20. San Francisco 49ers
I tried to hold out hope for the San Francisco 49ers this year. I really did. But ultimately, we should probably just call this team the 25ers because they’re about half of what the 49ers were at their best last year.
This is just a simple situation where injuries have taken their toll, and this team is obviously not at full strength. I don’t even feel right ranking them like this. It feels gross. The 49ers are too good for this. The NFL is better when these guys are in the mix because Kyle Shanahan is such a great coach and the roster is so special.
This is a wasted year for the 49ers thanks to the injury bug and I don’t know what that means going forward. With the way things are in the NFC West right now, you can’t completely count the 25ers out this year, but it isn’t like you should be rushing to buy low betting on this team or something. This is the most pessimistic I’ve been about the 49ers since before they traded for Christian McCaffrey. I will miss seeing these guys in the playoffs.
19. Miami Dolphins
After a three-game winning streak put them back in the conversation for an AFC Wild Card playoff spot, but they ran into a buzzsaw when they had to travel to Green Bay, Wisconsin to face off against the Packers on Thanksgiving.
The Dolphins and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa are borderline pathetic when it comes to their performance in cold weather games, and that’s something that they’ve got to be able to overcome if you want to compete against literally every good team in the AFC right now (save for the Texans).
The Dolphins just lost Tua Tagovailoa too early this season. We talk about building a margin for error all the time on these NFL Power Rankings and the Dolphins just weren’t able to build that up with Tagovailoa’s scary injury earlier this season. They are not out of it in the AFC playoff race, by any means, but it’s not looking good for the Dolphins after that loss against the Packers.
Getting to 6-6 against Green Bay seems like such a drastic difference than 5-7 even though it’s just one game. They have a possible get-right game this coming week against the New York Jets.