NFL Power Rankings after the first quarter of the 2019 season

#25 Atlanta Falcons (1-3)

Falcons is one of most disappointing teams in the league

This is the most disappointing team in the league to me right now. It was good to see something from Devonta Freeman against Tennessee, because he has been a shell of himself, but the running game simply has not been present with only 70.2 rushing yards per game.

All those investment into the O-line haven’t paid off, especially with injuries playing their part. The trio of Julio, Ridley and Sanu might still be the best in the league and Austin Hooper is emerging under new OC Dirk Koetter, who loves to feature his tight-ends, but I liked them to target Ridley more in particular.

Now with Keanu Neal headed to IR due to a torn Achilles, the defense won’t get much better any time soon, but I like the thought of Damonte Kazee seeing the field even more. Only three players have recorded a sack for them and Grady Jarrett is leading the charge with two, plus they lack some size and have struggled defending the power run game.

With all that being said, the score versus the Titans could have been much closer, but Matt Bryant missed a 32-yard field goal at the end of the first half, Mohamed Sanu dropped a touchdown on third-and-20 early in the third quarter and the Falcons failed to convert on two fourth-and-one attempts.

Next up is a must-win matchup against another AFC South team in the Texans, whose secondary should not be able to cover Atlanta’s weapons.

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#26 Arizona Cardinals (0-3-1)

As I said in my latest article, talking about the new starting quarterbacks, Kyler Murray has looked good for the most part, even though he probably had his worst showing so far against Seattle.

I still think his dynamic arm and quick feet will make him a tough guy to face. David Johnson has been as close to that 2016 season when he led the league in touchdowns as we have seen and Larry Fitzgerald is as good a 36-year old receiver as we have seen since Jerry Rice, who now is the only guy he is trailing in career receptions.

The more disappointing part about this offense has been scheme, which is nothing we haven’t seen before. The Arizona defense was surprisingly moderate early on considering how much more the opposing team possessed the ball, but they have surrendered too many explosive plays with 17 passes for 20+ yards.

Chris Carson finally got going against them and they just got stupid penalties called against them late in that game to take away any chance of a late comeback attempt.

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#27 Denver Broncos (0-4)

This team could easily be 2-2, as they have led games at home versus the Bears and now the Jaguars with less than two minutes left.

They have an excellent running back duo behind an improved offensive line, Courtland Sutton is turning into that number one receiver and Emmanuel Sanders defying medicine by how quickly he came back from that torn Achilles.

However, Joe Flacco is incredibly immobile to give them more on that bootleg play-action game and he has turned the ball over four times over the last three games. The Broncos defense I thought was better than the numbers indicated, especially with no sacks for Von Miller or Bradley Chubb until last weekend.

However, they could not slow down Leonard Fournette whatsoever in their most recent matchup and they just took a huge hit by losing Chubb for the season to a torn ACL. At 0-4, I don’t see them be in the run for any playoff contention and if Flacco has a couple of games, I could easily see them throw Drew Locke into the action to get him some playing time.

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#28 Pittsburgh Steelers (1-3)

In the first-ever Monday Night matchup of two 0-3 teams, the Steelers dominated their division rival Bengals, but I just can’t move them up too high considering how bad Cincinnati has been.

I talked about how most of Mason Rudolph’s yardage has come from passes behind the line of scrimmage and that he hasn’t been able to extend drives recently. While the second-year QB had his best showing of the season, 16 of his 28 completions went to running backs, with a bunch of them coming on those touch pass sweeps, and a deep ball to rookie Diontae Johnson, who was open by like 20 yards.

I like that little wrinkle they put in with six wildcat snaps using both Jaylen Samuels and James Conner for 43 yards. That is something they can build on and utilize Samuel’s versatility going forward, even though they don’t trust Rudolph to run the show.

The defense showed up big time as well, getting after Andy Dalton all game long and causing turnovers. With that being said, that is the same unit that allowed Russell Wilson to play almost a perfect game against them and that surrendered 168 yards on the ground to the 49ers. I just don’t see them finishing above .500 without Big Ben.