The NFL comes out of Week 3 looking an awful lot like a league with no really good teams. The Green Bay Packers pull away at the top and then there are a couple of decent but flawed teams like the Saints and Patriots. Then it falls off dramatically. Hopefully, the lockout hangover will be over in a couple of weeks and one or nine teams will start to get their act together and play good football.
Until that happens, we would rank this season to date as a three on a scale of three to six. Here's how we are ranking the individual components of the suck in our Week 4 NFL Power Rankings:
1. Green Bay Packers: The Pack regained their spot on top of the pack with a convincing road win over 'da Bears. It is just the Bears, but it's nice to see the Green Bay defense join the 2011-12 NFL season.
2. New Orleans Saints: Drew Brees might be leading the best offense in the league which is saying something. It's also not completely true but pretty darn close.
3. Buffalo Bills: You might thinking that a third spot is too high for the Bills and you might be right. We don't care what you think so here they are, 3-0 and enjoying the limelight as long as they can get it.
4. New England Patriots: The Pats always lose a few games they shouldn't but we picked this one on the backs of the porous Patriot defense. The Tea Party can not be happy with this kind of permissiveness from the founding football fathers.
5. Pittsburgh Steelers: We would like to drop the Steelers further for struggling to put away the Colts but it's not like any of the teams lower down have been all that much more impressive. Call this a back door top five ranking...or don't.
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6. San Diego Chargers: Like Pittsburgh before them, the Chargers had a hard time putting away a bad team. We'll give them a few more weeks and see how they bounce back from that poor win.
7. Detroit Lions: You might ask why this undefeated team is below several teams with a loss. The answer is they gave up 21 points to the Vikings and needed overtime to beat a really bad Minnesota team. Fair? Probably not.
8. Baltimore Ravens: Props to the Ravens for beating the crap out of the Rams but we will not so easily forget your Week 2 embarrassment in Tennessee. At some point we expect Baltimore to move up a few spots but they are going to have to earn it.
9. Houston Texans: They beat two bad teams and lost to a good team and yet they are in the top ten. That says more about how mediocre the NFL is so far than anything else.
10. New York Jets: What could we possibly say about the Jets that hasn't been summed up in one word...feet!
This next group of teams is really pretty average. At some point, a few of these teams are going to have to start looking playoff worthy otherwise this is going to be a pretty sucky season.
11. New York Giants: Where there's a Manning, there's a way.
12. Dallas Cowboys: Punctured lung? That's no excuse!!! Actually, it is but oh well.
13. Washington Redskins: The Redskins are one of the big surprises so far early in the season. The defense is good and Rex Grossman is a new man....ooops, guess not.
14. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Another disappointing team with two so-so wins.
15. Philadelphia Eagles: We are penalizing the Eagles heavily for dumb comments from Michael Vick. Hey, Mike, if you don't want to get hit so much GET RID OF THE BALL.
16. Chicago Bears: We really have no idea what the Bears do well other than give up sacks. Hurrah for mediocrity!
17. Atlanta Falcons: The Falcons have lost to the Bears and Bucs and without question are one of the more disappointing early season teams. Wake up, Dirty Bird!
18. Oakland Raiders: Black hole is right.
19. San Francisco 49ers: The default leaders of the NFC West. Congratulations on beating the Seahawks and Bengals.
20. Tennessee Titans: How does a two-win team fall this low in our rankings you might ask. Because Chris Johnson has too much cash in his pockets to run effectively. Send your complaints to idontgiveashit@whatever.com.
From this point on it gets really, really ugly. We forgive you if you've already stopped reading...that's what we would do by now.
21. Arizona Cardinals: We refuse to believe the Cardinals are really this bad. Then again, we're delusional.
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Read More: Ken Whisenhunt's Bitter Reaction To Sunday's Loss To Seattle
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22. Carolina Panthers: Cam Newton got his first NFL win. It won't be his last. (You get exactly as much analysis as you pay for.)
23. Cincinnati Bengals: It sure would have helped the NFC West look even worse if they could have beaten the 49ers. Thanks for nothing.
24. Seattle Seahawks: Don't let one crappy win over Arizona fool you, this team is still bad.
25. Denver Broncos: Tebow! Tebow!!...whatever
26. St. Louis Rams: Oh how the presumed mighty have fallen from the bottom to the bottom.
If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all.
27. Jacksonville Jaguars: Paging David Garrard, you are missed.
28. Cleveland Browns: Ruff, ruff
29. Miami Dolphins: Paging Don Shula, you are old.
30. Minnesota Vikings: Did anyone think Donovan McNabb was this bad? Yes, Mike Shanahan did.
31. Indianapolis Colts: Get well soon, Peyton. In the mean time we'll be tanking for your replacement.
32. Kansas City Chiefs: Ugh.
P.S. If you don't like these power rankings, check back next week for new ones. And try not to take it too seriously, they are just power rankings after all, not actual standings.
Or, if you insist, contact us via Twitter @SBNArizona or on Facebook.
Read more: NFL Power Rankings at SB Nation, where the Cardinals drop