Power Rankings

Well a lot has changed since I published my Pre-Preseason Power Rankings. Injuries have shook teams and cuts have shocked fans. Some teams made statements that can’t be ignored, while others have displayed the rust that a shortened offseason is expected to bring.

And now we have real football!

The Saints and Packers kick-off a massive first week of action that will see the top two seeds from the NFC in 2010 battle it out, the Steelers-Ravens rivalry resumed, and a host of other important matchups.

So, as we brace for the season to begin, which teams are in the best shape? With these Post-Preseason Power Rankings, I’m offering my opinion. The number in parentheses denotes where I had them in my Pre-Preseason Rankings.

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The Green Bay Packers haven’t done an awful lot this off season, and that’s OK, because when you’re the defending Super Bowl champs, just managing to keep the gang together is a good thing. So when you can do that and welcome back some key players from injury (Jermichael Finley and Ryan Grant), you’ve done enough to stay atop my Pre-Preseason Power Rankings.
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While the Packers were always going to be No. 1, the Top 10 holds some teams you may not have expected.
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And so, the regular season is done. The end of the road for 20 teams, and the beginning of a new journey for 12 others.

A year that started off with no clear favorites has ended with one team looking unstoppable and an ultra-competitive NFC where no team really stands out. Along the way we’ve seen coaches fired as their teams have struggled under the weight of expectations (Minnesota, Dallas, Denver and San Francisco), teams come from nowhere to contend (Kansas City and Tampa Bay) and a whole load of other drama centered in New York/New Jersey (foot fetishes and illicit text message).

Here’s the good, bad and ugly from all 32.

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Smell that?

That’s playoffs. Mmmmmmm. Best scent of the season.

But we still have another pesky week of the NFL season before we see just which of these top teams has what it takes to go forward. The Patriots are a clear pack of one, with plenty of debate behind over who’s the best candidate to upset them.

Don’t expect a lot to change in our final power rankings — by this time of year, you know what teams are and what they aren’t, and the ones at the top aren’t going down easily. Let’s check out the good, bad and ugly for each team. Read the rest of this entry »

What a week in the NFL.

I’ve been loading up on cough medicine throughout to help me in my battle with man flu, and it seems to have got me hallucinating.

I mean surely we haven’t seen a week where Carolina won a game? Where Brett Favre started a new streak? Where we learned about Rex Ryan’s foot fetish?

What’s that you say, I didn’t imagine any of that? It really happened. I think I’m going to be sick.

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After twelve weeks of no team standing out, we’ve finally seen our first powerhouse of the year established.

And it’s those pesky Patriots who have managed to rebuild their way into that role.

After the trade away of Randy Moss it was assumed by some that the Pats had sacrificed some of their shot at a title in 2010 so that they could build for the years beyond. That notion now seems like a bizarre case of group mania.

Getting back to a more efficient form of football, New England has just picked apart the opposition time and time again and you are starting to wonder just what exactly can stop them. Read the rest of this entry »

After the Falcons squeezed past the Buccaneers in a manner that either convinced you of their worth (the old “good teams win when they play badly” mantra) or got you off their bandwagon (they did play badly for the most part), Monday Night’s showdown between the Jets and Patriots was an opportunity for either team to stake their claim as the league’s top team.

And boy, did the Patriots take it.

They were utterly brilliant, seemingly one step ahead of the Jets at every turn. They moved the ball efficiently, exploited the blitz and put Sanchez in a position to make mistakes. Which he did.

There’s no way right now you can look in any other direction than Bill Belichick for coach of the year after the transformation of these Patriots into the powerhouse of the AFC, and naturally it’s reflected in our Week 13 Power Rankings. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a new team at the top that can’t be ignored them any longer.

The Atlanta Falcons aren’t putting up a lot of points on teams but they keep putting themselves in position to win games — and then they’re doing so. That’s the mark of a good team, and it’s why they’ve beaten supposed stronger teams the recent few weeks.

On the other end of the scale, we’ve had enough of the Arizona Cardinals. Without Kurt Warner, they truly have gone from eating caviar to eating out of the garbage. Read the rest of this entry »

After a topsy-turvy start to the season, are things starting to settle down?

While we’ve seen teams struggle for consistency throughout the season, it appears an evolution of sorts is ongoing as the strongest teams emerge through the myriad of mediocrity.

We have the NFC-leading Falcons who have (minus an Eagles game) been the model of consistency. A Super Bowl-champion Saints team starting to playing like a Super Bowl champion. The Patriots aren’t looking like a team fielding that many rookies on defense, and they may not even be the best team in their division when you look at the never-say-die Jets. Throw in some powerhouses in the AFC North, a Peyton Manning-led team and our top-ranked Eagles and maybe, just maybe, things are starting to make sense.

Crazier things have happened, right? Read the rest of this entry »

It was somewhat inevitable. As soon as we were awarded the honorary standing as the best in the NFL, the New York Giants responded by losing power … on and off the field.

So, we are again left with a league in which you can’t be comfortable with anyone at No. 1. It’s more like 1A and 1B.

And 1C. And 1D, 1E, 1F, etc.

Will the Falcons emerge? Can New England play more games like it did versus Pittsburgh? Are Rex Ryan and his band of merry men showing signs of backing up their talk? Maybe, but for now there’s only one choice.

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