The upper crust has solidified a bit with a pretty nice second tier as well. Hell, my top 14 is even split 50/50 with AFC and NFC teams. Obviously, the actual playoff picture looks a little different with SF and PIT in place of BAL and DAL (they just have much better records), but still, I’m pretty happy where we are after eight weeks.

Some Notes:

• Philly is still incredibly tough to rate. Big cracks in the defense, inconsistent offense, and no injuries to Saq and AJ to complicate things further.

• New England may not beat any good teams over the next month, but I will keep an eye on the offensive line and coverage units, as they are the areas holding them back from sneaking into the top five right now.

• No idea what to assume we get out of Lamar, to the point where I have crossed off betting that game altogether (maybe the 2nd half).

• Rattler to Shough doesn’t move the needle for me. Maybe slightly higher ceiling just because of the unknown.

• The same goes for Minnesota, going back to JJ McCarthy. We’ve seen a bit of him, and I’m not going to make some big adjustment up.

• Washington is getting healthy (upgrade!), but plays Seattle, Detroit, and Denver in November. With both Eagles’ matchups left and five in the loss column already, they’ll need to win as underdogs at least a couple of times to get into the playoff mix.

• Dallas will likely continue to win games against defenses willing to give up 35 points, and lose games against defenses that aren’t (I have ARI as my 24th-rated defense).

• My Chicago number feels too high, and I will be spending the day figuring out if I’m right or my numbers are.

GET FREE MONEY BEFORE THIS DEAL DISAPPEARS

Best of the Best

A quick look at which units I have rated the highest so far this season

Offensive Line: Denver! Even without being 100% healthy, this squad is living up to expectations. The QBs’ sack avoidance helps a bit, but they only allowed four pressures last week and have the run game working better than I had hoped for. (Worst Offensive Line: Miami)

Run Stop Defense: Seattle, depsite not having a full compliment of healthy DBs to assist the front seven. Giving up the fewest yards per game, the least amount of EPA per rush, and the fewest rushing 1st downs per game. (Worst Run Stop: Cincy)

Pass Rush: Denver again. Seemingly unsustainable amount of pressures. Maybe they can keep it up; it’ll certainly get tougher without last year’s DPOY in the secondary giving them time. (Worst Pass Rush: Carolina)

Pass Coverage: Houston. As all things are connected, this is partially a product of having a great pass rush as well, but Stingley, Lassiter, and Pitre are turning out to be a damn fine coverage group. (Worst Pass Coverage: I’ll give you two guesses and a hint: they are also Texas-based).

I don’t really know about QB/offense and how to say who’s the “best,” seeing how you can’t really have a good offense without a QB that’s driving it. My top three, removing priors from last year, are Daniel Jones, Drake Maye, and Sam Darnold.

Am I excited to take any of those guys in a playoff game instead of Patty M? Of course not, but as far as pure power ratings—how I try to quantify how well a QB is playing —they are ahead of him. Football is weird.

See you at 3 pm ET to talk about the rest of the week nine action. Hop in live if you can, and we’ll interact, virtually!