Category: NFL power rankings

NFL power rankings roundup: Where do Saints stand entering Week 2?

Where do the New Orleans Saints stand entering Week 2? Week 1’s biggest win wasn’t enough to lift them into the top-15 for these NFL power rankings:

Slowly moving up the charts.

With the New Orleans Saints’ impressive 47-10 victory against the Carolina Panthers in Week 1, most major outlets have the team inching just a little bit closer to the top-20 mark in their NFL power rankings. It seems as though even playing the most complete game of all teams in Week 1, many are still hesitant to push them further up the board. This is mainly due to their opponent being the Panthers who finished 2-15 just a year ago.

The team’s highest ranking this week is at No. 14, where Pro Football Focus has them. CBS Sports as well as The Ringer each has them at No. 25 marking their lowest ranking:

It’s understandable for most to keep the team hovering around where they were previously due to the reasons mentioned above. However, the team has a great opportunity this week against the Dallas Cowboys, who are traditionally one of the leagues top teams year in and year out. If Klint Kubiak and the offense are able to put together another efficient afternoon against Micah Parsons and Co., they should be able to match up well against this team. There’s confidence that Dennis Allen will put the team in the best position defensively to win the game, even if they have to do that without their top corner in Marshon Lattimore.

With a win in Dallas, this team would almost certainly put the league on notice, and likely mark their biggest win in Allen’s tenure. Let’s see if they can rise to the challenge.

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NFL power rankings: Where the Eagles land among top tier that includes Chiefs, 49ers

The 49ers capped off an exciting opening weekend for the 2024 NFL season with a win over the New York Jets on “Monday Night Football.” The season started with Baltimore falling short in a rematch with Kansas City, followed by Philadelphia’s …

The 49ers capped off an exciting opening weekend for the 2024 NFL season with a win over the New York Jets on “Monday Night Football.”

The season started with Baltimore falling short in a rematch with Kansas City, followed by Philadelphia’s much-needed 34-29 win over Green Bay. Meanwhile, the Vikings, Saints, and Cowboys all finished in the winners’ column.

With all 32 NFL teams preparing for Week 2, here’s an updated power rankings broken down into tiers.

1. Kansas City Chiefs (1-0)

2. San Francisco 49ers (1-0)

3. Detroit Lions (1-0)

4. Philadelphia Eagles (1-0)

5. Dallas Cowboys (1-0)

6. Baltimore Ravens (0-1)

7. Houston Texans (1-0)

Philadelphia flew to Brazil and got a much-needed Week 1 win over Green Bay, while C.J. Stroud and the Texans put the NFL world on notice. Baltimore slips after their season-opening loss to the Chiefs, while Dallas looked like a legit Super Bowl contender in their blowout win over the Browns.

8. Miami Dolphins (1-0)

9. Buffalo Bills (1-0)

10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-0)

11. New Orleans Saints (1-0)

12. Indianapolis Colts (0-1)

13. Los Angeles Rams (0-1)

14. Green Bay Packers (0-1)

Josh Allen started his MVP campaign with a dazzling performance against the Cardinals, while Tampa and New Orleans got off to a hot start. Miami overcame the Tyreek Hill arrest to hold on for a win, while the Rams and Packers are looking to return to winning ways.

15. New York Jets (0-1)

16. Pittsburgh Steelers (1-0)

17. Cincinnati Bengals (0-1)

18. Jacksonville Jaguars (0-1)

19. Los Angeles Chargers (1-0)

20. Atlanta Falcons (0-1)

21. Seattle Seahawks (1-0)

22. Chicago Bears (1-0)

Caleb Williams is undefeated as a pro, but it was a rocky start for the Bears No. 1 overall pick, while Mike McDonald got his first win in Seattle. Justin Fields and the stout Steelers defense dismantled Kirk Cousins and the Falcons. Jim Harbaugh is building a physical winner in Los Angeles, while the Bengals and Jets are looking to avoid 0-2 starts.

23. New England Patriots (1-0)

24. Minnesota Vikings (1-0)

25. Arizona Cardinals (0-1)

26. Cleveland Browns (0-1)

27. Tennessee Titans (0-1)

Jerod Mayo showed his coaching chops in a season-opening upset over the Bengals. Sam Darnold showed why he was a top pick, leading the Vikings to a Week 1 win, while Marvin Harrison was shut out in his debut with the Cardinals. Cleveland was the most disappointing team of the weekend after suffering a blowout loss to the Cowboys.

  1. Washington Commanders (0-1)
  2. Denver Broncos (0-1)
  3. Las Vegas Raiders (0-1)
  4. New York Giants (0-1)
  5. Carolina Panthers (0-1)

Carolina has to wonder if Bryce Young can be the guy, while Giants GM Joe Schoen has traded places with Ryan Poles, as he’ll spend this spring searching for an elite quarterback in the 2025 NFL draft. The Raiders are still consistent enough on offense, while rookies Bo Nix and Jayden Daniels have growing pains.

NFL power rankings roundup: Where do Saints stand entering Week 1?

NFL power rankings roundup: Where do the Saints stand entering Week 1? Most outlets see a bottom-10 team in New Orleans

The New Orleans Saints get their first shot of making a statement this week against the Carolina Panthers. In terms of rankings across the board, the Saints are widely viewed as a bottom-10 team throughout the league. However, a dominating performance in Week 1 could alter the perspective of experts as well as onlookers across the country who seem to be down on the Black and Gold at the moment.

With the start of the regular season for the Saints just around the corner, here’s where most experts have the ranked heading into the 2024 season:

From the outside looking in, many would see the team’s 9-8 record from a year ago and question why they would be this low. Taking on these experts’ point of view, many of them see an aging roster, a poor offensive line, inconsistent quarterback play and a head coach who has had little success in this league. They also recognized the team’s inability to spend boatloads of money to bring in top-tier talent to this roster. When you factor in these things, it’s easy to see why the team is widely viewed in this manner.

Now the hope for this team, is that new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak can inject some life into this offense with some creativity to maybe compensate for the lacking areas. Most know that the Saints defense is going to be a stout unit to keep them in games but the question is, how can they get quarterback Derek Carr to perform with efficiency throughout the course of the year, behind a questionable offensive line. The answer hopefully lies behind their change at OC.

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Where Titans landed in PFT’s pre-camp NFL power rankings

A look at where the Titans landed in Pro Football Talk’s pre-training camp power rankings.

In a recent NFL power rankings ahead of training camp next month, the Tennessee Titans did not fare well, as you’d expect.

According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the Titans are the No. 27 team in the NFL ahead of training camp.

Here’s his hard-hitting analysis:

“It’s still weird that they fired Mike Vrabel,” Florio wrote.

Yes, that’s the analysis.

Of course, it comes as zero surprise that the Titans are ranked that low. After all, the national media routinely underrates this team on a yearly basis to begin with.

And, truth be told, while the Titans have added a lot of talent this offseason, they remain an unknown, mostly because of the uncertain situation at quarterback, where Will Levis has to prove he’s the guy for the long haul.

But if the Levis can answer the bell in his second season and this team can stay healthy, the Titans are going to surprise a lot of people.

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Saints find themselves in the bottom-8 of new NFL power rankings

After a quiet offseason, the New Orleans Saints found themselves 10 spots lower than they started in the latest NFL power rankings:

We’re a few weeks into free agency and everyone has a take on how well each team has improved (or degraded). NFL.com’s Eric Edholm recently released his first power rankings since free agency began, saying that the article is meant to be a reflection of each team’s 2023results  and the moves they’ve made thus far in the 2024 offseason.

Changes at quarterback and coaching elicit the greatest response. It’s a fun exercise to see how teams are viewed prior to the draft. The New Orleans  Saints came in at 25th:

The Saints haven’t truly been gutted in free agency, and they managed to sign Chase Young in spite of their salary-cap constraints, but they also haven’t truly upgraded in any one obvious way, either. Both lines of scrimmage need multiple additions, and wide receiver is pretty barren. It’s going to be hard to make the offensive talent significantly better around QB Derek Carr, based on what’s available and what they can spend.

New Orleans should be able to seek help at receiver and on the offensive line in the draft, but they had better find ready-made talents who can step in Year 1. Carr and Dennis Allen can’t yet be sleeping too easily, given the state of the roster. If this coming season is a failure, it’s hard to have confidence in the futures of either beyond 2024.

Harsh. Edholm clearly doesn’t share the opinion that coaching was the biggest detriment to the New Orleans offense. Your opinion on if the Saints can improve their offense largely comes down to if you believe in Klint Kubiak. The Saints dropped 10 spots despite remaining essentially the same as last year, roster wise. Edholm is not a believer.

Is it the Greatest Show on Turf? No, but describing the wide receiving corps as barren feels extreme. Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed are a solid foundation with room to grow within the room. The description of the trenches is more accurate than his take on the receivers. The Saints do need to make improvements on each side of the ball, but New Orleans isn’t as far from simply being average as Edholm believes.

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TD Wire’s post-free agency power rankings unimpressed by Saints offseason

Touchdown Wire’s post-free agency power rankings are unimpressed by the New Orleans Saints offseason so far:

There aren’t many exercises more useless than NFL power rankings, which are the ultimate subjective expression of someone’s takes. Still, they are a quick way to summarize every team’s status and outlook relative to their peers, and it’s interesting to see where the New Orleans Saints clock in.

And they didn’t earn positive marks from Touchdown Wire’s Jarrett Bailey, who ranked the Saints all the way down at No. 24 among the league’s 32 teams. Here’s why Bailey is so down on the Saints:

The Saints win the award for the team I care the least about in 2024. We know what they are. They’re the same team they’ve been for the last three years. They’ll keep kicking this can down the road, thinking they’re just one or two moves away from being contenders, only to go 7-10 and repeat the cycle (see the Chase Young and Willie Gay signings). The Panthers may win fewer games in the division, but at least they’re interesting and have a young quarterback that went No. 1 overall last year. What is interesting about watching Derek Carr overthrow Chris Olave five times a game while Taysom Hill poaches touchdowns from inside the five? Nothing. They’re a team with a lame duck head coach and a lame duck quarterback awaiting another boring, mediocre season.

The Saints are the lowest-ranked team to finish the 2023 season with a winning record, but as Bailey said this was more of a vibe check than any really substantial analysis. And it’s tough to argue with the suggestion that Derek Carr and Dennis Allen are an uninspiring duo. Neither of them have won a single playoff game in a decade as a starting quarterback or five years as a head coach (or in two seasons together, between the Saints and Raiders).

Buying what the other teams in the NFC South are selling, though: that’s indefensible. For all his interest in the Panthers, Bailey ranks them behind the Saints at No. 29 while coming off a two-win season. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are further ahead at No. 21 after winning a home playoff game but having lost their offensive coordinator.

And the most baffling decision is to rank the Atlanta Falcons all the way up at No. 7, calling them Super Bowl contenders for having signed Kirk Cousins. The same quarterback who famously did not lead a much more talented Minnesota Vikings team to the Super Bowl during his six years with the team, and who is now coming off season-ending Achilles surgery while joining a team built to lean on its defense without the defensive coordinator who led them to success a year ago. Good luck with that.

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Post-Super Bowl NFL power rankings have the Saints in the middle of the pack

There were ups and downs throughout the season, but a strong finish placed the Saints in the top half of these post-Super Bowl NFL power rankings:

The New Orleans Saints find themselves at No. 15 in the NFL.com’s Eric Edholm final power rankings of 2023. This leaves the Saints sitting in the middle of the pack, which feels appropriate with the entire season. There were long stretches of feeling like the Saints were a below-average team, and at times their poor results proved those doubts valid. New Orleans ended the season strongly, though.

Here’s what Edholm wrote in ranking the Saints at No. 15:

The team’s annual salary-cap surgery must begin soon, given that the Saints open the offseason with the most work left to do. They’re projected to be more than $80 million over the cap as things stand now, and even with some obvious sources for savings, this major hurdle threatens to weaken the team at several key positions: on both lines of scrimmage, at cornerback and at wide receiver. New Orleans also must figure out the future of important but expensive specialists in Alvin Kamara and Taysom Hill. With Derek Carr locked in this offseason at QB, there’s a worry that the Saints might not be able to do enough to surround him with the kind of talent he needs. This offense was out of sorts throughout 2023, prone to wild swings in effectiveness on a week-to-week basis, and there’s no clear path to adding major talent this offseason. Oh, and Dennis Allen is back for a third season with a lot to prove. How are you feeling about this team right now, Saints fans?

Numerically, No. 16 would be the definition of average in the NFL. The Saints played well enough to end the season right above that. In reality, that’s still an average team, and they barely make the “top half” of the league. They weren’t good enough to get into the playoffs New Orleans benefitted from a weak schedule down the stretch, but a win against the NFC South-champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 17 makes the placement understandable.

In order to improve on these results, New Orleans has to find a way to even out those ups and downs. Better first half performances are a must, and they have to show it against better teams. They’ll likely have a weak schedule again, and the Saints have to take advantage of it better than they did this past season.

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Titans way-too-early 2024 power rankings round-up

With the 2023 season in the books, a look at where experts are putting the Titans in their way-too-early 2024 NFL power rankings.

With the 2023 season now officially in the books after the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII, experts from different media outlets are releasing their way-too-early NFL power rankings, all of which have the Tennessee Titans near the bottom of the league.

We start with our friends over at USA TODAY’s For The Win, where Robert Zeglinski and Christian D’Andrea have the Titans at No. 31. Here’s what they had to say about it:

Brian Callahan will have to work the magic that made Jake Browning an above-average quarterback on Will Levis… or maybe Malik Willis? Either way, it’s a wholesale rebuild in Nashville, and expectations will be low for 2024.

For the record: Assuming Malik Willis actually sticks with this team into the start of the season, he will not sniff the starting job in 2024, barring an injury to Will Levis.

With so much uncertainty and a lot of work to do to improve their roster, it’s no surprise that everyone is down on the Titans ahead of the offseason.

However, Tennessee can turn this thing around sooner rather than later with the assets the team has this offseason.

Not only do the Titans appear to have a franchise quarterback in Will Levis, they also have a ton of cap space and a pair of top-40 picks in the 2024 NFL draft, including No. 7 overall.

Now, the rest of our round-up:

ESPN’s early 2024 power rankings don’t buy what the Saints are selling

ESPN’s early 2024 power rankings don’t buy what the Saints are selling. New Orleans starts out deep in the bottom half of the league:

ESPN’s early 2024 power rankings don’t buy what the New Orleans Saints are selling. To hear general manager Mickey Loomis tell it, the Saints are so close to the playoffs that fans should go ahead and reserve their tickets — but neutral observers taking stock of the entire league think the Saints are closer to being one of the NFL’s worst teams than a title contender.

New Orleans starts out deep in the bottom half of the league; ESPN ranked them at No. 22 out of the 32 teams, clocking in at No. 11 among the 16 NFC squads (and, remember, only 7 of those NFC teams make the playoffs). Here’s what ESPN’s NFL Nation reporter Katherine Terrell had to say about the Saints’ outlook, defining their offseason in three words as “Maintaining status quo.”

The Saints parted ways with longtime offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael with plans to hire Klint Kubiak and will have several new assistants on the offensive side. For now, the Saints don’t appear to have any major player changes on the horizon. GM Mickey Loomis still feels the window is open for this team to be successful, which could mean another year where they attempt to keep the roster together in hopes of making it to the playoffs, with a few exceptions.

There may be big changes on the coaching staff, but the Saints’ roster is largely set for 2024. Derek Carr will start quarterback. Alvin Kamara is returning at running back. Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed will continue to play large roles at wide receiver. At least three and probably four, if not all five, starters are returning along the offensive line. There are little to no changes coming for the defensive depth chart. Michael Thomas and Jameis Winston are likely on their way out. Unless Marshon Lattimore is traded, it’s realistic to expect 20 of their 22 starters to return next season.

This is the bed the Saints made for themselves; now they have to lay in it. Loomis restructured so many veteran contracts and botched so many draft picks to where they’re left with few alternatives. New Orleans is betting everything on more experience and a new offensive coaching staff yielding better results in 2024. It’s a big gamble, but if they’re right, they could be in the mix next January. That just isn’t a wager many people outside the team facility are taking them up on.

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NFL divisional round power rankings: Ravens, 49ers up top, with challengers everywhere

Divisional round power rankings! It’s time to rank the remaining eight teams ahead of divisional round weekend.

It is the best weekend in football. The eight best teams in the NFL duking it out for a chance to make it to their respective conference championship games. As the field gets thinner, so too does the margin for error for the remaining playoff teams. Here is how they stack up heading into divisional round weekend.