| Rnk | LW | Team | Record | Comments |
| 1. | 1. | Pittsburgh Steelers | 10-1 | Have been winning ugly since they made a name for themselves by obliterating the Patriots and Eagles in back-to-back weeks. The main concern is an offensive line that is suddenly having trouble protecting Ben Roethlisberger. A schedule that could make it difficult to end up with home field over the Patriots doesn't help. |
| 2. | 2. | New England Patriots | 10-1 | Appear to have fully recovered from the blowout loss in Pittsburgh. A ridiculously easy finishing schedule makes 15-1 look like a very real possibility. |
| 3. | 3. | Philadelphia Eagles | 10-1 | Like it or not, anything short of a Super Bowl berth will be considered a monumental failure. |
| 4. | 4. | Indianapolis Colts | 8-3 | Peyton Manning continued his assault on the record books against the overmatched Lions. None of this really matters though if Manning can't overcome Pittsburgh and/or New England on the road in January. |
| 5. | 5. | Atlanta Falcons | 9-2 | Michael Vick needs only 291 more yards rushing to top 1000 for the season. Now if he could only improve his passing accuracy. |
| 6. | 6. | San Diego Chargers | 8-3 | Drew Brees continues to roll toward a big payday as an unrestricted free agent. |
| 7. | 9. | Green Bay Packers | 7-4 | Won their 6th straight in Brett Favre's 200th consecutive start. |
| 8. | 10. | New York Jets | 8-3 | Defense came up big with Chad Pennington recovering from a shoulder injury. |
| 9. | 11. | Minnesota Vikings | 7-4 | Increased their record to 5-1 with Randy Moss. |
| 10. | 7. | Denver Broncos | 7-4 | Somehow lost an 11 point 4th quarter lead at home in the snow against the struggling Raiders. Can now not afford to come up short in San Diego. A loss would deal a serious blow to their playoff aspirations. |
| 11. | 8. | Baltimore Ravens | 7-4 | Kyle Boller has shown some flashes recently, but he was clearly no match for Bill Belichick and Romeo Crennel. |
| 12. | 12. | Jacksonville Jaguars | 6-5 | Loss in Minnesota means they will be fighting for their playoff lives at home on Sunday night against the Steelers. |
| 13. | 17. | Buffalo Bills | 5-6 | To bad they aren't in the NFC West. They would probably win the division. |
| 14. | 13. | St. Louis Rams | 5-6 | About the only thing they have managed to do right this year is beat the Seahawks twice. |
| 15. | 14. | Seattle Seahawks | 6-5 | Still officially lead the pathetic NFC West. A 29 point blowout loss at home to a team that hadn't won a road game all season doesn't breed much confidence. |
| 16. | 20. | Cincinnati Bengals | 5-6 | The 106 total points scored in Cincinnati last Sunday was the second most ever in an NFL game. |
| 17. | 23. | Houston Texans | 5-6 | Finally woke up from their post-bye nightmare to erase a 21-3 deficit and start Steve McNair talking about retirement. |
| 18. | 25. | Carolina Panthers | 4-7 | Winning streak has them back in the hunt for the final playoff spot in the watered down NFC. |
| 19. | 29. | Dallas Cowboys | 4-7 | Maybe bypassing Steven Jackson to trade down and acquire Julius Jones and a future first round pick wasn't such a bad move after all. |
| 20. | 15. | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 4-7 | Finally said goodbye to the slumping Martin Gramatica after his 3 misses on relatively short attempts cost them a game they could not afford to lose. |
| 21. | 16. | Tennessee Titans | 4-7 | Numerous cap related free agent losses and injuries to Steve McNair have finally taken their toll. |
| 22. | 19. | New York Giants | 5-6 | The decision to bench Kurt Warner for Eli Manning hasn't exactly worked out. Manning is 0-2 with an incredibly horrendous QB rating of 37.8. Warner had at least managed a somewhat respectable 85.5 rating. |
| 23. | 21. | New Orleans Saints | 4-7 | Jim Haslett appears to be the next coach to go and a blowout loss at any point could hasten his departure. |
| 24. | 24. | Kansas City Chiefs | 3-8 | This has not been a stellar season for old guard coaches Dick Vermeil, Bill Parcells and Joe Gibbs. |
| 25. | 30. | Oakland Raiders | 4-7 | Norv Turner and Kerry Collins finally seem to be making some strides in the right direction. |
| 26. | 18. | Chicago Bears | 4-7 | Turn to Chad Hutchinson at QB with the newly signed Jeff George as his backup. Neither can be worse than Jonathon Quinn or Craig Krenzel. |
| 27. | 22. | Arizona Cardinals | 4-7 | Decision to bench Josh McCown has led to a big mess. Now rookie 7th rounder John Navarre will get a start. It is almost like Denny Green is trying to lose games to improve next year's draft position. |
| 28. | 26. | Detriot Lions | 4-7 | Joey Harrington continues to disappoint. |
| 29. | 27. | Washington Redskins | 3-8 | Remember back in week 1 when the Clinton Portis for Champ Bailey trade looked like it would help both teams. Now Portis is splitting time with Ladell Betts and Bailey is being schooled by receivers like Ronald Curry and Doug Gabriel. Hard to believe. |
| 30. | 28. | Cleveland Browns | 3-8 | Another one bites the dust. Butch Davis is officially out. Offensive coordinator Terry Robiskie will take over as interim coach. |
| 31. | 32. | Miami Dolphins | 2-9 | Solid defense continues to keep them in games. |
| 32. | 31. | San Fransisco 49ers | 1-10 | They better hope Matt Leinart changes his mind and decides to declare early for the draft. |