20. Dallas Cowboys (22)
While everyone was a bit surprised by the fact that the Cowboys went from going toe-to-toe with the Eagles to finding themselves in an overtime shootout with the Giants, two things are true about this team. First, this offense is going to be electric, especially if we continue to see a resurgent Javonte Williams being the lead back playing at this level. Second, however, any positives about the defense may have been more about a tepid Eagles offense than anything else.
Quite simply, Dallas might have one of the worst defenses in the league. That's going to be great news for fantasy football managers who have a roster full of Cowboys. Outside of that, though, it's going to be a trying season for fans as this team isn't going to make a damn thing easy all year long. But hey, at least they have Brandon Aubrey, who is quickly throwing his hat in the ring as the best kicker in the game.
19. Pittsburgh Steelers (14)
Being as transparent with you as possible, I’m starting to fully lose faith in Mike Tomlin. By proxy, that also means starting to lose faith in the Steelers. Aaron Rodgers didn’t play poorly in the loss to the Seahawks, and anyone blaming the mercurial quarterback isn’t paying attention. Tomlin’s gameplan was vanilla, he put Kaleb Johnson in a bad spot that the rookie clearly wasn’t prepared for, the defense got torched without Joey Porter Jr., and it frankly all seemed messy.
Steelers fans were highly critical of Tomlin and the current team's regime as a whole this offseason, and that's starting to look valid. Especially after seeing the Jets get completely steamrolled by the Bills after Pittsburgh was in a dogfight with New York the week prior, there's a lot of reason to be more pessimistic than anyone expected about the Steelers after what we saw on Sunday.
18. Minnesota Vikings (9)
Woof. We saw the same rough start from J.J. McCarthy and the Vikings offense that we did in Week 1, but the issue for Minnesota was that the late-game heroics never came this time around. It was just bad all around and, while the Vikings defense did everything it could to try and slow down the Falcons offense, when you only score six points and are continually putting that defense in bad spots, that’s a nearly impossible task.
Of course, McCarthy also suffered an ankle injury in the loss, which will force Carson Wentz into action. Given how blatant McCarthy’s inexperience has been, that might actually be best for Kevin O’Connell’s offense right now, but the high vibes coming out of the opener have flown by the wayside equally as quickly.
17. Denver Broncos (12)
Because I’m starting to believe a bit in the Colts, I’m not going to knock the Broncos quite as much as some others might. At the same time, you can’t hide the truth that a team many were calling a dark-horse contender entering the season has looked quite poor through their first two games of the campaign. Fighting tooth and nail to overcome mistakes and beat the Titans in Week 1 was worrisome, but losing to the Colts the following week was even worse.
Now, I’m sure people are going to be quick to point out the controversial leverage penalty on the Colts’ game-winning field goal attempt that gave Indy another shot that they then converted. That’s true, but if Denver was as good as they were billed to be coming into the season, they’d also have never been in that situation.
16. Atlanta Falcons (20)
After becoming of the butt of several jokes with the loss to Tampa in Week 1, the Falcons came back around with a statement on Sunday night to get the job done against the Vikings. Admittedly, Atlanta feasted on a depleted Vikings offensive line and an inexperienced quarterback, but you have to play the teams in front of you.
I’m still waiting to see a bit more from Michael Penix Jr., but even still, the weapons on this offense are still doing enough to get it done. And shout out to John Parker Romo for coming in off the street to be the steady hand (foot?) that this team needed in a pinch.