Editor’s Note: The NFL Power Rankings this season at This Given Sunday are a collaborative effort between Matt Clapp and Jay Rigdon. Feel free to tell them how much they hate your team on Twitter (@Matt2Clapp; @JayRigdon5).
1. New England Patriots (1-0; Last Week: 4)
No Brady, no Gronk, no problem. And on the road, in primetime, against the team we had ranked at the top of this list entering Week 1.
Even though we’re used to the Patriots doing things like this in the Bill Belichick era, that was an eye-opening, unexpected victory. Jimmy Garoppolo stepped into the offense, running it without much difficulty. The Cardinals must’ve heard this loud and clear:
Through one week of Tom Brady’s suspension, the Bills, Dolphins, and Jets are all already one game back of the Patriots. Is it too soon to call the AFC East race? -Matt
2. Carolina Panthers (0-1; Last Week: 2)
Carolina is still ranked second, ahead of Denver. This is because one week of games isn’t enough of a sample to start just throwing people around the rankings. Power Rankings (capitalized at all times) are different from the standings. That’s why they have two different names.
Second, the Panthers went on the road to the mile high altitude of Denver and had a field goal to win it sail wide.
If the field goal had gone in, they’d probably be ranked #1, but instead it missed, so we have them second. -Jay
3. Denver Broncos (1-0; Last Week: 9)
Really impressive comeback win over the Panthers. It looked for a while like the Panthers might pull away in that game.
Trevor Siemian wasn’t anything great, but overall did what the Broncos were hoping for, and this seems like a good time to remind you what Peyton Manning’s numbers were last year: 9 TD, 17 INT, 59.8 completion %, 67.9 quarterback rating.
And Von Miller looks like he’s ready to destroy the league again:
The defense may not be *quite* what it was last year, but it still may be the best in the league, and the Broncos are going to win a lot of games regardless of their quarterback play. -Matt
4. Pittsburgh Steelers (1-0; Last Week: 5)
The Steelers handled Washington on the road on Monday night. They move up a spot because Seattle won but did so in shaky fashion. (That’s fairly true for most of these teams until we get to Seattle.) –Jay
5. Green Bay Packers (1-0; Last Week: 6)
Of course Aaron Rodgers made this throw:
Aaron Rodgers makes an INCREDIBLE throw to Davante Adams, THROW OF THE YEAR ALREADY? 🔥 Follow for more plays! pic.twitter.com/BCyXoGSARG
— Best NFL Plays ™ (@BestNFL_Plays) September 11, 2016
-Matt
6. Arizona Cardinals (0-1; Last Week: 1)
The Cardinals lost to the Brady-less, Gronk-less Pats. Who are still a solid team, but it feels like the Cards should have made a better showing given the stage and opponent.-Jay
7. Seattle Seahawks (1-0; Last Week: 3)
That was an ugly win against a Dolphins team they should handle much better at home. The good news is a win’s a win, and now they get the dumpster fire that is the Los Angeles Rams in Week 2. So even if the Seahawks still arent’ playing their best ball, they’re likely going to be 2-0 to start the year, before they hit their stride. -Matt
8. Cincinnati Bengals (1-0; Last Week: 7)
Whoa, hey, the Bengals are facing the Steelers already! Nothing weird or crazy ever happens when these two teams get together. (Joey Porter explodes into your living room as you read this, goading you into a personal foul.) -Jay
9. Kansas City Chiefs (1-0; Last Week: 9)
Okay, so they came back from down 24-3 to beat the Chargers. But they were down 24-3 to the Chargers. At home. -Matt
10. Oakland Raiders (1-0; Last Week: 10)
The Raiders won what was an exciting game in New Orleans, which is a good early-season win for them, since for a few weeks it feels like the NFL is truly a coinflip league. Maybe moreso this year than years prior, even.
So if you’re a team that is likely better on paper, it’s best to win the coin tosses now, and then when the talent advantage begins to take hold throughout the season, you’ll have already banked a few victories, leading to a playoff berth. In theory. -Jay
11. Minnesota Vikings (1-0; Last Week: 13)
They survived the Shaun Hill game! Now the Sam Bradford era will likely begin, and in in a huge, huge game: Opening up their new stadium (for regular-season action, that is) against the team they’re likely to contend with for the NFC North title, the Green Bay Packers. -Matt
12. Houston Texas (1-0; Last Week: 12)
The Texans beat up on the Bears, and their defensive line, with a healthy Jadeveon Clowney playing his natural position, looked monstrous. Even with J.J. Watt playing through injury. Brock Osweiler looked okay, even! -Jay
13. New York Jets (0-1; Last Week: 11)
That loss hurts, and then it hurts even more with the Patriots’ surprising win. They badly need a win tonight in Buffalo, as here are their four games after that (in order): at Kansas City, vs Seattle, at Pittsburgh, at Arizona. -Matt
14. Detroit Lions (1-0; Last Week: 26; Biggest Jump)
The Lions are an interesting team, getting a road win in Indy on a last-second field goal, despite allowing the Colts to mount a late comeback of their own. Theo Riddick should probably be a must-start player in any PPR fantasy league. (Take it from me, a guy who didn’t start Theo Riddick in a PPR fantasy league.) – Jay
15. Baltimore Ravens (1-0; Last Week: 20)
They have a great shot to get to 2-0 with a game vs the Browns this week, and they don’t face a team in the top-9 of our list until Week 9 (Steelers in Baltimore). -Matt
16. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-0; Last Week: 24)
I honestly forgot Lovie Smith was coaching at Illinois and not Tampa until this weekend, when I tuned in to watch the Illini try to move the ball down the field against North Carolina. That’s when I remembered that they’d canned Lovie to promote and hold onto Dirk Koetter, who sounds like an 80s movie villain. (This joke brought to you by Bill Simmons.) Anyway, Lovie is gone, Tampa’s probably okay. -Jay
17. Jacksonville Jaguars (0-1; Last Week: 21)
The played the Packers hard and seem so close to (finally) reaching that next level. Look for the Jags to get better as the season goes on. -Matt
18. New York Giants (1-0; Last Week: 16)
The Giants only beat the Romo-less Cowboys by a point, but then again, it was on the road. Feels like the Giants are just a “meh” team this year, which should never be the case when you have OBJ (of course, it was always the case with the Lions and Megatron). -Jay
19. Miami Dolphins (0-1; Last Week: 18)
Nearly pulled off a huge upset in Seattle in Adam Gase’s first game as head coach. Their schedule is pretty funny, in that they start off on the road at Seattle and New England, before a Week 3 home game vs the Browns. It’s like the schedule makers realized, “Okay, that’s mean, here are the Browns for a game in Miami”, before then making the Dolphins have to go to Cincinnati in Week 4. -Matt
20. Philadelphia Eagles (1-0; Last Week: 27)
The Eagles play the Bears Monday night, and thus have a real chance to move to 2-0 while proving absolutely nothing, as they pounded the Browns 29-10 in week 1. Wentz looked okay in one game against Cleveland’s defense, though, so I’m sure Philly fans are keeping everything in perspective and not overreacting at all. -Jay
21. New Orleans Saints (0-1; Last Week: 22)
Looked like the same old issues for the Saints. Able to score points, but can’t stop points from being scored. -Matt
22. Indianapolis Colts (0-1; Last Week: 14)
The Colts gave up a ton of points at home to lose despite scoring a ton of points on their own. Finally, Andrew Luck knows what it’s like to be Peyton Manning. -Jay
23. Atlanta Falcons (0-1; Last Week: 23)
Losing at home vs another NFC South team — that isn’t the Panthers — is a tough way to start the year. If I had to describe a mediocre NFL team, I would just point to this one. -Matt
24. Chicago Bears (0-1: Last Week: 19)
The Bears looked fantastic on two drives, and horrendous on the remaining however-many drives. The main concern was the offensive line, which is currently a patchwork unit featuring a rookie center, two really good guards with question marks (Josh Sitton just joined the team,and Kyle Long is reportedly playing through a torn labrum) while the offensive tackle duo is near the bottom of the league.
Jay Cutler isn’t going to last the season taking the sort of beating he took on Sunday, and the Bears certainly aren’t winning many games without giving him time to throw. It was the Houston defensive line, one of the best units in football, but they were bringing easy heat with a four-man rush, using simple stunts and twists. So, maybe it could get better against lesser defenses? -Jay
25. Buffalo Bills (0-1; Last Week: 15; Biggest Fall)
This has the feel of a must-win game tonight for Buffalo. Yes, in Week 2. If the Bills lose, they’re 0-2 and in danger of falling to 0-4 with their next two games against the Cardinals and Patriots.
26. Washington Redskins (0-1; Last Week: 17)
Washington is probably not that good. Plus I own DeSean Jackson in fantasy, so he’s guaranteed to disappoint. Sorry everyone. -Jay
27. Dallas Cowboys (0-1; Last Week: 25)
We don’t know if the Cowboys win the game anyway, but Terrance Williams, dude, get out of bounds.
Even Madden clowned him. -Matt
28. San Francisco 49ers (1-0; Last Week: 30)
San Francisco looked worse in a 28-0 victory than I could possibly hope to describe here. It was truly a spectacle of horror. And that was just the Chris Berman play-by-play. -Jay
29. San Diego Chargers (0-1; Last Week: 29)
Blew a 24-3 lead in what would’ve been a huge road win over an AFC West rival in Kansas City… and lost their best offensive weapon for the year to a torn ACL in wide receiver Keenan Allen. An hour into the season, things looked great for Chargers fans, and just like that it felt like their season was ruined. -Matt
30. Tennessee Titans (0-1; Last Week: 31)
The Titans lost at home to the Shaun Hill-led Vikings. That’s not going to bump you very far up the Power Rankings. –Jay
31. Cleveland Browns (0-1; Last Week: 32)
They don’t even deserve to be this high up on the list. -Matt
32. Los Angeles Rams (0-1; Last Week: 28)
The Rams are absolutely awful. The only way Case Keenum is throwing a ball through a tire-swing is if the tire came off Gravedigger. They couldn’t score a point, their studly young defensive star Aaron Donald was ejected, Todd Gurley was helpless without threat of a passing game, and Jared Goff wasn’t even active.
The proper response is, obviously, to extend Jeff Fisher. -Jay
