With the new season approaching fast, putting together power rankings is a bit harder than one would think. The top few teams and bottom few are pretty easy, but the middle 20 or so teams are the toughest.
There are several things before the season starts that could change these rankings, but I see them being pretty solid unless there is a HUGE deal made before September (such as a deal for Julius Peppers or Anquan Boldin).
Here they are, all 32, surprises and all:
1 |  | With the return of Tom Brady, the Patriots are going to be the team to beat this year. Couple that with the offseason moves that they made, and they deserve to be #1. |
2 |  | I normally wouldn’t but the Super Bowl winners at #2, but like I said before, the Patriots are the team to beat, period! |
3 |  | The Titans were great last season, and have made a few moves to try to get better so that they can make a deeper run in the playoffs. They will be very tough to beat again this year. |
4 |  | The Saints have a stellar offense, but last year proved that you can’t just outscore everyone to succeed. You need a defense to make a difference, and the Saints have made some moves to improve on defense, and we will quickly see if they deserve to be this high. |
5 |  | Despite losing their offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, the Colts will succeed, but Marvin Harrison will be missed, and it will be interesting to see how long it takes Manning and Co to get into sync without him. |
6 |  | The Eagles have been quite active in the offseason, and the moves made have been quality moves that will help them win, and win now. |
7 |  | The Falcons have a ton of potential, and signing Tony Gonzalez was a brilliant move to help Matt Ryan grow over the next few seasons. |
8 |  | Like the Falcons, the Joe Flacco led Ravens have loads of potential, and could challenge the Steelers for the divisional championship. |
9 |  | Brad Childress should just give up his dream of coaching Brett Favre, and just work with what he has. Minnesota will be the team to beat in the NFC North without Favre, with him, they may win one or two extra games. |
10 |  | Where the Patriots succeeded without their star quarterback, the Seahawks struggled. Of course struggled could be an understatement since they went 4-12. With Hasselbeck back and healthy, the Seahawks expect to contend for the divisional championship. |
11 |  | I have read that the Chargers are underrated, but they are a very streaky team, so I don’t think they are worthy of a higher ranking… until they prove that this years streak is a winning one. |
12 |  | The Panthers have the talent, but are in a very competitive division, and their fate is totally in their hands. Can they beat the Falcons, Saints, and Bucs? Yes, but will they? That is to be seen. |
13 |  | For the past few seasons every analyst covering the NFL has picked the Texans to be a playoff team. This year is no different, but in the AFC South, that will be hard to accomplish until the Colts are no longer the dominant team in the division, meaning that the Texans could miss the playoffs again this year. (But next year is looking good). |
14 |  | The Giants are two years removed from winning the Super Bowl, but have lost a few key players, though they apparently don’t need them. They suffer the same way the Panthers do in a tough division. Their future is entirely up to them. |
15 |  | Even though they made it to the Super Bowl last season they have a few unhappy players, but have made a few additions to strengthen their team. They will play well, but will finish second in the NFC West. |
16 |  | The Cowboys will be playing in a brand new, state of the art, billion dollar stadium this year, but that won’t help them win. They will need to come together as a team in order to make the playoffs. They have a good cause to rally around (the accident with their practice facility that paralyzed one of their coaches), now let’s see if that brings them together, or tears them apart. |
17 |  | The Redskins have a lot of apologizing to do to Quarterback Jason Campbell. After word leaked that the ‘Skins were trying to land Jay Cutler, they attempted to make a trade to move up for Mark Sanchez in the draft. Unless Campbell is happy, this will be the highest the Redskins will be this year. |
18 |  | The addition of Terrell Owens gives the Bills receiver to take some focus off of Lee Evans giving the Bills one of the best WR tandems in the NFL, until TO decides that he hates playing in Buffalo. |
19 |  | Miami was a surprise last year. They probably even surprised themselves going 11-5, but that won’t happen this year. They will be lucky to be a .500 team this year. |
20 |  | Cutler is a step up from Orton and Grossman, but without any real receivers to throw to, he isn’t going to do much better than Orton and Grossman. |
21 |  | The Buccaneers imploded at the end of last season, and there have been some major changes to the team. Some good, some questionable, and with five quarterback’s on the roster, who knows what is going to happen in Tampa this year. |
22 |  | Even though Cutler is better than Kyle Orton, the Broncos are better off without Cutler who was terribly unhappy, and would have become a cancer in the locker room. They HAVE to play better on defense or they won’t stay this high for long. |
23 |  | Jacksonville lost 2 WR’s, but added Torrey Holt in hopes of returning their offense to the form it was in 2 year ago when they made the playoffs. They can do that, but David Garrard HAS to step up and play well, and avoid the mistakes he made last year. |
24 |  | Green Bay struggled mightily last year after making it to the NFC Championship the year before. They have addressed several weaknesses on defense, and hope that those changes pay off. |
25 |  | I hated seeing Brett Favre in a Jets uniform, not because I don’t like Favre, but because it meant that the Jets all but sold their soul at a shot at the Super Bowl. They had Chad Pennington, and the talent to succeed, but getting rid of Pennington to get Favre was only a one year solution to a non-existant problem. Now with Favre retired (for the time being) they have several unproven players at quarterback in what should be a strong division this year, and drawing the NFC South could make for a long season for Jets fans. |
26 |  | Kansas City is in the second year of rebuilding, but adding Matt Cassell, Mike Vrabel, and Zach Thomas will go a long way in making them competitive in the AFC West. |
27 |  | With a new coach, and possibly a new starting QB, the Browns have tons of upside, but trading a valuable target (TE Winslow) could come back to bite them later in the season. |
28 |  | The Bengals get Carson Palmer (and second year LB Keith Rivers) back, and like the Patriots and Seahawks, they have to be excited at the possibilities. So why, with their star QB coming back are they #28? They were terrible last year, and losing TJ Houshmanzada will hurt, especially with Chad Ochocinco’s antics the past few years. |
29 |  | The 9ers played well at the end of the year last year, but didn’t make any huge changes to carry that over into this season. |
30 |  | The last few teams have nowhere to go but up, and with the improvements made during the offseason, the Rams hope that they move up quickly. |
31 |  | With the talent Oakland has they should move up, but with Al Davis calling the shots they could be basement dwellers until he steps down. |
32 |  | 0-16. Need I say more. |
So, what do you think?
May 28th, 2009 at 8:58 AM
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June 11th, 2009 at 8:08 PM
I think you have chicago the under rated, they have a group of no name receivers except giving a nodd to Hester, but but the end of the season I think we will have a group of well know receivers.
June 11th, 2009 at 10:13 PM
D_Brett: Their no name receivers is why they are ranked so low. I’m not a big Cutler fan, but he is better than Orton and Grossman, so that is an upgrade. I also love Matt Forte. If their receivers step up this year, they could fly up the charts, but that is a big if. If they don’t step up, I can see people throwing 8 in the box to shut down Forte, and then they lose a lot more often than they win.
June 24th, 2009 at 10:16 AM
I’m not sure that the pats are the team to beat. The steelers didn’t have any big losses and never are big players in free agency. Plus with a healthy Rashard Mendenhall are running game will be even better. I think the steelers are the team to beat unless the patriots or anyone else proves otherwise. GET OFF BRADY’S DICK
June 24th, 2009 at 10:52 AM
I agree, somewhat. The Steeler’s are one of the teams to beat, but look at this way. The Patriots were a heartbeat away from the playoffs with a QB that hadn’t started a game since high school. With Brady coming back, it is a definite upgrade over Cassel, and therefore gives them that extra push that they were missing last year. Not to mention that I would take Tom Brady over Rarshard Mendenhall any day. I really like Mendenhall, and think that he gives the Steeler’s one of the best backfields in football (with Parker of course), but getting him back isn’t nearly as important (they won the Super Bowl without him), as getting Brady back is for the Patriots.
July 16th, 2009 at 10:03 PM
Wow I think where you ranked the Niners is low. With Singletary having the opportunity to have a full offseason to work with his team and the defense getting better everyday all Singletary needs to do is get someone to throw the ball to Vernon Davis and Crabtree. The niners will improve on their record from last year and be 8-8 or maybe even 9-7.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:12 AM
They should be better than they were last year, but that is what everyone was saying about them just before last season, and we see how that worked out.
July 20th, 2009 at 11:05 AM
Sorry, I think there are a lot of holes in your rankings.
I’ve put the Chicago Bears on the bubble of the top ten. Cutler is a franchise-making quarterback. He doesn’t need to have the WRs. It sure’d be nice to have them — but Cutler’s dangerous. He’s a playmaker. 4,500 yards last year. We’ll see how he does this year. But I’m willing to bet he’ll come close to it this year.
The Chargers are too low. They need to be a top ten. Very dangerous offensive team. Defense is looking good. I think they need to be around 6 or 7,.
Seahawks are way too high. Perhaps 18. Perhaps over 20. They won’t perform much better than last year.
Cardinals should be in the top ten. You should swap the Cards with the Hawks and then consider moving the Hawks down lower.
I’d put the Broncos in at #30. The team is completely demoralized. They’ve lost their pro-bowl winning QB. Brandon Marshall has made it clear he detests the organization (but will show up merely not to lose $$). And there is a fan-hatred toward their head coach that the players won’t be able to tune out.
Broncos might end up at #32 before the end of the season.
Finally, I think the Pats are a good team. But they aren’t the team to beat. I think you’ve got some homer-ism going on here. Steelers should be in the top spot. Pats deserve a top five ranking however. I’d put them in at #2 (Titans aren’t as good as you think).
July 20th, 2009 at 11:45 AM
@Drew – I didn’t put the Bears higher because of the lack of receivers. Cutler proves that he can win with out them, they will climb. (Besides, I’m not a huge Cutler fan).
The Chargers got lucky last year, and everyone knows it, I don’t think that they are a bad team, they just have some work to do to prove that they are worthy of a higher ranking.
The Seahawks got their franchise QB back, and made some solid draft picks that could have an immediate impact.
The Cardinals on the other hand could sink like a stone if their players are unhappy, and I don’t see them repeating. They are in a mediocre division where one slip could mean losing that division.
The Broncos are going to sink in the rankings, though they might have to fight off the Lions to hit #32.
Like the Seahawks, the Patriots got their star QB back, which puts a giant target on their back, that is the biggest reason they are at #1, though I have a feeling that they may go back and forth with the Steelers for the top spot this year. The Steelers are going to be tough to beat again this year.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:46 AM
Zach Thomas was cut by KC Chiefs.
Miami will be better than the Bills.
The Raiders are the most dysfunctional team in professional sports and should be ranked last (Unless Big Al dies before opening day).
The Texans will unseat the Colts this year.
It will be NO vs Pitt in the Super Bowl.
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