Seriously, is anyone good enough to win the Super Bowl this year?

https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/article/seriously-is-anyone-good-enough-to-win-the-super-bowl-this-year-143032513.html

The Nobel Prize for Literature stands as one of the literary world’s most esteemed prizes, a Lombardi Trophy for scribes who mine the mysteries of the human condition. And yet, every so often, the committee that awards the Nobel looks at all of a given year’s contenders and decides, “Nope. These all stink. No winner this year.” It’s gatekeeping at an elite level.

The NFL does not award a Nobel Prize, which is a shame because Ed Reed deserves at least two. Every single year, the league crowns a champion, no matter how dominant (‘85 Bears, ‘72 Dolphins) or undeserving (… we’ll let you decide that one). Every season, somebody has to win the whole damn thing.

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Which brings us to this season. One-third of the way through, here’s what we know: Every team has vast, visible-from-space flaws. (Except one, and we’ll get to them in a moment.) The Bills looked unbeatable until they got worked over by the Falcons, who got boatraced by the Panthers. The Chiefs lost to the Jaguars, who proceeded to get annihilated by the Rams, who needed to come from behind to beat the Texans. The defending Super Bowl champion Eagles didn’t lose a game until they got whomped by the Giants, who then gave up 33 points in a quarter to the Broncos. The Packers seemed a trendy Super Bowl pick until they got beat by the Cleveland Browns, who remain the Cleveland Browns.

You get the idea. We know who’s already out of this — sorry, Saints, Titans, Dolphins and Jets — but we still have no idea who’s actually in this thing. Matter of fact, there’s only one team that hasn’t shown any real flaws yet … and that, in itself, is enough to raise eyebrows and concerns. Let’s consider them … and a handful of others, too, for good measure.

The revival of Daniel Jones’ career plus Jonathan Taylor putting his helmet in the MVP race have the Colts with the best record in the NFL. (Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)

(MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images via Getty Images)

AFC contenders

Indianapolis Colts (6-1)

Back in August, we could have given you 45 guesses at which team would have the best record in the NFL a third of the way through the season, and you would’ve probably guessed Ohio State before you guessed the Colts. Hell, the Colts aren’t even the biggest football story this fall in the state of Indiana. But here they are at 6-1, pacing the entire AFC with a conference-leading offense and a league-leading 33.1 points per game. Yes, they’re on their eighth starting quarterback in eight years, but somehow Daniel Jones has this jalopy of castoff parts leading the pack. This might be a case where a team sprints out to an early lead and then fades, but given the flimsy status of both the AFC South and the conference as a whole, Indy is in good shape to stay in the conversation until January.

Kansas City Chiefs (4-3)

Elbowing their way into that same conversation is an old familiar mustachioed face. You thought the Kansas City Chiefs were done when they started 0-2? Yeah, right. They’re the TikTok-era equivalent of the Patriots; you can’t count them out of the Super Bowl chase until, like, next April. Yes, they had those early stumbles. Yes, they lost to the Jaguars. But if Trevor Lawrence doesn’t stumble his way to the most improbable game-winning touchdown of the decade, KC is 5-2 and all the same old fears of another Chiefs Super Bowl are resurfacing.

New England Patriots (5-2)

They’ve got a grouchy, hardheaded head coach and an opportunistic, strategic quarterback. Sound familiar? Uh-oh.

Denver Broncos (5-2)

Sean Payton has been building this team piece-by-piece for awhile now, and with Bo Nix he has the centerpiece quarterback he’s craved. The come-from-way-behind win over the Giants Sunday has a turning-point feel to it … this is a team that now has empirical evidence that it’s not out of any game, and that’s a dangerous team indeed.

Buffalo Bills (4-2)

Hey, remember them? Sure, they haven’t won since September, and they got exposed by the Patriots and Falcons. But they have defining games against the Chiefs and Bucs over the next four weeks that will tell us a whole lot about their season and their prospects.

NFC contenders

Philadelphia Eagles (5-2)

Right about the time that all the “Eagles-are-cooked” thinkpieces started landing, Philadelphia steps out and throws around the Vikings for a necessary win. Long, long way to go for Philly, and a very predictable offense remains a problem, but if that locker room can get realigned and that coaching staff can get more imaginative, this’ll be a team in the hunt.

Jalen Hurts screams in celebration while walking off the field after the Eagles beat the Minnesota Vikings. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)

(Kevin Sabitus via Getty Images)

Detroit Lions (4-2)

Not a great sign that their two losses so far have been to the kinds of teams they’ll face in the postseason. Anyone can fatten up on the Browns and Bengals of the world; losses to the Packers and Chiefs hurt. Monday night against Tampa Bay looms as a key temperature-check matchup for Detroit.

Los Angeles Rams (5-2)

Guess the one team to beat the Colts so far this year. Go on, guess.

San Francisco 49ers (5-2)

Somehow, despite injuries all over the field, the 49ers are thriving at 5-2. Even more impressive: Christian McCaffrey isn’t one of those injuries, and he reminded the world on Sunday night just what a devastating sledgehammer he can be. With Mac Jones efficiently and effectively taking over Brock Purdy’s slot, the 49ers are basically rebuilding the plane while it’s in the air … and at the moment, it’s working.

The Bays (Tampa 5-1; Green 4-1-1)

Tampa Bay is winning games by its fingernails, and hit its health-insurance deductible in Week 2. Green Bay somehow has only lost one game, but feels like it’s been so much more because they’ve lacked the dominance and pop we expected to see out of them coming into the year. Either one (or both) could, should be dangerous late in the year … if this were a normal year.

You could also throw Pittsburgh (4-2), Seattle (4-2) and the Chargers (4-3) into the mix. Shoot, at this point you could toss in anybody with a .500 record — a full 20 teams right now — as a viable playoff contender. And from there, who knows? The only certainty is that someone’s going to win this whole thing … and it ain’t going to be the Jets.

https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/article/seriously-is-anyone-good-enough-to-win-the-super-bowl-this-year-143032513.html