10. Seattle Seahawks
After a tough start to the season with the 49ers driving down the field for a late victory, the Seahawks have absolutely turned things around. They’ve now won three straight games and have reestablished themselves as top contenders in the NFC West. I think it was fair going into this season to be skeptical about the Seahawks with Sam Darnold at quarterback, a new offensive system, and no DK Metcalf.
They’ve answered the skeptics and have honestly been extremely impressive on that side of the ball. It’s a small sample so far, but through four games, the Seahawks have the 5th-ranked scoring offense and the 4th-ranked scoring defense. Even though Darnold doesn’t have Metcalf in his offensive arsenal, he’s got Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who gets open with ease and has some of the strongest hands in the league.
9. Baltimore Ravens
Sorry, Ravens fans. This is about as high as we can go right now. We all understand the Ravens have faced a brutal, brutal schedule to start the 2025 season, but that’s no excuse for a team with championship aspirations. The Ravens simply have needed to be better than we’ve seen so far, and they’re now 1-3 after September action.
I personally have to eat crow already, because I didn’t think the Ravens would lose more than one or two games all year, and I made it pretty clear a few times throughout the course of the offseason. This is a way worse start to the season than we saw from the Ravens last year. The blown lead against the Bills followed by getting dog-walked by the Lions and now the Chiefs?
The Ravens are the early contender for biggest “pretender” in the NFL. Luckily for them, it’s still extremely early and they can turn it around quickly.