5 highest-graded NFL offenses this season

Through 10 weeks of the NFL season, let's dive into the highest-graded offenses thus far.

1. Arizona Cardinals

It must be frightening for defensive coordinators to get consistent pressure on a quarterback, only to see him consistently find his receivers deep on pinpoint passes. That’s the issue with playing the current Cardinals team; they have receivers who can get open (or win contested balls) and a passer in Carson Palmer who can find them—despite sub-optimal pass protection. No one is better in the 10–19 yard range, where they are 67-of-90 for 1,015 yards, nine touchdowns, and only one interception—a QB rating of 139.8.

Don’t get suckered in by the Chris Johnson hype, though. His stats say he’s doing well, but that’s really his line. He’s getting what he’s been given (a third-most 2.26 yards before contact) and not a lot else.

2. New England Patriots

Very similar to the Cardinals in many ways, quarterback Tom Brady is putting on a superlative performance despite a poor pass blocking O-line that serves much better run blocking. To cope, the Patriots utilize a much quicker, more horizontal passing attack to neutralize the issues posed by their young line.

In addition, their runners are also doing well. They’ve broken 46 tackles on 213 attempts, and fumbled only once; by way of comparison, the Arizona backs have broken 30 tackles on 255 attempts while fumbling six times. 

3. Atlanta Falcons

To understand how the Falcons find themselves this high, we must look back to the beginning of the season. They started like a house on fire, but have slowed markedly, not topping 21 points the last four games against teams ranked 29th, 11th, 31st, and 24th in defense. I’ve always been a huge fan of offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, who has usually done well with far less than this, so I’m predicting a blip—but who knows. Ultimately, a receiver not named Julio Jones will have to step up.

They’ll also need RB Tevin Coleman to improve. After a decent start, he’s averaged only 0.8 yards after contact the last five weeks.

4. Oakland Raiders

If the 2014 Dallas Cowboys were a great argument for having a fine offensive line, consider the 2015 Raiders as an addenda to that report. Derek Carr is currently the least-pressured QB in football, and they are averaging a healthy 5.0 yards per carry through the “A” and “B” gaps.

A special word here for WR Michael Crabtree, who looks to be back to his 2012 best, with a league 14th-ranked 2.08 yards per route run and only three drops.

Overall, they are a solid group, but they could get better by shifting snaps from TE Mychal Rivera to rookie Clive Walford, who, after a slow start, has the look of a quality all-round player.

5. Cincinnati Bengals

Okay, so if you’d only seen MNF this week, you’d wonder if I need to visit an optometrist. However, the Cincinnati offense is a group with no real weaknesses that sometimes you just wish would simply line up and play football. I’m of the school of thought that says OC Hue Jackson’s offensive wrinkles (three-man offensive lines with tackles outside with the wide receivers, etc.) are better left to teams that need that sort of obfuscation to compete. There are times you look at the wealth of talent they have and think it slows them down more than it does the opposition.

Can they bounce back—in prime time, once more—against the high-flying Cardinals? They’ll certainly need to show more than they did against Houston for the Patriots to consider them little more than a speed bump on the way to AFC domination.