NFL midseason contenders and pretenders among teams with best records

Green Bay Packers, Davante Adams (Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports)
Green Bay Packers, Davante Adams (Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports) /
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NFL Power Rankings, Week 9
Pittsburgh Steelers (Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports) /

Pittsburgh Steelers (7-0) – NFL Contenders

We’ll start with one of  the most obvious teams and that’s the Pittsburgh Steelers being Super Bowl contenders. For one, the Steelers have yet to lose a game in 2020 and have looked incredible en route to their undefeated record.

Sure, Pittsburgh didn’t have a menacing schedule through the first four games, knocking off the Giants, Broncos, Texans, and Eagles, but since then they’ve faced the Browns, Titans, and Ravens. They made the Browns look downright silly and then scraped out wins against two very good teams in the Titans and Ravens.

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The Steelers’ defense is legit and got even better when they added Avery Williamson to the fold. Their offense is also turning heads with Chase Claypool emerging as a Rookie of the Year candidate. Pittsburgh is loaded front to back and if they get the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs, them making the Super Bowl is practically a done deal.

Buffalo Bills (6-2) – NFL Pretenders

The Buffalo Bills went into this season with the hope that they could win the AFC East for the first time since Jim Kelly was their quarterback. They started the season off hot, going 4-0 and looking like legitimate Super Bowl contenders. But then, things started to fall apart.

Buffalo was demolished by the Titans and then suffered a second straight loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs and suddenly didn’t look like the powerhouse they had through the first four weeks. They turned things around by narrowly defeating the hapless Jets and scraping out a victory against the Patriots, but the Bills don’t look the same anymore.

When the Bills were kicking butt and taking names through the first month of the season, a big reason as to why was because of quarterback Josh Allen’s play. His lowest passing yard total through those first four weeks was 288, which came against the Raiders. Since then, he’s had two games with less than 200 yards passing and has looked like he did as a rookie.

The Bills are at their best when Allen is playing good football. He hasn’t been bad by any means, but he was playing at an MVP level early on and, ever since that level of play has diminished, so have the Bills’ chances of making it to Super Bowl LV.