Herd Hierarchy: Colin Cowherd Ranks the 10 Best NFL Teams After Week 17 – January 5th
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10. Cleveland Browns (11-5) (7)
“I left a lot of good teams out but I’m going to give Cleveland number ten, and the reason is because of Kevin Stefanski and this offensive line. They have a negative point differential and you’re not going to win playoff games with a negative point differential. It’s hard to get to the playoffs doing that, and they’re the only playoff team of the 14 with that. It tells you that when they win it’s narrow, and when they lose it’s ugly. Their offensive line, which will now be missing their top guard, was the top rated, and I think they mostly do a good job of masking their bad and young secondary by controlling the line of scrimmage.”
9. Pittsburgh Steelers (13-3) (Unranked)
“I’ve been rough on them all year but I’ve always had a rule in the NFL – here’s how you win: find a quarterback, protect him, and then find players who will attack the other team’s quarterback. The Steelers have the fewest sacks taken in the NFL with 14, and yet they have the most sacks given with 56. Meaning they protect their quarterback and they get after yours. Quarterbacks that faced the Steelers this year had a passer rating of 76; that is astounding. For all of the running game issues they have, they protect their quarterback and they sack yours.”
8. Seattle Seahawks (12-4) (5)
“Seattle is a very shaky number eight, and a very shaky number three seed. Russell Wilson two of the last three games has under 200 yards passing. They are struggling throwing the football. It’s the worst passing offense in the league over the last three weeks. Do they snap out of it? I certainly wouldn’t want the playoffs to be a place where I ‘find’ my passing game. Jamal Adams is now dinged up in the back end of the secondary. There is so much I like about this team, but I do not like where they’re at. I don’t like the Rams matchup, which is a ferocious defense, great coach, and you just beat them a couple weeks ago so they know exactly what you do. I think this is a possible upset by the Rams this weekend.”
7. Indianapolis Colts (11-5) (Unranked)
“A team I haven’t shown any luck to, FINALLY the Colts are in. We know their defense and their coaching is good, but they couldn’t really run the football and that’s what they have to do with Philip Rivers. With no preseason it took them forever to figure out their running game, but they’ve figured it out in the last month. They’ve won 6 of 8, and figured out that Jonathan Taylor can spearhead a running game behind this great offensive line. That is the key to them; they take the ball away from Philip, who’s pretty good on scripted plays in the first half, but if you ask him to be dynamic in the second half you’re very limited.”
6. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (11-5) (6)
“I am worried because they are 1-5 against playoff teams. They were not very good at night, and maybe Brady goes to bed early. But they are very good against the run, and they take BIG chances defensively. I like that, they’re aggressive, sometimes to a fault. You can’t deny that Tom Brady is hot. Remember about four or five games ago when we couldn’t figure out what Antonio Brown was? They finally figured out how to integrate him into the offense. When Ronald Jones is healthy they have a very explosive running back. Brady has 40 touchdown passes this year, the most in Bucs history. Let’s be honest, Bruce Arians and Tom Brady have a lot of playoff experience, and that accounts for something.”
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