Here’s a fun stat for you: 61.3% of teams that started 2-0 have made the postseason since 1990. If we take 61 percent of the nine teams that started 2-0 in 2019 that means 5.5 of them will make the playoffs, so let’s round up to an even six.The goal here, pick six out of the nine 2-0 teams and crown them contenders, and pick three as pretenders. Let’s go.
New England Patriots
Victories: Pittsburgh Steelers, @ Miami Dolphins
The Patriots have won their first two games by a combined score of 76-3. Their next five games are against the Jets without Sam Darnold, at the Bills — a game they could lose since the Bills have a very good defense and play the Patriots close in recent years — at the Redskins — they are 0-2– the Giants without a good defense — because the Giants currently have a very bad defense — and then the Jets again.
The Patriots would have had a very good shot of running the table up to their showdown against the Browns without the help of the Darnold injury and the other teams having a combined record of 2-5 right now. The New England defense is the best unit they’ve had in years. They are insanely deep at cornerback. They have veteran linebackers who know the system and the return Jamie Collins looks like it’s working out just fine. The young defensive line may be the biggest weakness on the defensive side of the football.
Even if we take Antonio Brown out the equation, the Patriots have enough weapons at wide receiver and running back to force teams into tough mismatches. Phillip Dorsett is quietly catching everything. Julian Edelman is Julian Edelman and Josh Gordon is basically a tight end at wide receiver because of his physicality. The only worry for the Patriots should be that their offensive line depth has already been tested and there seems to be no end in sight if Isaiah Wynn’s toe injury is serious.
In any case: Contender
Buffalo Bills
Victories: @ New York Jets, @ New York Giants
Optimism is reigning supreme in upstate New York. Ask any Bills fan how they feel about the season and they will gush about the defense, Josh Allen’s improvement, and the fact that Buffalo has won two games on the road to open the season. The Bills are back and you better not tell the Bills Mafia otherwise.
Well, they are right about one thing: the Bills defense could be legit. Coming into the season, we knew that would be Buffalo’s biggest strength. Sean McDermott has coached up a good defense since he arrived.
The Bills offense is something else entirely. The Bills have gone up against a defense that many thought who have one of the worst backfields in football since they didn’t have cornerbacks — the Jets — and maybe one of the worst defenses in the NFL — the Giants. Sure, Josh Allen has completed 64 percent of his passes in the first two games, but he hasn’t exactly gone against shutdown units. Devin Singletary could be a huge find if his leg injury isn’t serious, but it’s tough to expect the Bills keep up the pace in their current passing game once they play someone who can actually defend the pass.
Pretenders (for now)
Baltimore Ravens
Victories: @ Miami Dolphins, Arizona Cardinals
The Ravens are everyone’s hot team right now. Lamar Jackson can do no wrong. The Ravens defense simply retooled like they always do. Baltimore’s receiving corps is designed for Jackson to succeed. Their offense is set up to make the most of his talents.
Folks, the Ravens played two of the worst teams in the NFL to start the season. In fact, those teams have the two lowest win total expectation in the league. The Dolphins look historically bad. The Cardinals hung around and had a chance to tie the game with a late drive in Baltimore.
Baltimore did what good teams are supposed to do though. Good teams smoke Miami and leave no doubt. The Cardinals game is a little more worrying, but Arizona played a similar game against the Lions the week before. They started slow and came on late.
The bigger deal for the Ravens may be that the AFC North does not look nearly as difficult as it did to start the season. The Browns’ offensive line issues could be a season-long story. The Steelers just lost Ben Roethlisberger for the season. The Bengals are 0-2.
Contender
Kansas City Chiefs
Victories: @ Jacksonville Jaguars, @ Oakland Raiders
Anyone who took the Chiefs under 10.5 wins made the wrong bet — and I had to check to make sure I took the over. I think at this point, I could suit up for the Chiefs and catch a touchdown pass. Patrick Mahomes is that good. He has somehow mastered this offense in under two seasons. He will burn all the defenses to the ground for the foreseeable future. He’s like an angry Targaryen — Game of Thrones references are still cool, right?
Anyway, the Chiefs are the same team that they were last year. They have a bunch of receivers who run super fast forty-yard dashes and can burn any defensive backfield. They have the best receiving tight end in football. They have a deep backfield with versatile backs. They have a veteran head coach who knows how to put together schemes that put up a ton of points.
The defense may or may not have the same issues. We haven’t seen them go up against a team with a ton of offensive firepower — no, the Raiders do not count. The AFC West is still the Chiefs to lose.
Contenders
Dallas Cowboys
Victories: New York Giants, @Washington Redskins
The Cowboys had one of the deepest rosters coming into the season. They had some issues getting Ezekiel Elliott into camp, but once that was done, they didn’t have many holes. There was only one real question and that was how would Dak Prescott play in a contract year.
Well, the answer is currently light’s out. The Jones family is going to have to shell out a large contract to the quarterback if he keeps playing this way. They also better get ready to drop a nice deal off to Amari Cooper.
Speaking of deals, the Cowboys may also have to make Kellen Moore the highest-paid assistant in the NFL if they don’t outright give him the head coaching job from Jason Garrett after this season. There will be people knocking on Moore’s door to see if he wants to run a team.
The Cowboys are good. They will be good for a while. Sorry Cowboys haters — of which I used to be a card-carrying member — this is the first time in the while that Dallas has been properly rated.
Contender
Los Angeles Rams
Victories: @ Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints
If we are being honest, the Rams first two wins haven’t been super impressive. The Panthers were thoroughly handled by the Bucs and no one thinks the Bucs are a Super Bowl contender. The Rams had to hold that same Panthers team off in the first week of the season.
The Saints played most of the game with Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback and the scoreboard doesn’t tell the whole story. Without a big play from Cooper Kupp to seal the victory, this game was much closer than the Rams wanted it to be.
That really doesn’t matter right now. The current iteration of the Rams has proven more than the next two teams in the NFC West.
Contender
Seattle Seahawks
Victories: Cincinnati Bengals, @Pittsburgh Steelers
The Seahawks have won their first two games by a combined three points. They could have lost to the Bengals in Seattle if Zac Taylor knew that he didn’t have to punt the ball away with under four minutes in a close game. The Steelers were in the game against the Seahawks and they lost Ben Roethlisberger pretty early.
Of course, it’s tough to doubt the Seahawks at this point. As long as they have Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson, they will find a way to manufacture wins. It doesn’t matter that they don’t have well-known names playing at wide receiver. It doesn’t matter that the only thing left of the Legion of Boom defense is Bobby Wagner. Seattle finds a way to win.
Close games will eventually catch up to them. They have to. It’s math. The schedule will toughen up a bit. They’ll play Rashad Penny over Chris Carson at the wrong time. The defense still hasn’t been impressive early on.
Pretender
San Francisco 49ers
Victories: @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers, @Cincinnati Bengals
The Bills had two roads win and they were deemed pretenders, but that was because of the quality of their road wins. The Niners have to road wins and their status is still up in the air.
The Bucs could be good, but if we had to make a decision after Week 1, the Niners victory over Tampa would have put them in the pretender category. The offense looked flat. They didn’t move the ball. Jimmy G being bad fears were in full effect.
Then the Niners went to Cincinnati and just ran all over Bengals. They distributed the ball in the passing game. The Kyle Shanahan hype was finally coming true. That’s why I want to pick contender right now. It feels like the timing is right. The Niners defense is playing well enough. I just need one more win against a good team to put them over the hump.
Pretender
Green Bay Packers
Victories: @ Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings
The Packers could have lost both of their games this year. The Bears offense was putrid in the first game — and the second game of the season for that matter. It’s tough to give Green Bay credit when it comes to shutting down Chicago when they did that perfectly fine themselves.
The Packers also nearly blew a 21-0 lead against the Vikings at home. For some reason, Minnesota coaches trusted Kirk Cousins to not make a mistake and he rewarded them by doing the exact thing we expect Cousins to do in big situations which is turn the ball over.
The point is that it feels like the Packers opponents lost those games more than it felt like Green Bay won them. The Packers still beat two teams that were projected to go to the playoffs.
Contender
