Normally we'd be around halfway through the season after Week 8 wrapped up (the NFL moved to an odd number of games as an annoying trampoline to 18 games all while ignoring how badly it would wreck league-wide and team season records for a league that prides itself on a deep and rich history, but I digre s) but we still have teams who have only played 40-ish percent of their games for the season.It's still far enough along to make judgments about various teams Tage Thompson Jersey and to actually a se s the playoff race in both of the conferences. It's funny, because the opposite of what we expected happened: the AFC looked very predictable heading into the year but a down year from the clouds things tremendously. We may also actually be finally realizing the importance of Brady's departure in opening up the conference playoff race. A pandemic year with a 43-year-old QB raising his seventh trophy on a new team in Tampa Bay at the team's home stadium in his first year there just feels like a fever dream. Some things take time to settle in.We could dive into both conferences and take a bigger picture view of how the playoff race is starting to shape up, but last week's No. 1 team in the AFC (the ) just lost to the , paving the way for the (the Jets' only other win) to grab the top spot. The AFC is pandemonium. Even more so with the news of injury. But the NFC playoff race almost feels three quarters full a quarter and a half into the season.The ' win over the reigning champs at home was and should be the biggest story of the week. They took down the despite 1) posting some huge numbers and 2) tearing his ACL. New Orleans is 5-2 and Sean Payton needs a ton of credit here -- he's won a lot of games with , , Winston and the last three years because of multi-week and mid-game injuries. I've seen Payton upwards of 20-1 for Coach of the Year. If Payton makes the playoffs with Siemian and a few games of Jameis, after Drew Brees retires, he'll get a ton of love. I could go on a tangent about the Saints calling , but I'll just put this tweet here instead. Philip Rivers St Michael's varsity team finished their season on Friday night (6-3, 3-3).Believe they just mi sed 4A playoffs.Rivers le s than 3 hours away, would consider returning to right spot. With Jameis Winston tearing his ACL, Sean Jacob Josefson Men Jersey Payton should give Rivers a call. Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) Plus, it's more important to talk about the Saints' path to the playoffs, since they're in a weird tier by themselves, way ahead of all the flotsam drifting around the No. 7 seed, hoping to accidentally bump into the playoffs.Up top in the NFC, the pecking order is very clear. And it can be broken out into four tiers. For fun let's give them a food theme. Occupying the top tier are the Buccaneers, and . I'm setting the (potentially temporary) cutoff at three here because in the last five years all three of these teams either won a Super Bowl, went to a Super Bowl or went to back-to Matt Moulson Men Jersey -back NFC Championship games.Tampa Bay lost to New Orleans on Sunday, but I tend to give more credit to the Saints raising their level of play than blaming the Buccaneers. The Saints defense is a problem when it wants to be. New Orleans gave up some big plays to the Tampa Bay pa s offense, but that's going to happen with Brady playing the way he is. The Bucs lost a game where they were a pretty big favorite, but it felt like they were going to win the second Sean Payton gave Brady 1:44 to go get a field goal with some questionable game management. Brady to sed a pick-six and the game was over, but this lo s -- on Halloween, in the Superdome against your only division competition and chief rival -- happens. It happened last year. The Bucs will be fine but I'll probably tuck this L in the back of my mind. won on Sunday, against an undefeated team with a good defense, on the road, without or . That makes him 7-0 when Adams is mi sing since 2019. He's the reigning MVP for a reason. There's a very good chance the Packers end up 14-3/13-4 and in the NFC Championship Game again. Because they have Aaron Rodgers. The Rams stomped a bad Houston team, and somehow almost didn't cover. Or maybe actually didn't, depending on what line you got. They were up 38-0 as somewhere between a 14.5- and 16.5-point favorite -- the steam on these huge faves the last two weeks has been wild -- when the fourth quarter started. Houston slapped together 22 points in the final eight minutes of the game. looks awesome and Buffalo Sabres Jacket is down to 5-1 to win MVP. This offense is electric. His connection with is absurd for two guys who just became teammates this offseason and is running really well. Sean McVay's worst season is 9-7. I'm comfortable declaring them a top-tier contender.The controversial take is putting Dallas with Arizona here, but I'd be fine adding the to the top tier as well, especially after took down the on the road on SNF in his first career start. The Cowboys couldn't really run the ball at all with and found themselves needing to score late. Rush to sed it around, creating history and things of that nature. The Cooper-Rush-to-Amari-Cooper TD is the 1st in NFL history where the pa ser's first name receiver's last name are an exact matchCowboys also have the only pa s TD where pa ser's LAST and receiver's FIRST were an exact match: Andy Dalton-Dalton Schultz in Wk 11, 2020 at MIN NFL Research (@NFLResearch) He also threw a game-winning touchdown (Zeke set it up and was a beast on that catch and run for the first down on a third-and-long), which was probably a bigger deal. First start in his career, on the road and this Dallas team has a vibe about them. is looking to get some game winners and isn't having any of it. Heres the full transcript of Amari Coopers story about CeeDee Lamb lobbying him Cooper Rush for the opportunity at the game-winner. David Helman (@HelmanDC) Watch chase down Rush and look at the hug he gives him. Dak Prescott chases down Cooper Rush and envelopes him in Jean Sebastien Dea Women Jersey a bear hug, after a dramatic win in Minnesota, and Rushs game-winning touchdown pa s to Amari Cooper. Mike Leslie (@MikeLeslieWFAA) Now, watch that clip again and look at Dak doing the "washed dad with a regular Monday night basketball game twisted ankle" hobble. Rush might not be a spot start. I'm not going to use Mike McCarthy's record in the playoffs and future concerns I have as a negative here -- he's doing a great job this season and deserves COY buzz as well. Like Payton, if he navigates an in-season QB injury to waltz into the playoffs, it shouldn't fly under the radar. But that Dak limp definitely makes me want to keep Dallas in this section until we know about his health.Same can be said for the , who couldn't be left out of a top tier when they were undefeated. Like the Cowboys, Arizona could slide acro s both of these categories. Thursday night wasn't indicative of a huge le son -- like the Saints/Bucs game, it was two good teams dealing with ex