Dave Portnoy put out his top 10 NFL teams for the 2026 season and immediately lit a fuse. The list ran Rams, Seahawks, Patriots, Bills, Bengals, Bears, Broncos, Packers, Texans and Jaguars, in that order, with a very pointed banner underneath naming who didn't make it: Ravens, Eagles, Chargers, Chiefs.
My top 10 teams in the NFL. Fair and unbiased
Portnoy captioned his own post "fair and unbiased," which is the kind of thing you say when you know exactly how unbiased it isn't. Snubbing the Chiefs and Eagles from a top 10 is a hot take. Snubbing the Ravens and Chargers entirely, on a list that includes the Jaguars, is the part that got the replies going.
Dave gives his reasons for the teams left off the list:
This isn't new territory for Portnoy and Lamar Jackson. When he put out his top 10 QB rankings earlier this preseason, Jackson didn't make that list either, and Portnoy's stated reasoning was that he weighs playoff success over regular-season stats — explicitly telling fans "I'm not a Lamar Jackson guy." Jackson also dealt with hamstring and back injuries that limited him to 13 games in 2025, a career-low workload that gives Portnoy's angle at least some ammo, even if two-time MVP still carries a lot of weight with everyone else.
Herbert is the tougher sell to leave off entirely. He made the Pro Bowl in 2025, throwing for 3,727 yards and 26 touchdowns while adding a career-high 498 rushing yards, numbers that read like a top-half-of-the-league quarterback, not the league's most overrated player. Portnoy wasn't backing down from either call, though, doubling down on the "overrated" label for both guys when the Ravens and Chargers fans started showing up in his mentions.
For people complaining about the Ravens and Chargers being left off my top 10 list: Herbert and Lamar are the two most overrated players in the NFL
The other pushback came from a corner Portnoy didn't even mention: San Francisco. Stoolies in the replies pointed out the Niners weren't anywhere on the list despite going 12-5 last season behind a Christian McCaffrey year that won him Comeback Player of the Year — 1,202 rushing yards, 102 catches, 17 total touchdowns, all after an injury-wrecked 2024. Fans started dropping McCaffrey highlights as the case for why San Francisco belonged over at least a couple of the names that made the cut.
@barstoolsports @wakeupbarstool @VivaLaStool @TBob53 @BFW @MeekPhill_ @Blutman27 What about the Niners @TBob53??
None of this settles anything — it's a preseason power ranking, the kind of thing built to be argued with, and Portnoy knows it. But when your list has room for the Jaguars and no room for a two-time MVP, a Pro Bowl quarterback, or a 12-win team with the league's Comeback Player of the Year, the fair-and-unbiased bit was never going to hold up past the first round of replies.