Don’t you feel unified now that everybody is holding hands and kneeling at the right time? Don’t you feel like the NFL ended institutional racism once and for all? No? However you may feel, you have to hand it to Jerry Jones for executing a PR ploy to perfection. That said, if we could please just stop hearing the word “unity” for a few weeks, we’d appreciate it.
Did we just start the RW Power Rankings out that way to distract from our New England/Seattle Super Bowl prediction? We’ll leave that to you to decide. On to the rankings.
Note: The number in the parentheses before the rankings represent the upward and downward movement from our preseason rankings.
(-6) 32. CLEVELAND BROWNS 0-4
The Browns might be further away from relevance than we thought. Getting spanked by the Bengals was definitely not a good look.
(-3) 31. SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS 0-4
The Niners’ offense is unbearable to watch. The defense is actually semi-decent. Unfortunately for the Niners, in today’s NFL, it helps to have more than zero weapons in the passing game.
(-) 30. INDIANAPOLIS COLTS 1-3
The Colts are wisely being cautious with Andrew Luck. No reason to rush him back from shoulder surgery because they weren’t going to be contending this season anyway (We didn’t change one word of this from the preseason).
(-7) 29. MIAMI DOLPHINS 1-2
We’re still not sure how they managed to win a game. Jay Cutler’s start to the season has been entirely predictable.
(-20) 28. NEW YORK GIANTS 0-4
Like you saw this poop show coming.
(-) 27. CHICAGO BEARS 1-3
“The ‘We Want Trubisky’ chants will start by week three. Mike Glennon just can’t catch a break, except that he keeps getting millions of dollars to play football.” -our preseason note. One week off.
(-9) 26. LOS ANGELES CHARGERS 0-4
We can’t remember a team ever losing this many one possession games like this. They find new ways to do it every week. We still expect the Chargers to finish 8-8 again somehow.
(-13) 25. ARIZONA CARDINALS 2-2
Their offensive line is atrocious. That’s not good when you have an aging QB who can’t evade a pass rush and your starting RB is out for the season.
(+8) 24. NEW YORK JETS 2-2
Smoke and mirrors. Has to be.
(-2) 23. CINCINNATI BENGALS 1-3
The change at offensive coordinator has lit a spark. The Bengals definitely have weapons. But not enough to make the playoffs.
(+2) 22. WASHINGTON FOOTBALL CLUB 2-2
They show glimpses but that defense still leaves a lot to be desired. And now if Josh Norman is injured, things are about to get much worse on the defensive side of the ball.
(-10) 21. TENNESSEE TITANS 2-2
The defense needs some work to say the least and losing Mariota means that the defense could be spending some more time on the field. By the way, you know the owners are really full of it when Kaepernick can’t get a job to replace an injured QB who plays a similar style and the team instead turns to Brandon Weeden. Sorry Brandon.
(+3) 20. MINNESOTA VIKINGS 2-2
Until they get Bradford back it’s going to be tough for them to win ball games. But when he does return, we have a feeling we’ll be eating some crow.
(-4) 19. BALTIMORE RAVENS 2-2
This is a mediocre football team that needs a jolt, or at least a semblance of a running game.
(+7) 18. JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS 2-2
Blake Bortles isn’t as gawdawful as he looked in the preseason and that has led to a decent start because the Jags have a very underrated defense.
(+1) 17. TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS 2-1
The Bucs have one of the easiest schedules in the NFL. We’ll see what kind of team they are when they play the Patriots on Thursday.
(-7) 16. DALLAS COWBOYS 2-2
What happened to the Dallas offensive line from last year? If they shape up, Dallas is a contender once again. If they don’t, this is a mediocre squad.
(+4) 15. CAROLINA PANTHERS 3-1
It was an impressive win, but don’t get all prisoner of the moment on us. The loss of Greg Olsen is still a big one and the defense remains an issue. We don’t see Carolina as a playoff team.
(+2) 14. NEW ORLEANS SAINTS 2-2
Don’t look now, but the Saints have limited their last two opponents to 6.5 points/game. Yes, one of those was the Dolphins in London, but the other was Carolina. Not too shabby (should we not have gone with this immediately after chiding you to not be a prisoner of the moment?).
(-8) 13. OAKLAND RAIDERS 2-2
The Raiders looked great the first two weeks and then seemingly forgot how to play football. And why can’t Amari Cooper catch the ball anymore? Needless to say, losing Derek Carr for a month or more is not what the Silver and Black need right now (Side note: Don’t piss off Josh Norman before a game).
(+17) 12. BUFFALO BILLS 3-1
This one is even more surprising than the Jets having won two games. That Bills defense is leading the NFL in points allowed and they’ve played the Falcons, Broncos, and Panthers the last three games. Not bad.
(-9) 11. SEATTLE SEAHAWKS 2-2
What happened to the LOB? It’s easy to right the ship at home against the Colts, but that defense, which should be best in the NFL, looks shaky at best. We still think they’ll come around but we’re already a quarter of the way through the season.
(-) 10. HOUSTON TEXANS 2-2
We made a joke the other day that Watson is starting his rookie season off like he thinks he can win the Heisman. Well, if he keeps this up, the MVP is not out of reach.
(-8) 9. NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS 2-2
That defense is atrocious, but are you really counting Brady out? Didn’t think so.
(+6) 8. PHILADELPHIA EAGLES 3-1
The Eagles don’t have a pass defense but it hasn’t seemed to matter yet.
(+13) 7. DETROIT LIONS 3-1
The Lions are a crazy, reversed call at the goal line away from being 4-0. We still don’t necessarily trust the defense to hold up in the long run, despite how incredible Ezekiel Ansah looks.
(+7) 6. DENVER BRONCOS 3-1
Ho hum, another dominant defense on the field for the Broncos. We’re not believers that the defense is good enough to win a Super Bowl without a more dynamic offensive output, but this is absolutely a playoff team right now.
(+24) 5. LOS ANGELES RAMS 3-1
We aren’t remotely all in on Jared Goff but we have prime seating aboard the Sean McVay for Coach of the Year bandwagon. He is working wonders.
(+3) 4. PITTSBURGH STEELERS 3-1
We’re not in love with the offense because, as we said before the season, Big Ben is aging. But if their defense can keep this up, it’s not like an offense with Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell is going to be bad.
(-) 3. GREEN BAY PACKERS 3-1
In a league where quarterback play has become even more consequential as a result of rule changes over the years, we’re going out on a limb and saying that the team with Aaron Rodgers might be underrated this season despite secondary issues (Not a word changed from our preseason ranking assessment. No reason to change it now.).
(+2) 2. ATLANTA FALCONS 3-1
They look like a different offense when Julio Jones isn’t healthy. But if he’s healthy, you don’t want to face the Falcons.
(+5) 1. Kansas City Chiefs 4-0
Are the Chiefs the team to beat at this point? It certainly appears so. They’ve added Kareem Hunt and now have game breakers on the outside in Hill (domestic abuser), and in the backfield in the aforementioned Hunt. Add a potent offense to a Super Bowl level defense and you have the best team in football through the first quarter of the season. Plus, who doesn’t love Andy Reid?
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