1. Patriots (7-0; last week No. 1): The richest get richer, even though they had to pay a pretty rich price to get Mohamed Sanu.
2. 49ers (6-0; No. 2): The playoffs are coming into focus; the No. 1 seed eventually will, too.
3. Saints (6-1; No. 3): They continue to win without key players. What will they do if they’re ever at full strength again?
4. Packers (6-1; No. 5): It sounds like hyperbole to say Aaron Rodgers had a career game on Sunday. Aaron Rodgers had a career game on Sunday.
5. Ravens (5-2; No. 7): Their win in Seattle transformed a semi-fraudulent 4-2 record into a legitimate 5-2.
6. Bills (5-1; No. 6): The record looks great, but the individual victories aren’t as impressive. Especially the most recent one.
7. Seahawks (5-2; No. 4): If they keep losing home games, the 12th Man may get their jersey unretired.
8. Vikings (5-2; No. 11): Three straight great performances go out the window if big-play Kirk reverts to prime-time Kurt against the team that drafted him.
9. Chiefs (5-2; No. 9): Absent Mahomes, the defense will need to play like it did against a horrible Denver offense with a couple of great offenses coming to town.
10. Panthers (4-2; No. 10): On Sunday, it’s the George Seifert bowl when a couple of former NFC West rivals get together in San Francisco; for Carolina, it’s their toughest test yet.
11. Colts (4-2; No. 17): Still less than two months after Andrew Luck retired, the Colts are pretty much where they would have been if he hadn’t.
12. Rams (4-3; No. 12): Jalen Ramsey has promised not to hold out next year. The real question is whether he has promised not to fake a back injury.
13. Cowboys (4-3; No. 13): Sunday night’s win should quiet both Doug Pederson and Urban Meyer.
14. Texans (4-3; No. 8): They’re too inconsistent to be a high-level contender.
15. Eagles (3-4; No. 14): They would have fallen farther, if there weren’t so many bad teams behind them.
16. Raiders (3-3; No. 16): Derek Carr didn’t learn from the mistake he made in 2017; the Raiders may be learning from the mistake they made in 2017.
17. Jaguars (3-4; No. 24): The schedule gives Jacksonville a chance to string some wins together -- and to make a run at the AFC South championship.
18. Steelers (2-4; No. 19): Of all teams with two or fewer wins, the Steelers are the one that can turn it around.
19. Lions (2-3-1; No. 18): After winning a couple of games the Lions of old would have lost, the Lions lost a couple of games the Lions of old would have lost.
20. Titans (3-4; No. 25): A win that should have been a loss is still a win.
21. Browns (2-4; No. 21): A win in New England would instantly change everything in Cleveland.
22. Bears (3-3; No. 15): The Bears are who we didn’t think they were.
23. Cardinals (3-3-1; No. 28): Three straight wins would usually push a team out of the bottom third. But when those wins come against teams in the bottom five, it’s going to take something bigger than that to bust out.
24. Broncos (2-5; No. 20): There’s a very fine line between Joe Cool and Joe Don’t Give a Crap.
25. Jets (1-5; No. 22): Sam Darnold wasn’t seeing ghosts as much as he was trying not to become one.
26. Buccaneers (2-4; No. 26): Four years after Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota squared off in Week One as rookies, Mariota is benched and Winston would be if the Bucs had a decent backup option.
27. Chargers (2-5; No. 23): Holding out wasn’t Melvin Gordon’s best leverage to force his way out of town; showing up was.
28. Giants (2-5; No. 27): The Shurmur murmurs will soon begin.
29. Falcons (1-6; No. 29): Good news -- the fans aren’t booing. Bad news -- the fans aren’t there.
30. Bengals (0-7; No. 30): They entered the year as the most irrelevant team in the league. And they’ve somehow gotten less relevant.
31. Washington (1-6; No. 31): But for the quagmire on which they played on Sunday, Washington would have lost by 40 or more points.
32. Dolphins (0-6; No. 32): Rarely does the same game feature appearances both by FitzMagic and FitzTragic.
