Week 3 NFL Barometer

Two weeks of the season are in the books and the NFC East appears to be the division to watch, boasting three teams in our top ten after an amazing Monday night shootout. The Cowboys picked up the 2008 season where they left off last year, as legitimate Super Bowl contenders. The Super Bowl champion New York Giants have won eight straight games and the Eagles have looked very good to open the season. Find out where these teams and the other 29 ranked this week in the Fantasy Football Cafe’s NFL Barometer.

After each week of the NFL season, several active Cafe members get together and rank the 32 NFL teams from first to worst. The Barometer is an average of the rankings submitted by these members. To maintain consistency, the high and low scores have been removed.

Rank	Change	TEAM	Avg Rank	L a m b s k i n	k n a p p l c	t r e a t	C o u g s	J o e l	4 P a c k	L e b e r
1 (1)		Dallas	1.2	1	2	1	3	1	1	1
A big divisional win in a wild game lands Dallas the top spot this week.
2 (2)		Pittsburgh	2.2	3	1	2	2	2	5	2
Another stellar peformance by Willie Parker. It appears the Steelers are going to ride him until the wheels fall off again.
3 (4)		Green Bay	3.6	4	5	4	1	3	4	3
Playing two of the worst pass defenses from a year ago has made Aaron Rodgers look pretty good so far.
4 (6)		NY Giants	4.2	5	3	6	4	4	2	5
Last week was just unfair. The Super Bowl champs destroyed arguably the worst team in the league.
5 (7)		New England	5.6	6	6	5	5	5	9	6
Matt Cassel is handling that Ferrari just fine.
6 (9)		Denver	5.8	2	4	3	7	8	8	7
Jay Cutler has his diabetes under control and is now firing on all cylinders.
7 (10)		Philadelphia	8.2	9	11	12	6	7	3	8
“DeSean Jackson to the 20! The 10! 5….fumble.” - Metroid
8 (3)		Indianapolis	9.0	7	9	14	9	15	6	4
Can you guess which two rankers watched both Colts games?
9 (13)		Carolina	9.2	12	7	9	12	9	7	9
The Panthers went undefeated without Steve Smith. They get him back just in time to face a suffocating Vikings defense.
10 (5)		San Diego	11.0	8	22	16	11	6	10	10
Toe injuries and blown calls are really hurting the Chargers this year.
11 (14)		Tennessee	11.0	16	10	7	8	12	12	13
CJ4.24 is proving to be the real deal.
12 (19)		Buffalo	11.2	11	8	8	13	10	16	14
Watch out New England - Buffalo is looking tough.
13 (8)		New Orleans	12.4	13	13	18	10	13	11	12
Dual threat Reggie Bush didn’t have enough this week.
14 (18)		Arizona	12.8	15	12	10	18	11	15	11
“Yes, the Cardinals are 2-0, but with victories over Miami and San Francisco, Cardinals’ fans may want to hold off on planning that Tampa vacation. ” - Kilroy
15 (15)		NY Jets	14.2	14	15	11	15	14	13	15
Favre was brought in for the Jets to win now and compete with the Patriots. They competed, but fell short.
16 (11)		Minnesota	16.4	11	23	15	19	16	14	18
Brad Childress’ playcalling is more of an issue for the Vikings than Tarvaris Jackson’s ineptitude at quarterback, and that is saying something. No wonder Andy Reid called his own plays when Childress was Philadelphia’s Offensive Coordinator.
17 (12)		Jacksonville	17.6	18	25	17	14	17	17	19
I thought the Jaguars had a good running game. I guess not.
18 (20)		Chicago	17.8	17	14	13	21	19	19	20
“The way Greg Olsen protects the ball, the Bears would be better off with Mary Kate Olsen at TE.” - 34=Sweetness
19 (17)		Tampa Bay	18.0	19	18	19	16	20	18	16
“2 Weeks, 2 Quarterbacks. So this is why Gruden has stockpiled QBs all this time. We are rotating them each week to save them for the playoffs.” - deerayfan072
20 (16)		Cleveland	19.6	20	26	21	17	18	22	17
“Cleveland….Two Home Games, no victories, and more injuries than touchdowns. Over/Under on the number of times hearing the name “Brady Quinn” in a five-minute stretch on Cleveland Sports Talk Radio? 4,322.” - Kilroy
21 (24)		Washington	21.6	21	21	23	22	21	24	21
Jason Campbell will need to play like he did on Sunday more often for the Redskins to even have a chance in the NFC East.
22 (22)		Baltimore	22.0	22	16	22	24	22	21	23
Ike gave Willis McGahee an extra week to heal up.
23 (23)		Houston	22.0	24	17	20	23	23	20	24
The Texans didn’t play and didn’t move in the rankings.
24 (21)		Seattle	24.2	25	27	27	20	24	23	22
Is there an NFL record for injuries to wide receivers?
25 (30)		San Francisco	25.0	23	20	25	25	26	27	26
The 49ers squeaked by a wide receiver deficient Seattle team in overtime as Isaac Bruce has people remember a bit of the old “Greatest Show on Turf.”
26 (25)		Atlanta	25.4	26	19	24	29	25	25	27
Hey, at least the Falcons got to play Detroit this year and make them look good for at least one game.
27 (31)		Oakland	26.2	27	24	26	26	27	28	25
A potent run game puts one in the win column for the Raiders, but will injuries slow that attack?
28 (26)		Cincinnati	28.4	28	28	28	28	29	29	30
Their once formidable passing game is now laughable.
29 (28)		Miami	29.2	29	30	29	27	30	30	28
The only good thing to come from Sunday was getting Chad Henne some real game experience. Not that it was a game at that point.
30 (27)		Detroit	29.6	32	31	30	30	28	26	29
“It seems like the NFL accidentally sent an email to the Lions secondary, saying that the game had been moved to November 7th.” - howardryan6
31 (29)		Kansas City	31.0	31	29	31	31	31	31	31
The vaunted Kansas City running game of a few years ago is gone. Even worse, the bad passing game and poor defense remains.
32 (32)		St. Louis	32.0	30	32	32	32	32	32	32
Nearly everyone now agrees that this team is the worst.

Thanks to everyone who helped make these rankings happen!

(10 votes, average: 3.7 out of 5)  Loading ... Questions or comments for Scott? Post them in the Cafe Forums! Want to see your own fantasy wisdom published? Check out the Cafe's Pencil & Paper section!