The Houston Texans are currently in the midst of a six-game win streak, and with a matchup against the lowly Las Vegas Raiders on the books for Week 16, that streak figures to extend to seven. Unfortunately, that just doesn’t appear to be enough for Tom Brady to justify putting them in his top-10 power rankings.
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The newfound face of Fox Sports has released his official list for the week. And as usual, he’s catching some criticism online for snubbing a few teams. After dubbing the Texans as his honorary mention of the week, the seven-time Super Bowl winner predicted that “I’m sure there will be some opinions out there,” but he’s still grading them just a shade below teams like the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. “It’s impossible to kick anyone out,” he helplessly added while agreeing that the competition is increasing day by day.
Meanwhile, Houston’s divisional rivals, the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are currently holding a 10-4 record while sitting atop both the AFC South, were also booked at the eighth overall slot in Brady’s rankings. So it could be that he simply didn’t want two divisions to be seemingly overrepresented in his rankings. Although it is worth noting that Chicago was only reinstated this week, as Brady had initially dropped them from his rankings following their loss to the Packers in Week 14.
Thanks to their bounce-back performance against the Cleveland Browns in Week 15, however, he’s now confident enough to consider the Bears as being a “brutal” road test for the Packers this Sunday. And then, rather unsurprisingly, Brady revealed that his Patriots are still in control of the sixth overall spot.
The Seattle Seahawks continue to be one of the best teams in the league, receiving the fifth-overall nod on Brady’s list, and after eliminating Patrick Mahomes from the playoffs for the first time in his career, the Los Angeles Chargers were named the fourth-best team in the league.
From there, the Buffalo Bills guard the top three after an impressive comeback win against New England in Week 15, while Matthew Stafford’s Los Angeles Rams continue to be Brady’s second-favorite team. In fact, he even admitted that “after seeing the Stafford-Puka connection live out in L.A.,” he couldn’t help but grade them this high.
But, when it comes to the current best team in football, however, it’s unlikely that many will be in support of Brady’s pick. According to the man himself, “Sean Payton has his team on an incredible run” right now, and that it “just feels right” to “have the AFC run through Mile High as temperatures start to drop.”
At 12-2, the Denver Broncos hold the best record in all of football, but they’ve yet to see the same kind of excitement from the public that teams like the Indianapolis Colts saw earlier in the season. Nevertheless, Brady believes that they have officially earned the recognition. So until someone can put an end to this multi-month-long win streak, the Bo Nix and co. should be considered as the gridiron’s toughest opponent.
