1. New Orleans Saints (13-3)
Week 17 ranking: 1

New Year's resolution: Do penance for Sunday's ugly performance. The Saints' regular-season finale could have been "meaningless," since they already had the NFC's No. 1 seed locked up. But they played so poorly (especially with their starting defense on the field) that coach Sean Payton vowed this will be a back-to-basics practice week to clean up some fundamental issues. "With the way we played yesterday and some of the things that we've done offensively recently, our focus is gonna be strictly on Saints," Payton said. -- Mike Triplett