There’s a jumble down on the field

Do not adjust your picture.

The NFL has already done that for you.

We’re not a month into the season, and already everything in the AFC is topsy-turvy. Three of the four division leaders -- Baltimore, Buffalo and Denver -- missed the playoffs last season, and the other leader, Tennessee, has already switched quarterbacks.

Consider the other weirdness: Indianapolis has yet to christen Lucas Oil Stadium with a victory; it took Cincinnati’s Carson Palmer three weeks to throw his first touchdown pass; Cleveland, which has five prime-time games, is 0-3; and the Matt Cassel-led New England Patriots had their 21-game winning streak ended at home by once-woeful Miami.

As for San Diego and Jacksonville? They’re both 1-2.

This isn’t parity, it’s mayhem.

The Buffalo Bills, for one, will take it. They play at winless St. Louis today with a chance to get off to their first 4-0 start since 1992. According to the Buffalo News, this is the first time in 12 years the Bills have been alone atop their division after three or more games.

The message from Bills Coach Dick Jauron: Just relax.

“You’d certainly rather be 3-0 than 0-3,” Jauron said this week. “It is really early, though. We just have to keep playing. I think the significance is that we’ve won three games at the start of the season and that’s a big plus. We’ve talked about it before, the fast start is good, but you just have to play through the whole thing. It’s a long year.”

Jauron’s a smart guy, a Yale man, so he shouldn’t have to work too hard to sell that to his players. If he has a problem getting through to them, though, he simply needs to tell them this: Look west, young men.

Specifically, look to Denver, where last year’s Broncos won their first two games before dropping their next three and ultimately missing the playoffs. Strong Septembers are nice, but it’s much more important to be relevant in December.

From the look of things, all four of the AFC’s division leaders look as if they could have staying power.

If there’s an untested team in that group it’s Baltimore, which has played just twice because its Week 2 game at Houston was postponed due to Hurricane Ike. The Ravens have a rookie quarterback in Joe Flacco, and their two victories have come against Cincinnati and Cleveland, who are a combined 0-6.

What’s more, the Ravens have to play at Pittsburgh on Monday in a game that should give them a good gauge of their toughness. Typically, it’s Baltimore’s top-ranked defense that has set the tone.

“We can be arguably the best defense in this league, easily,” said linebacker Ray Lewis, part of a unit that’s given up an average of 161.5 yards in its first two games.

Few people expected the Ravens to be an elite contender this season, seeing as the team is coming off a 5-11 finish and has a rookie coach in John Harbaugh and a first-year quarterback who last fall was taking snaps for the Delaware Blue Hens.

At the opposite end of the experience spectrum is Kerry Collins, who instead of fading into retirement has Tennessee on the verge of its first 4-0 start.

Like Baltimore, the Titans have leaned heavily on their defense. They’ve beaten Jacksonville, Cincinnati and Houston, and have yet to give up more than 12 points.

Tennessee cornerback Cortland Finnegan, who replaced Adam “Pacman” Jones, already has four interceptions. That’s more than 21 of the 32 league’s teams.

But, in the week leading up to today’s game between Tennessee and Minnesota, the quarterbacks have gotten lots of attention. The game pits the 35-year-old Collins, who took over for Vince Young, and 37-year-old Gus Frerotte, who replaced Tarvaris Jackson.

Joked Collins: “It’s the battle of the blue-hairs, I guess.”

Maybe so.

But so far in the AFC, this season is anything but the same old thing.

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sam.farmer@latimes.com