NFL Overrated and Underrated Teams: Week 13

I’ve posted overrated and underrated NFL teams on my NFL Picks page for a while, but I thought it deserved its own section. I’ll update this page every week during the season as well as periodically during the offseason. Follow me @walterfootball for updates.

Updated Nov. 24, 2025

NFL Overrated Teams:

Carolina Panthers
The Panthers were the hipster pick of 2025. Everyone loves what they did versus the Chiefs, Eagles, and Buccaneers (first matchup) late last year. And yet, they lost those games, even though the Chiefs, Eagles and Buccaneers didn’t put forth any sort of effort into those contests. When the Panthers battled teams focused against them, they were obliterated by the Cowboys and Buccaneers (second matchup). Bryce Young still can’t see over the line of scrimmage, while the defense could still be a bottom-five unit.

The Panthers lost a “close” game to the Cardinals, but were down 27-3. This would have been a blowout had the Cardinals not fallen asleep at the wheel again. In the other games, the Panthers were demolished by the Jaguars and caught the Falcons completely unprepared to play off a big win on national TV. They got back to their real, losing ways against the Patriots. They beat the Dolphins, but we know how much Miami sucks. They also defeated the Cowboys, but Dallas was missing a million players. They then beat the Jets, but there are powder puff football teams that could probably give the Jets a run for their money. Carolina then got blown out by Buffalo, exposing its true colors.

Four, weeks ago, the Panthers beat the Packers, who were napping off their win against the Steelers. Green Bay was also looking ahead to battling the Eagles next Monday night. And once again, the Panthers showed their true colors in a loss to the Saints. They then beat the Falcons, but only because Michael Penix Jr. and Drake London suffered injuries, and Atlanta was coming off an 11-hour jetlagged flight from Germany.

Chicago Bears
The Bears are 8-3, but they have a negative point differential. They’ve been very lucky to win some of their games. It must be noted that they’re 2-3 against teams in Groups B and C (they haven’t played a Group A team yet.) Five of their seven wins have come against Groups D and F, and the lone exception was the victory against Washington, which Jayden Daniels threw away with the botched handoff with Jacory Crosky-Merritt. Chicago would have lost to the Giants at home had Jaxson Dart not gotten injured.

Houston Texans
The Texans are now 6-5, and they enjoyed a win over the Bills on Thursday night because of their incredible defense. However, I’m still not sold on them despite their elite stop unit. This is because their offense is a disaster. They can’t block, which will be a problem down the stretch.

Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jaguars are 7-4, but they haven’t played any team above Group C yet, save for the Rams, Seahawks, and one other exception. Both the Rams and Seahawks defeated Jacksonville easily. Their other opponents have been the Panthers, Bengals (when Joe Burrow got hurt), Texans (twice), the Nick Bosa-less 49ers, the Raiders, the beaten-up Chargers, and the Cardinals. That’s five Group C teams, two Group D teams, and two Group F teams. I can’t say that’s overly impressive.

Now, I did say there’s one exception, and that’s the Chiefs. Jacksonville won that game, but the Chiefs basically threw that one away. We saw Jacksonville’s true colors in its loss versus the Rams.

New England Patriots
The Patriots are 10-2, but they suddenly have severe offensive line issues. They lost both their left tackle and left guard against the Bengals, while right tackle Morgan Moses got banged up early in the game. New England’s sudden blocking decline has to put them on the overrated list.

San Angeles Chargers
The Chargers are back on the overrated list. With Joe Alt injured, the Chargers won’t be able to block anyone. They barely survived the Titans, so what’s going to happen when they battle real competition? Sure, they beat the Steelers, but is defeating a decrepit Aaron Rodgers really a great feat? Their loss to the Jaguars was staggering.

San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers are 7-4, but they haven’t played any team above Group C yet, aside from the Rams twice. They’ve otherwise taken on seven Group C teams and lost to three and barely won two of those games. Their other opponents were a Group D team, the Giants, and a Group F team, the Saints.

NFL Underrated Teams:

Arizona Cardinals
I hate this Cardinals team because they’ve screwed us twice against the Panthers and Titans. However, I don’t think it’s correct to deem them a bad team. They’re 3-8, but they easily could have won six of the eight games they lost. Six of those losses were decided in the final seconds. Arizona has the 15th-ranked defense in the NFL, and Jacoby Brissett has been better than Kyler Murray.

Buffalo Bills
I’ve heard some NFL podcasts write off the Bills as a potential Super Bowl champion because they can’t stop the run. That’s the only thing they’re bad at, and that’s not even a permanent thing because they’ll make improvements in that regard once Matt Milano is healthy. Perhaps this mini-bye will help.

Kansas City Chiefs
It’s always fun when the Chiefs can be listed in the underrated section. Everyone seems to be writing them off because they’re 6-5, but they’re 6-3 ever since getting one of their starting receivers back from injury. They’ve lost two in a row recently, but there’s no shame in suffering defeats to the Bills and Broncos on the road.

Have any suggestions for overrated and underrated teams? Shout them out to @walterfootball, or see how they’re being used on the NFL Picks page.