1. Saints (13-2; last week No. 1): Home for the holidays, and well beyond.
2. Rams (12-3; No. 5): The fact that such a flawed franchise has climbed back to No. 2 illustrates how muddled the top of the stack currently is, other than at No. 1.
3. Bears (11-4; No. 4): Beating the Vikings could end up being the thing that brings down a special season, since Chicago could then end up being the next notch in Nick Foles’ magic belt.
4. Patriots (10-5; No. 8): Please, keep writing them off.
5. Chiefs (11-4; No. 3): Even with the MVP on the roster, this team seems to be too flawed to get to the Super Bowl.
6. Chargers (11-4; No. 2): With a 6-0 record away from L.A., maybe they’re better off with the No. 5. seed.
7. Texans (10-5; No. 6): One more loss, and they’ll be hitting the road in the wild-card round.
8. Ravens (9-6; No. 9): Every AFC contender will be rooting for Baker Mayfield to knock out the most dangerous team in the conference.
9. Seahawks (9-6; No. 13): Rebuild this.
10. Colts (9-6; No. 10): Rebuild this.
11. Titans (9-6; No. 11): Blaine “Bad Penny” Gabbert actually could be starting a de facto playoff game.
12. Cowboys (9-6; No. 12): The clapping will continue into 2019.
13. Vikings (8-6-1; No. 14): The playoffs hinge on Kirk, not Kurt, showing up in Week 17.
14. Eagles (8-7; No. 15): Carson Wentz is a better quarterback, but with Nick Foles on the field the Eagles are a better team.
15. Steelers (8-6-1; No. 7): Mike Tomlin is the rare coach who has mastered the hard parts of the job, and yet continues to trip and fall over the easy stuff.
16. Browns (7-7-1; No. 16): If they’d fired Hue Jackson after the 2017 season, they’d be in the playoffs right now.
17. Packers (6-8-1; No. 21): Congratulations on getting that one road win this year.
18. Broncos (6-9; No. 17): First back-to-back losing seasons since 1971-72 means big changes are coming.
19. Washington (7-8; No. 18): D.J. Swearinger got the best Christmas gift ever.
20. Dolphins (7-8; No. 19): The question isn’t whether change is coming; it’s how dramatic the change will be.
21. Panthers (6-9; No. 20): Two coach of the year awards and a Super Bowl berth should get Ron Rivera at least another year.
22. Falcons (6-9; No. 28): So they’ll hire a new offensive coordinator, in the hope that he’ll perform well enough that someone else will hire him to be a head coach?
23. Giants (5-10; No. 22): The Eli Manning barometer is swinging back to the “gold watch and get out of here” range.
24. Raiders (4-11; No. 30): Goodbye Raiders, it’s been nice. Hope you find your paradise. And then move back here in about 20 years.
25. Jaguars (5-10; No. 31): Maybe they should bring back the two-tone helmets.
26. Bills (5-10; No. 23): Yes, it’s been a rough year. But there’s arguably more reason for hope now than there was a year ago.
27. Lions (5-10; No. 24): Coming from a team that had Gronk in his prime, you’d think Matt Patricia would have better ideas for how to cover a tight end.
28. Bengals (6-9; No. 25): Will this be the year Mike Brown makes a change? (Probably not.)
29. 49ers (4-11; No. 26): Kyle Shanahan would surely love to rob Sean McVay of his bye week.
30. Buccaneers (5-10; No. 27): When there are more people on the field than in the stands, yes, big changes are looming.
31. Jets (4-11; No. 29): Jim Harbaugh vs. the New York media would be far more compelling than the games.
32. Cardinals (3-12; No. 32): A quiet but lingering frugality could be holding the franchise back; it will be interesting to see how much they spend in the offseason on upgrading the coaching staff and front office.
