NFC Hierarchy/Obituary: Week 9 edition

Week 8 of the NFL season is in the books, and four NFC teams had byes, while the biggest Super Bowl contenders that did play won their games. We have one new obituary this week, the New York Giants, who are being eulogized before November, as usual.

Obituary: Giants (2-6)

As we detailed this summer, it was absolute insanity that the Giants allowed Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll to keep their jobs as the team's general manager and head coach, respectively.

Daboll and Schoen were both hired during the 2022 offseason, and there were immediate results, as the Giants finished with a 9-7-1 record, and a trip to the playoffs. It's been a steep downhill trajectory since. In 2023, they finished 6-11 with a -141 point differential, before a disastrous 2024 season during which they finished 3-14 with a -142 point differential. Their three-year tenure resulted in a cumulative record of 18-32-1 (0.370). That type of three-year sample size typically results in termination.

But Schoen and Daboll each got another year, and while the product on the field isn't quite as egregiously bad this season as it was the last two — especially with some positive moments from rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart — the results are basically the same, as the Giants have a 2-6 record and their season is over before Halloween.

Daboll's career record is now 20-38-1. He has a -18 win-loss differential, which is worst among all active head coaches. The following chart is a look at every active head coach, and their win-loss totals with their current team:

If you get to a point where you're -18, you've (a) lost a lot of games (duh), but also (b) you've have more than enough time to right the ship. Titans head coach Brian Callahan was fired during this season after starting his career 4-19 (-15). Callahan aside, since 2022, 17 head coaches have been fired, and two — Bill Belichick (Patriots) and Mike McCarthy (Cowboys) — were categorized as "mutual decisions" to part ways. Here are those 17 head coaches (18 if you count Frank Reich twice) who have been canned in the last three years, and what their win-loss differentials were at the time of their firings:

As you can see, Daboll's -18 win-loss differential matches the worst win-loss differential of the above fired coaches. But also, Daboll is just generally an embarrassment, as he throws temper tantrums on the sideline in every game, directed at officials, players, and even the team doctor, lol.

His latest sideline blowup, from Sunday:

Daboll is way past the "hot seat," and is very much into "How the hell is this guy still the coach of an NFL team" territory.

After the Giants parted ways with Tom Coughlin, they have cycled through a bunch of bad head coaches:

• Ben McAdoo (2016-2017)
• Pat Shurmur (2018-2019)
• Joe Judge (2020-2021)
• Brian Daboll (2022-present)

McAdoo, Shurmur, and Judge didn't make it to three year on the job. I guess John Mara wanted to be more patient this time around, and the guy he chose to stick around longer with was this meathead? Lol.

Daboll will almost certainly be fired, and if Mara's next hire is anything like his last four — and frankly, his GM hires of Dave Gettleman and Schoen have been even worse — then the Giants will continue to be one of the worst franchises in the NFL a while longer.

Graveyard

Hierarchy

13) Falcons (3-4): The Falcons might have the two worst losses of the 2025 season. They got shut out 30-0 by the Panthers in a game in which they never crossed the Carolina 30 yard line, and they got blown out 34-10 by the a very bad Dolphins team in a game that wasn't even as close as the score would indicate.

Every year people talk themselves into this garbage team for some reason, and every year they finish with like 7 wins. They probably won't even get their 7 this year.

I considered killing off the Falcons this week, but we'll see what they do the next two weeks against good AFC teams in the Patriots and Colts.

Last week: 12

12) Commanders (3-5): The Chiefs played like crap for a half of football on Monday night against the Commanders, and yet it never really felt like the Commanders had a chance of winning that game.

The NFC East standings now look like this:

The Commanders' slide back into mediocrity was one of the easiest things to predict this offseason, but they've been worse than even the doubters could have expected.

They have lost three straight, and oh hey, their next two opponents are the Seahawks coming off a bye and a Lions team that probably can't wait to get another crack at them after what happened in the divisional round a year ago.

Last week: 13

11) Cowboys (3-4-1): Cowboys fans have been killing defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus for how bad the defense has been. I'm sure Eberflus hasn't been great, but it's probably more that they just don't have good players.

Via Josh Norris:

Can someone beat a block?

Last week: 11

10) Panthers (4-4): My "Not as good as their record" power rankings:

1. Panthers (4-4)
2. Steelers (4-3)
3. Jaguars (4-3)
4. Bears (4-3)
5. 49ers (5-3)

Last week: 10

9) Bears (4-3): Last year: "The Bears should've drafted Jayden Daniels instead of Caleb Williams."

This year: "The Bears should've drafted Drake Maye instead of Caleb Williams."

Last week: 9

8) Vikings (3-4): Carson Wentz is a bad quarterback by NFL standards and he played badly Thursday night in the Vikings' blowout loss in L.A. to the Chargers, but I also kind of respect that he kept getting up and going back in the game after taking an absolute beating.

That is insane commentary by Kirk Herbstreit above, by the way. He can't sit on the bench and be hurt? What do you want him to do?

Turns out Wentz played through some pretty significant injuries:

Details on Carson Wentz: In the first half of the London game, Wentz suffered a dislocation that tore his labrum and fractured the socket, per The Insiders.
He gutted out 2.5 more games for the #Vikings with a big stabilizing brace, while JJ McCarthy (high-ankle) recovered. https://t.co/JseMqJ7fmC

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 27, 2025

Anyway, it appears the Vikings will go back to J.J. McCarthy Week 9 against the Lions, and, spoiler, that's not going to go well either. It'll also be interesting to see if Wentz retires after this season, or if he'll be someone's QB3 in 2026, which would be his seventh team in seven years, if so:

2020: Eagles
2021: Colts
2022: Commanders
2023: Rams
2024: Chiefs
2025: Vikings
2026: ???

I can't imagine the Vikings will want him back.

And for what it's worth, the Vikings recently had Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones on their roster, and now they're likely to miss the playoffs because they don't have a legitimate starting quarterback.

Last week: 8

7) 49ers (5-3): The Niners were the only NFC West team to play this week, and they got thoroughly beaten down by the Texans. If you look at the Niners' defensive snap counts from Sunday, there are a lot of names on there I've never heard of.

I swear this isn't meant to sound braggy (probably the opposite, honestly), but if a player is getting playing time it's rare that I've never even heard of them. But there are a bunch of guys playing defense for the Niners who I have never heard of. S. Okuayinonu? T. Bethune? C. Robinson? I tried to figure out who those guys were, and had nothin'.

Also, this is one of the funnier clips from Week 8:

The Texans defensive tackle got in the backfield so quick that he thought the 49ers were running a screen pic.twitter.com/1GAyxuJoUb

— Kyle Posey (@KP_Show) October 27, 2025

Last week: 7

6) Seahawks (5-2): The Seahawks had their bye this week. They have one good team on their schedule over the next six weeks:

• Week 9: At Commanders
• Week 10: Cardinals
• Week 11: At Rams
• Week 12: At Titans
• Week 13: Vikings
• Week 14: At Falcons

Last week: 5

5) Rams (5-2): The Rams are No. 1 in the NFL in defensive EPA per play so far this season, up from 19 in 2024. (Chart via @JoshiosTweets).

They have held three of seven opponents to single-digit points.

Last week: 4

4) Buccaneers (6-2): The Bucs have weathered significant injuries through the first half-(ish) of their season, and they'll head into their bye in good shape at 6-2, with no real threats within the NFC South. Here are the odds of each division leader winning their divisions this season, via Inpredictable:

1. Buccaneers, NFC South: 89%
2. Eagles, NFC East: 84%
3. Colts, AFC South: 83%
4. Packers, NFC North: 54%
5. Patriots, AFC East: 51%
6. Steelers, AFC North: 41%
7. Broncos, AFC West: 38%
8. Seahawks, NFC West: 29%

Last week: 3

3) Eagles (6-2): The Eagles' Week 8 win over the Giants was the first time they looked like the dominant team they were in 2024.

1. They got a long run from Saquon Barkley, and other explosive plays.
2. Jalen Hurts didn't throw a lot of passes, but was efficient when he did.
3. The offensive line moved defenders against their will.
4. The defensive line buzzed around the opposing quarterback all day.

The only thing they didn't do was win the turnover battle, as there were no turnovers in the game at all, but they did come close a few times.It took a little while for things to come together for this team a year ago, and over the last two games you can kind of see things all coming together at once. They just need the star receiver and quarterback to pretend to like each other for a few months and then recalibrate that situation in the offseason.Last week: 6

2) Packers (5-1-1): Micah Parsons is chipped by the tight end, then he beats the LT inside, and then the LG tries to help, but Parsons gets to the quarterback anyway.

I'm beginning to think the Cowboys shouldn't have traded that guy.

Last week: 2

1) Lions (5-2): The only teams that really matter to the Lions that played games Week 8 were the Eagles, Packers, and Buccaneers, and they all won, so it wasn't a very good bye week for them, at least in terms of rooting interests. We'll leave them in the top spot, for now.

Last week: 1

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