Tag: NFL power rankings

Broncos ranked as league’s 3rd-worst team in NFL power rankings

Touchdown Wire’s latest NFL power rankings have the Broncos listed as the third-worst team in the league.

In his post-free agency NFL power rankings for Touchdown Wire, Jarrett Bailey has the Denver Broncos ranked 30th, making them the third-worst team in the league by his estimation.

This was Bailey’s commentary on Denver’s ranking:

“Everyone knows I’m in over my head
Over my head
With eight seconds left in overtime
She’s on your mind, she’s on your mind”

I imagine Sean Payton relating to that song pretty well right now (the cover by A Day To Remember, not the original by The Fray, but that’s neither here nor there). The only difference is the “she” that’s on his mind is actually a “he” in the form of a franchise quarterback he hopes to land in this year’s draft as Denver continues to pay Russell Wilson to not be there.

Elsewhere in the AFC West, the Kansas City Chiefs are ranked No. 1, the Los Angeles Chargers are No. 20 and the Las Vegas Raiders are No. 27.

The New York Giants are ranked No. 32 (last). To view the complete post-free agency NFL power rankings, visit Touchdown Wire.

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Bengals get big boost in post-free agency power rankings

The Bengals look great in new power rankings.

The Cincinnati Bengals were a staple of the top 10 in power rankings before last season, where Joe Burrow entered the year hurt, briefly recovered for roughly two games, then exited for the year.

For most, the Bengals have to prove they’re all the way back to regain that sort of footing in power rankings.

But in post-free agency rankings from Touchdown Wire’s Jarrett Bailey, that Joe Burrow factor plays a big role in the Bengals landing fourth overall:

Everyone seems to be sleeping on the Bengals. With a healthy Joe Burrow and the usual suspects on offense, they can’t be counted out. They needed veteran talent in the secondary, so they signed Geno Stone and brought back Vonn Bell. The Bengals seem like the forgotten team because their quarterback was injured throughout most of the season, but if they live up to their potential, they’ll be one of the best teams in the league.

In today’s NFL, a team with a top-five passer is usually somewhere in the top 10 of actual rankings, let alone power rankings.

At this point, the Bengals will need the re-tooled secondary to perform better than last season and the front office will need to keep beefing up the pass-rush — never mind attempting to find a way to replace DJ Reader in the middle.

But in hypothetical power rankings in March? The Bengals are a solid on-paper team before the draft.

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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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Steelers check in at No. 14 in offseason power rankings

The Steelers have made multiple big roster moves this offseason.

No team has had a bigger roster turnover this offseason than the Pittsburgh Steelers. The headlines are all about the team moving on from quarterbacks Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph in favor of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields.

The combination of moves the Steelers have made helped land them at No. 14 on Touchdown Wire’s first offseason NFL power rankings. Here’s what they had to say about the ranking:

The Steelers have been the most active team when it comes to making massive moves, which is certainly a difference in what we have grown accustom to. Pittsburgh signed linebacker Patrick Queen from the hated Ravens, and they’ve been wheeling and dealing with trades, as well. They sent receiver Diontae Johnson to the Panthers and got cornerback Donte Jackson in return, as well as a sixth-round pick. They also signed quarterback Russell Wilson and traded for Justin Fields, sending Kenny Pickett to the Eagles in between. The Steelers won 10 games with bottom of the barrel quarterback play in 2023. They don’t need Wilson and/or Fields to be top 10 quarterbacks. If they are slightly below average, that’s still a massive upgrade over what they had in 2023.

The Steelers snuck into the playoffs last season thanks to a late-season push with Rudolph at quarterback. Pittsburgh is hoping all these changes will pay off with the first playoff win since 2016.

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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 power rankings and the NFC West

Check out where NFL.com ranks the four teams in the NFC West compared to the rest of the league in final power rankings.

The 2023 NFL is over and the Kansas City Chiefs are world champions for the second consecutive year after beating the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime.

We look ahead to the offseason but before that, we have some final power rankings.

Where do the teams in the NFC West rank?

Let’s have a look below.

Where are the Commanders in the first 2024 power rankings?

Where are the Commanders in the first power rankings for 2024?

The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII to win their second consecutive championship.

Now, all eyes focus on the 2024 NFL season. While the season is less than seven months away, we are less than one month away from the new league year.

With the new league comes the start of free agency. Players will switch teams and 2024 rosters will begin to look much different. There is no team in the NFL with more salary cap space heading into next season than the Washington Commanders.

There is plenty of optimism surrounding the Commanders currently. They have a new owner (Josh Harris), a new general manager (Adam Peters) and a new head coach (Dan Quinn). In addition to Washington having the most cap space, it also holds the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft.

The Commanders are hoping for a Houston Texans-like turnaround in 2024.

With the Super Bowl over, ESPN recently unveiled its first power rankings for 2024. Where will the Commanders be after their changes?

No surprise, Washington comes in at No. 31.

Here’s what ESPN’s John Keim says about the Commanders:

Washington has a new owner (Josh Harris), general manager (Adam Peters) and head coach (Dan Quinn) hoping to revive a franchise whose fan base has endured one tough season after another; the team has won three playoff games since winning a Super Bowl after the 1991 season. The Commanders can help themselves more by spending wisely in free agency (they’re projected to have the most cap room in the NFL this offseason) and by drafting well (they have the No. 2 pick, which they can use to find a quarterback of the future, and own five picks in the top 100).

This is fair. How can you rank Washington any higher when the roster hasn’t changed?

The Commanders will be much much improved in 2024. How much? We shall see. We have a feeling Peters and Quinn see this roster differently than those on the outside. What some of Washington’s players need, specifically younger players, is coaching. The Commanders’ new coaching staff is already a massive improvement over the previous regime.

In case you were wondering about the NFC East:

  • Dallas Cowboys: 7th
  • Philadelphia Eagles: 8th
  • New York Giants: 27th

Bengals miss top 10 in early 2024 power rankings

Are the Bengals ranked fairly?

With so little football news to write about so soon after the Super Bowl, ESPN has released an early NFL power rankings for the 2024-25 season, and the Cincinnati Bengals were lower than expected.

Even with Joe Burrow returning, the Bengals were ranked 13th in the league after a 9-8 record, accomplished while the team was going through injuries that derailed the season.

Ben Baby of ESPN had three words to summarize what they need to do over the offseason and that is “make receiver decisions.” Here’s more of what Baby had to say about Cincinnati’s offseason situation:

There are two big moves the Bengals must figure out this offseason. First, they need to get a sense of what a potential Ja’Marr Chase extension might look like, a tricky task considering the lack of extensions for young star receivers such as Chase. Second, they need to decide if Tee Higgins is in their short- or long-term plans, which will dictate the use of the franchise tag or a multiyear contract. Cincinnati will have to do the math to see if it can give both players the money they’re looking for while also affording QB Joe Burrow.

It was reported that the Bengals are expected to use their franchise tag on Tee Higgins next season, so one of those questions could be answered, but there is still a lot more offseason to go, including free agency and the draft, so these early power rankings are sure to change.

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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: