The Rich Top 5: NFL Sleeper Teams to Watch This Season

Rich has rules about what a sleeper is. A team that missed the playoffs and is going to make them. That is it. Which is why he spent the first two minutes of this Top 5 rejecting the Bears, Patriots and Cowboys as sleepers, because First Take has been talking about Dallas every day all week and some people think they can win it all.

He also admitted he almost put the Chiefs at number one and talked himself out of it.

"I'm not here to inflame. I'm here to inform," he said. Big difference.

Here is the list.

**5. Cleveland Browns.** Rich likes the drafting. He pointed at Todd Monken lighting up when somebody asked whether Harold Fannin would be a key part of the offense, and the flat "hell yeah" that came back. Fannin, Judkins and a room full of drafted kids, with the head coach now on the offensive side of the ball because Stefanski's side of the ball wasn't working out. "I think the Browns can be better than you think. How good? Better than you think."

**4. New Orleans Saints.** Rich is buying some of the bandwagon talk, and the entry point is that the Saints were only two games away from winning the division. Olave has been paid. They paid Travis Etienne. And if Kamara is good too, Rich wants to know whether Etienne and Kamara would be the best running back tandem in the league. The defense is the open question. He put them here anyway.

**3. Tennessee Titans.** "They are bald and they are beautiful." Cam Ward getting coached by Daboll, with Ridley and Pollard giving the offense home run hitters, and a defense Saleh is going to coach up in a big way. The visual of the Titans coaching staff got described as the baldest Brady Bunch of all time, which Rich delivered as a compliment about hiring in your own image.

**2. New York Giants.** The schedule is brutal and Rich knows it. He is buying anyway, because John Harbaugh is coming into town, and Harbaughs plus a team up on the spot. The defense is already good and will get after you. Malik Nabers playing is a real question mark. The rest of the ask is simple: keep the quarterback out of the big blue tent, and get Skattebo to stop flipping around, which somebody at the desk correctly pointed out cannot actually be stopped.

**1. Cincinnati Bengals.** Not the Cowboys. The Bengals, and Rich means it all the way to the end. He thinks they can win the AFC and the whole shooting match. Ja'Marr Chase getting carted off was not helpful, but the hyperextension avoided disaster and costs only a few weeks. Beyond that, this offense is still this offense. Protect them. Give Joe Burrow a short field once in a while. Give Joe Burrow some happiness so he is not home staring through his new telescope into the celestial abyss.

For Rich, number one sleeper means win the division, go deep, and maybe end up back at SoFi.

Then he added a sixth, which is allowed when it's your list.

**Bonus: Minnesota Vikings.** With J.J. McCarthy. The kid gets time, the kid starts showing up, the kid gets them to the playoffs and shows you what he can do when the chips are down. Rich expects McCarthy gets his chance at some point, though the room noted the only way Kyler Murray misses time is if he's hurt. He is not getting benched.

Rich agreed. Which makes the Vikings pick the most sleeper thing on a list of sleepers.