Indianapolis Colts hosted the Denver Broncos for their first NFL Preseason game of the 2024 summer
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More than halfway through the season, it seems like more than half the league is still in the race for a playoff spot. Heading into "Monday Night Football," 20 of the NFL's 32 teams are 4-5 or better, meaning they are within a game or two of a playoff spot, depending on which division and conference they reside.

With that in mind, we wanted to take a look at what has happened so far in Week 10, and determine one thing we learned about each team that remains in the playoff picture. 

We're not going to cover the Kansas City Chiefs, who are on their bye this week, or the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers, who don't play until Monday night, because we haven't learned anything about them this week just yet. But all 17 of the other teams that are in the mix are on the table for takeaways. Some of them are big picture and some of them are more granular, but we're going to talk about what we learned.

Indianapolis Colts (8-2)

Jonathan Taylor might be an alien. Taylor rushed 32 times for 244 yards and three touchdowns against the Falcons, seemingly putting the entire offense on his back for much of the game and leading the Colts to a win over the Falcons in Germany. Taylor had a season-long (for any player) 83-yard touchdown run to put Indianapolis in the lead and then the game-winning score from 8 yards out. He's leading the league in rushing by over 200 yards now, and he's almost 400 yards ahead of the next closest player after that. He's in the MVP mix, even if he's not the favorite.

Denver Broncos (8-2)

They're not as good as their record indicates. The Broncos barely escaped with a win against a horrendous Las Vegas Raiders team last Thursday night. The combined record of the teams they've beaten this season (Titans, Bengals, Eagles, Jets, Giants, Cowboys, Texans, Raiders) is a mere 23-48-1. The strength of victory is the worst of any 8-2 or better team since the 2000 Raiders, according to CBS Sports research. The only above .500 team they've beaten is Philadelphia and, like the game against the Giants, it took a double-digit comeback late in the game to do it. The defense is very good. But the offense is a problem and this team has benefited from a preposterously easy schedule.

New England Patriots (8-2)

TreVeyon Henderson has arrived. The explosive rookie running back scored from 55 and 69 yards out in this game against the Buccaneers, he now has 38 rushes for 277 yards and two scores over his last three games, which includes two starts. He's added five receptions for 35 yards during that stint, as well. He's up to 5.3 yards per carry on the season, far ahead of the less efficient Rhamondre Stevenson. You can't put the genie back in the bottle here.

Seattle Seahawks (7-2)

When healthy, the defense is a different animal. What a difference it makes to have everybody in the lineup on both the front and back end. The Seahawks' defense essentially ended the game against the Cardinals before it started, coming up with two strip-sack touchdowns before the second quarter was halfway over. With the exception of the game against the Buccaneers where they came in banged up, the Seahawks have allowed an average of just 16.8 points per game. They're terrorizing quarterbacks and forcing turnovers, and they've only really allowed run games to get going in garbage time. 

Los Angeles Rams (7-2)

Matthew Stafford is playing at the highest level of his career. Stafford is completing 67.1% of his passes at an average of 7.9 yards per attempt, with 25 touchdowns and two interceptions. He's leading the league in passing yards per game. He just became the first quarterback in history to throw for four-plus touchdowns and zero interceptions in three straight games. He is throwing frozen ropes everywhere. He is layering the ball all over the field to not only Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, but all four of the team's tight ends. He's favored to win MVP at several sportsbooks. He's totally locked in.

Los Angeles Chargers (7-3)

They're capable of winning when Justin Herbert doesn't go into Superman mode. They won this game against the Steelers with great defense (221 total yards, 11 first downs, 10 points, three takeaways) and some solid running, while Herbert didn't have his best night, averaging south of 7 yards per attempt and taking five sacks behind a porous offensive line. And they still managed to come away with a win. They'll have to deal with the offensive line issues for the rest of the season, but when the defense plays as well as it did on Sunday night, they're capable of overcoming an average offensive performance. 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-3)

They need their injured players back. Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Bucky Irving can't get back fast enough. The Bucs' offense didn't do all that much against the Patriots until very late in the game, with Tampa piling up 115 of its 371 total yards while down multiple scores in the fourth quarter. The defense also remains somewhat vulnerable to big plays. Kyle Williams hit for a long catch-and-run touchdown in the first quarter, while TreVeyon Henderson broke two massive runs from Patriots territory and into the end zone. That can happen on occasion when you play as aggressively as the Bucs do, but it's something to watch out for nonetheless.

Buffalo Bills (6-3)

The run defense remains a problem. The Bills have one of the worst run defenses in the league this season. They've given up an average of 5.5 yards per carry this season, which ranks second-worst in the NFL, per Pro-Football-Reference. They've yielded 100-plus yards on the ground in seven of their nine games and just got clocked for 197 yards by the Dolphins. That was the fourth time they've been hit for 185 yards or more, which is definitely a concern. Especially with some defensive linemen still out.

Detroit Lions (6-3)

Dan Campbell can dial it up. Campbell took over play-calling from offensive coordinator John Morton for this game against Washington and the Lions looked both efficient and explosive throughout. He did a great job of getting the ball to all of the team's playmakers, up to and including Jameson Williams, who had been an afterthought for much of this year. In the end, Sunday's game against the Commanders was the second-best game of the Campbell era by EPA per play on offense, according to TruMedia. By success rate, it was the sixth-best. And that's out of 77 total games. Safe to say this looked like a good move, for at least one week.

Chicago Bears (6-3)

Caleb Williams is managing the pocket much better. Williams' sack rate of 4.6% is less than half of what it was last year, when he took a league-leading 68 sacks. Against the Giants on Sunday, he repeatedly evaded pressure, and his scrambles in particular added a ton of value. He ran five times for 64 yards and the eventual game-winning touchdown against New York, taking off downfield on 41.7% of his pressure dropbacks, per TruMedia. Williams didn't have the most efficient game throwing the ball thanks in part to several drops, but what he did with his legs to extend plays and create yards down the field was excellent. 

San Francisco 49ers (6-4) 

The injuries on defense might be too much to overcome. The Niners are now without Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, Mykel Williams, Yetur Gross-Matos and more defensively, and they got torn apart by the Rams' offensive machine on Sunday. They gave up 401 yards, 31 first downs and 42 points to their division rivals and just generally looked like they didn't stand a chance to get a stop. They have a soft schedule over the next few weeks, but against quality opponents, the injuries are going to hold them back. 

Pittsburgh Steelers (5-4)

The offense is limping into the stretch run. Over the last two weeks against the Colts and Chargers, the Steelers have totaled 225 and 221 yards. They've turned it over a combined four times. They haven't gained more than 20 first downs in a game all season. They have yet to have more than 249 net passing yards. The only defenses against which they have looked legitimately good are those of the Jets, Bengals and arguably the Colts (the benefitted from six defensive takeaways giving them good field position throughout the game), and they lost one of those games. It's a problem.

Jacksonville Jaguars (5-4)

The early-season defense was a mirage. Now that the Jags have stopped forcing three-plus turnovers per game, we have seen that teams can move the ball and score against them fairly easily. They've given up 28-plus points in three of their last four games, including 36 (THIRTY-SIX) against the Davis Mills-led Texans on Sunday, despite the fact that they did still come up with two takeaways against Houston. 

Carolina Panthers (5-5)

We don't need to take them seriously. Getting beat wire to wire by the decrepit Saints is a sign that you are not a serious operation. The Panthers have a couple of really nice wins and Rico Dowdle can run on anybody, but the pass offense remains a significant issue and that's not sustainable in the modern NFL. 

Houston Texans (4-5)

Woody Marks is the new lead back. Marks outsnapped Nick Chubb 60-10 on Sunday, officially leaving the veteran in the dust. Granted, he did this in a game where the Texans were in a comeback script for much of the afternoon, but Marks started the game for the first time and took every snap on the first drive of the game. He played 80.8% of the early-down snaps and 70% on third downs, according to Pro Football Focus. He finished with 14 carries for 63 yards and a score, also catching two passes for 18 yards. He looks like the guy going forward.

Minnesota Vikings (4-5)

J.J. McCarthy remains a work in progress. After last week's three-touchdown game against the Lions, there was a lot of talk about McCarthy having potentially broken out. But he still threw for only 143 yards in that game and averaged 5.7 yards per attempt. He threw with more volume on Sunday against the Ravens and so he got over 200 yards for the first time, but he also threw two interceptions and averaged a mere 5.9 yards per attempt. He at least cut down on the sacks and made a really nice throw to Jalen Nailor for his touchdown, but there's still a lot of growth that needs to happen here -- including developing more of a rapport with Justin Jefferson.

Baltimore Ravens (4-5)

They're going to win the AFC North. Baltimore is now just one game behind Pittsburgh, with two games left to play against the Steelers and a significantly easier schedule than the Steelers have the rest of the way, outside of the two games they have remaining against each other. The Ravens have a very good chance to be on a six-game winning streak and leading the division by the time they play the Steelers in Week 14. They've won three in a row and face the Browns, Jets and Bengals over the next three weeks while the Steelers get the Bengals, Bears and Bills.