's pretty much accurate at this point, but you know what, it's still worked out better than the Bills wasting the #8 pick on Donte Whitner the year before... The Dolphins weren't very impressive in the victory, but every win counts. The AFC East is pretty horrendous after New England and I'd be amazed if any of the other 3 made the playoffs.

17. Chicago Bears (19) - There's no better way to bounce back from a big loss than playing the Cleveland Browns. The Bears had no trouble handling Cleveland and moved themselves to 4-3. The Bears are another of those teams that really haven't indicated they will be anything more than middle of the road as of yet. They host the Cardinals this week and then have a short week before heading to San Francisco for a Thursday night game. Those could be tricky games and the schedule gets harder after that, so now would be a good time for the Bears to kick it into gear if they want to live up to a lot of people's preseason hype.

18. Arizona Cardinals (14) - How do you go into New York and beat down the Giants one week, then come back home and get your tail kicked by the Panthers the next? Kurt Warner was awful on Sunday, doing his best Jake Delhomme impression and turning the ball over 5 times. Arizona should be walking away with the awful NFC West, but they're doing their best to keep it close at this point. The Cardinals are 4-3 and after heading to Chicago this Sunday, have a stretch where their next 3 opponents have a combined 4 wins. They need to capitalize on this fact and stretch that division lead back out.

19. New York Jets (17) - The Jets are probably the worst 4-3 team in the league and have done themselves no favors at all in the division losing to the Bills and the Dolphins twice. They were awful proud to hang their hat on the win against New England, but they've been exposed as a not so good team in recent weeks. To top it off, Rex Ryan and Bart Scott refused to give Miami any credit at all in defeat, so they actually still think they are a really good team. They are off this week, but have the rematch with New England in Week 11, which will likely cement the fact that they aren't going to the playoffs this year.

20. San Francisco 49ers (21) - It's not too normal for a team to move up in the rankings after a loss, but San Francisco earned it by hanging tough with the Colts in Indianapolis. Well, that and the all the teams around them continued to lose for the most part. Mike Singletary seems to me making the best of what little talent he has and some guys are stepping up with big contributions. This week it was Frank Gore and Vernon Davis had another solid week as well. They are very slowly moving in the right direction and if Arizona isn't careful, they're going to let the 49ers catch them at some point. I think San Fran can finish close to .500 given their remaining schedule and playoffs or not, it's a definite step up.

21. Carolina Panthers (24) - Don't be fooled, Carolina is really not very good, but having Arizona hand them a game on a silver platter can make them look like they are. I will give the running game some credit though as they absolutely tore through the Cardinals top ranked run defense, to the tune of 270 yards. Taking the game out of Delhomme's hands worked well for Carolina, and I'd expect them try more of it as the weeks go by, assuming Delhomme is healthy enough to play anyways after leaving Sunday's game with an injury.

22. Jacksonville Jaguars (20) - Somebody had to surrender Tennessee's first win of the year right? I actually called this one in the picks column and was really quite confident it would play out as it did. Chris Johnson single handedly destroyed the Jaguars and Maurice Jones-Drew seemed to be the only guy to show up for Jacksonville. On the bright side, Jacksonville Municipal Stadium had almost 85,000 people at the game this weekend. Oh... what's that you say? The Jaguars were on the road and it was a college game? Maybe that's not so bright after all then.

23. Buffalo Bills (23) - The bottom third of these rankings are really just a grab bag of crap and I'm not very confident that the Bills could beat half the teams around them at this point. There are 3 sides to a football team... Special teams has been the best unit as per usual for the Bills the past few weeks, playing very solidly and giving them great field position on more than one occasion. The Defense has been stingy with points for the most part until the 2nd half of this week's game and all the turnovers they've caused are pretty much the only reason they won two in a row. Jairus Byrd has put his name in contention for AFC Defensive Rookie of the Year in a huge way with 7 interceptions in 4 games (Donte Whitner has 3 in 4 seasons). The run defense looks like Swiss cheese however and is allowing everybody they face to rack up the yards. The 3rd side of most NFL teams is the offense, but since the Bills don't seem to have one of those, I guess we can forget that. I was seriously more impressed by the offense I saw at a local high school game on Friday night than I am with Buffalo's. It all starts with the offensive line and I feel like I've been saying that to no avail for about 6 years now.

24. Seattle Seahawks (22) - Seattle didn't even look like they belonged on the same field as Dallas and I now completely retract my statement from before the season that they would have something of a bounce back year. The Seahawks are a flat out bad football team and need to officially begin the rebuilding process. First item on the list is a new quarterback, good thing there are several available in this year's draft, and they figure to have a pretty decent spot to take one.

25. Oakland Raiders (26) - Yup, I just bumped the Raiders up a spot after a loss. It's more by default than anything else really. The Raiders found a way to hang tough with the Chargers yet again despite JaMarcus Russell, the worst (well, Derek Anderson is right with him) starting quarterback in the NFL. You know it's bad when your head coach currently has more people accusing him of assault then the team has wins...

26. Kansas City Chiefs (25) - The Chiefs have two of their more winnable games coming up after this week's bye when they head to Jacksonville followed by going to Oakland. They still have Cleveland and Buffalo on the schedule as well, so some small miracle might afford them 5 wins for the year. Honestly, I just don't have much to say about Kansas City because watching their games would be coma inducing.

27. Tennessee Titans (30) - The Titans finally got a win and almost looked like a competent team on Sunday. As I called in last week's picks column, Chris Johnson had a monstrous day with 228 yards and 2 touchdowns. Vince Young went 15/18 and didn't turn the ball over, which is really about the most you could hope for from him. If the Titans don't rely on Young to win them games, they'll be all the better for it. Their remaining schedule is far from difficult and I wouldn't be surprised to see them end up with about 6 wins at all. I think it will be a continuous rise up the rankings for Tennessee the rest of the way out.

28. Washington Redskins (28) - Mercifully the Redskins were on a bye this week and they stay put at 28 because of it. They seriously need to move past Jason Campbell at this point because he is downright terrible and removing him as a starter does not lessen their ability to win in the least. Washington's schedule is brutal with their next 5 opponents holding a combined 27-8 record. Much like Seattle, the Redskins best hopes now lie in a high draft pick with which they can select a quarterback.

29. Detroit Lions (27) - Losing to the Rams has to drop the Lions some, but I still think they are a better team than the other remaining teams. Being without Calvin Johnson clearly hurt their offense as they were forced to try and pound Kevin Smith and Maurice Morris all day long. Matthew Stafford is taking his lumps, but will likely be better off for it in the long run. The Lions have Seattle and Cleveland over the course of the next 3 weeks and should certainly pick up at least one more win in the process. Things are bad for the Lions, but definitely better than last year.

30. St. Louis Rams (32) - The streak finally snaps after 17 games and almost 13 months. The Rams just happened to be the better of two very bad teams on Sunday afternoon and finally got Steve Spagnolo a victory. The Rams can savor this one as they are off this week, but the joy will be short lived however as their reward is to host New Orleans in Week 9. I really only see one more potential win for the Rams when they play Seattle at home later in a few weeks, so I hope they get the most out of this one.

31. Cleveland Browns (29) - Count Cleveland in amongst the several lousy teams that are on a bye this week, and therefore will make my NFL Sunday much more watchable. The Browns are comically bad and managed less than 200 yards of offense in this week's drubbing at the hands of Chicago. Derek Anderson was 6/17 for 76 yards with 2 INTs and a spectacular 10.5 QB rating. As bad as Brady Quinn was to start the year, he wasn't as horrendous as Anderson has been and I'll be amazed if he doesn't return at starter when they host Baltimore for Monday Night Football in 2 weeks. The most depressing thing I can think of at the moment: The Browns lone win came in Buffalo.

32. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (31) - Hopefully the Bucs made the most of their bye week in getting Josh Freeman ready for his first career start at QB. He'll be facing a talented Green Bay defense this Sunday and is likely in for a very long day. Of course, being a part of Tampa's team this year means a whole lot of long days all the way around. The Buccaneers are the lone winless team left in the NFL and I honestly think at Seattle on December 20th is their sole chance to pick up a win, and even that is pretty questionable. The "Yucks" are officially back and have the distinct chance of being the only team to have 2 winless seasons in NFL history.