Nobody expected the New Orleans Saints to shut out the Las Vegas Raiders last week, and that’s largely reflected in the latest NFL power rankings. New Orleans fell to an average ranking of 24.6 across 15 different outlets (we’ve been surveying national platforms, fan blogs, and analytics services each week) after their road loss to the Arizona Cardinals. After taking down the red-hot Raiders, they’ve risen to 21.6. The highest ranking is No. 16 the Locked on Sports network, with the lowest at Sports Illustrated (No. 28).
Here’s the state of the NFL South:
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 16.1 (-0.4)
- Atlanta Falcons: 18.6 (+2.7)
- New Orleans Saints: 21.6 (+3.0)
- Carolina Panthers: 29.2 (+0.7)
So there are still some holdouts who aren’t ready to admit the Buccaneers are just as bad as the other teams in their division (Sports Illustrated and Pro Football Focus each insist the 3-5 Bucs are a top-10 team), but we’re seeing the gap narrow week by week. It goes to show that the NFC South is exactly as wide-open as each team’s mediocre record reflects. Here’s what each NFL power ranking had to say about the Saints this week: