I just finished making a tier list based on how every team has been performing through the first three weeks of the season. I'd expect these rankings to change as we get deeper into the schedule and have our first batches of bye weeks for teams around the league. Here's what I was able to come up with based on factors like margin of victory, who played which teams, et cetera. Often times, upset wins and upset losses will balance each other out, hence the wide array of mid-tier teams this so far this season.
Now for some early-season takeaways, too.
- Despite their 3-0 start with two upset wins, I'm not entirely sold on the Dolphins just yet. The team still has two areas I would like to see addressed before I choose to call them legit contenders, those being the lack of a run game and the numerous offseason drama stories the organization was involved in. The Dolphins' league-leading passing attack is great to see, but if you actually look at the statistics you'll find that this is more so because of the play calling ratio of runs to passes throughout their games. If they can show me that the people running the organization (notably without their old coach) can utilize the run game tools they have more while still maintaining their passing attack, then I'll be convinced they're the real deal.
- The NFC East is unironically doing really well so far to start the season, but how much of this is because other divisions are under-performing compared to their expectations? The frontrunning Eagles in particular have what I believe to be the most well-rounded offense in football right now, but they haven't played any tougher opponents yet and their defensive inconsistency still concerns me just a little.
- The Denver Broncos are in a weird spot right now. Their offensive game across the board was supposed to be receiving a major overhaul with Russell Wilson and a new offensive coordinator from Green Bay, but this is all happening at a time where their new head coach isn't doing very well at all. The result is a lot of ugly scores and uncertainty on a weekly basis.