Real vs. Mirage teams at the 8/17ths point of the season.
 

Looking at all of the teams that are 6-3 or better, which ones are legitimately good teams in 2022, and which ones are a mirage thriving on luck or scheduling?

Poll coming faster than a Khalen Saunders pass rush.

AFC
Chiefs
Bills
Dolphins
Ravens
Titans

NFC
Eagles
49ers
Vikings
Seahawks
Cowboys

The Chiefs are not a real good team. Their poor special teams play has directly factored into all of their losses so far, nearly cost them another loss in the Titans game, and a missed extra point against the Bills meant the Chiefs, down by 4, had to score a TD on their final drive. KC barely squeaked by the 2-6 Faiders (at HOME!) and lost to the Colts who are now 3-5-1 and recently changed out their head coach. The illusion has been created that KC can score from anywhere on the field, but that is not the reality. The Chiefs' running game is more miss than hit, and KC is 28th in the league for most penalty yards assessed (9.3) per penalty.
Please stop drinking the so-called beer that actually tastes like Kool-Aid...because it IS Kool-Aid!

Go root for the Titans if you want a team that doesn’t do that shit. I’ll stay with the Chiefs thank you very much

So, ignore the fact that they lead the league in points per game by a good margin, because their kicker occasionally misses extra points.

Thanks for the insight.

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Cowboys and the Jets are the two toughest questions for me.

And ultimately deciding if a team is a good football team is a little like deciding if you should get married or not.

If you have to think about it, you have your answer.

The Chiefs offense is #1 in EPA per drive, and the gap between them and the #2 offense (Buffalo) is the same as the gap between Buffalo and the #18 offense (Chicago).

Are things okay at home, 1COOLDOG?

The eagles are NOT a good team....

CHANGE MY MIND

They're 8-0 and yes, it's a light schedule, but we lost to the Colts who are as bad as anyone Philly has played.

Philly also beat Dallas and Minnesota, who are good teams.

And to take a different tact - what DON'T they do well? Very good in the trenches, very good skill position players, a strong secondary, quality LB play. They don't have a truly great RB and their QB is untested, but he's playing extremely well.

I have a hard time saying they aren't a good football team.

Minnesota will get ass****ed by a physical playoff team.

Eagles are the 2014 Chiefs. Ball bounces the right way for half a season, but when they run up against real teams their warts will appear.

:eek: ROFL

You have to be pretty good to be 8-0 in the NFL, but it doesn't make them a top tier team.

KC started 9-0 in Alex Smith's first year, and nothing stood out about that team other than Charles.

They might not be the best team, but they are certainly a good team.

I'm not sure what the measuring stick is but I think Seattle makes the playoffs. I could see the Vikings winning the division or not even making the playoffs. Flaky team...

So will everyone else's.

Who has fewer of them in the NFC?

Again - what obvious weaknesses do they have? It's a strong roster.

I dunno, I feel like the Chiefs are practically a Golden State/NBA type of team that plays pretty vanilla and 'meh' in the regular season sometimes, or a lot of the times.... while other teams with something to prove more or less don't take teams for granted to the same extent.

Look at 2020 Bills and 2020 Chiefs, point differential champs vs skirting by against the Falcons at home.

I feel like the Vikings are fraudier than the Eagles and Cowboys with how they've pulled games out of their asses against their shit schedule... but any of those teams could make the SB at this point with how awful the NFC is right now and I'd still have big doubts they're all that good.



Granted, I think much of it comes down to what is 'Real' or 'Good'.... playoff contenders? Yeah, any ~.500 team can make the playoffs, so I guess most of those teams would qualify.

Super Bowl contenders? I mean, I guess a couple of NFC teams will actually by default contend for the Super Bowl, but would you be THAT surprised if any of them lost their first playoff game?

I think the only 'real' teams at this point are the Chiefs and Bills... teams you'd be legitimately surprised if they lost their first playoff game (as long as it's not against each other, of course), and even mildly surprised if one didn't make it to the SB.

Eagles, Vikes, Cowboys, Bills, Seahawks, Dolphins are the ones I took as good.

None are as good as the Chiefs, but those are the ones I feel are real. Don’t trust Jets, Ravens (although if they get healthy that could change), and Giants just feel like mirage teams.

Could you imagine the Vikes starting out 7-1 and then not winning that shit division?

PHI - soft schedule, and Jalen isn't in the same league w/JA or Pat, but he's led the team to an 8-0 start, and you are what your record says you are in the NFL.

DAL - mirage, because Cowboys. Until they actually do something I aint buying. Great defensive front though.

NYG - mirage, because Danny Dimes. They have many of the pieces to be a pretty good team, but Danny is a waste of space.

SEA - For real, though Geno isn't the second coming of Joe Montana. He's better than I thought he was, but still not a top-10 QB

MIN - mirage, until they can come out of NOV-DEC with a winning record

BUF - for real. Best team in the AFC, probably the NFL untl proven otherwise, and dropping a game to the NYJ aint it. See KC dropping one to IND for reference.

NYJ - mirage, but best NYJ team in maybe a decade or more. Trending in the right direction, but still not actually a good team

MIA - good team. Tons of weapons, a good defense that could get better as the season progresses. Tua is the weakest link for now

KC - for real, but a lot of moving parts still. Defense is still gelling, but trending positively, and offense is developing as well.

BAL - mirage. Lamar is basically a finished product at this point, still not that dangerous as a passer. Defense isn't that good and running game is very average without Lamar padding the stats on the ground.

I would say if Seattle is for real we have to say Dallas is for real. Unless you are saying Dallas has fooled us too many times. I would need Geno to show me something in a big moment as well in that case.

The jets are a freakshow as far as talent & depth on defense, just talent all over the field. Elite corners on both sides. Their backup pass rushers could start for a lot of teams. Offensively they have tons of talent at receiver and Mike Lafleur is very creative with his run blocking schemes like Shanahan. If Zach Wilson starts getting it together look out.

Forgot Niners. I think they win the NFC.

That's it. DAL has proven to be nothing more than a little smoke and mirrors way too often to be taken seriously as a SB contender. For now. maybe this year they don't shit the bed down the stretch, win their division, and make a deep run in the playoffs.

But there's literally nothing in their previous 30-odd years that says that's going to happen.

SEA, on the other hand, I just saw live vs. the Cards on Sunday. They're good, but Geno didn't particularly impress me from a pure passer standpoint. He looked a lot like prime Alex Smith to me, actually. A game-manager style, don't throw it anywhere risky, hand it off a bunch of times.

The last drive or two he showed some scrambling and running skills, yes. But as a passer he missed a bunch of open receivers, mostly just didn't see them, but still. I could break down all the weaknesses I saw in his game, but really it comes down to this:

Geno has become a mature, high-percentage game-manager QB. He's not putting the ball in dumb places, and he's been pretty accurate inside about 25 yards. He will throw it deep, but that's not his strength. And he's not going to carry a team on his own.

What's carrying SEA is their defense. They looked pretty good on Sunday. They got pressure fairly consistently without having to blitz, their LBs were making plays both in the run and the passing game, and their secondary held up well vs. DHop. Yeah, DHop made some plays and was really the only bright spot on the Cards offense, but SEA didn't allow anyone else to do very much.

But that defense is legitimate. The offense is working because they have some good to elite players over there, and a decent run game. But they aren't going to go toe-to-toe with the best teams in the league.

You know what Geno is, I just realized it. He's a system QB. Geno has become a top-tier QB within that SEA system.

Yes, "they lead the league in points per game by a good margin"..but the Chiefs still have 2 losses. How do you explain how that happens?

And Butker misses too many 3-pointers. He's 32nd in the league this year in FG percentage made (62.5%), and tied for 27th in Extra Point percentage made (92.3%).

Check out the Chiefs' running offense and turnover differential statistics through your rose-colored glasses.

I'm not saying they're in the bottom third of the league overall. But I am saying that they have too many flaws in certain key areas.

Explain how that happens? They’re on pace for a 13-4 record. Why should they apologize for that?

It was obvious to everyone that the Colts game was a fluke that required a lot to go wrong.

The last thing I’m worried about is Butker. Especially after he recently set a Chiefs record by drilling a 62 yd FG.

I picked my favorite football team The Kansas City Chiefs to be the only good for real team and all other teams are mirage.

The entire NFC just wreaks of aids

More like 1DUMBASS

I voted for KC Chiefs as my favorite team

Jets I dithered on but ultimately it's a good team with a bad QB, at least under pressure, and I think that just normally means they're ultimately a bad team. They're good enough to grind out wins against some good teams, but unless their QB play improves I think it's a mirage - at least in terms of them being contenders. I don't like Salah at all but he's done a good job, I'll grant him that.

I agree.

Philly vs San Fran @ Philly.


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Travis Kelce brother plays for them and wants to play Eagles in the Super Bowl.

Also hell of a story Andy Reid vs his old team Eagles that be cool as ****.

So Eagles are a good team and I think we play then in the Super Bowl.

Ignore all the good things the chiefs have done and focus on the bad. Dumb dumb dumb

Kirk cousins

Eagles look legit to me. Yeah they probably have the weakest QB out of the contenders, but who know what Hurts ends up being, and there are far worse QBs that have a ring.

Roseman's done a pretty damn good job imo. He cut bait on Wentz when it was obvious it was a mistake and got decent compensation, Sirriani looks like a success despite being roundly mocked when appointed. He built a SB winning roster and he's built another very solid one, decent drafts and trades. Possibly solved the QB problem with a fairly unheralded R2 pick. Lots to like.

LMAO

This is magnificent. Especially the Cardinals disclaimer.

At this point it appears that our "team is for real" rankings are:

Chiefs - 98%
Bills - 90%
Eagles - 81%
Dolphins - 68%
Cowboys - 48%
Ravens - 46%
Vikings - 41%
Seahawks - 36%
Jets - 23%
Giants - 10%

I was most curious what people thought about the Jets. I think they might be a more dangerous team than the world thinks right now.

He play for the Eagles now?

Lol, what? Is that a real question? Tell me you aren't this stupid.

To be fair, the post you quoted mentioned both Minnesota and Philly. You didn't say which one you were talking about. ;)

You misspelled your true identity, carcinogen.

The fckn Vikings are 7-1 ?????? Shit. How'd I miss that

Good Teams:
Eagles
Chiefs
Bills
Dolphins

Mirage Teams:
Giants
Vikings
Seahawks
Ravens

Teams that could surprise:
Cowboys
Jets

I'm higher on the Jets than most I think, I just think they have some special playmakers on the defensive side of the football. Probably the best combo of corners in the league, I think their defense will allow them to hang with anyone. Until the injury to Breece Hall, I really thought the Jets were going to be even more dangerous, we'll see if the offense can manufacture enough points for the Jets to stay relevant.

Cowboys I have listed in the surprise tier for the same reason, Micah Parsons + Demarcus Lawrence will pose a problem for any offense. Add Diggs to the mix and you have a defense that is hard to game plan against. I think their offense will be okay if they can lean on Zeke + Pollard, Dak should be reliable enough to score points.

I think most of the other teams are in their respective tiers for obvious reasons. Mostly quarterback play isn't up to snuff or they don't have a special unit on either side of the football.