NFL Power Rankings Week 3

Three weeks into the N.F.L. season and not much has changed at the top, where the Green Bay Packers remain the top dogs, but an exciting week of football has really shuffled some things around. The Buffalo Bills had their biggest win in ages. The Giants bruised and battered went into the “Linc” and knocked off the Eagles for the first time in their last 6 games vs the Eagles. The Chiefs finally decided to show up to the game this weekend vs the Chargers, but couldn’t do enough.

Fun, exciting week. Let’s get to the power rankings.

32. Kansas City Chiefs (Previously Kansas City Chiefs)

I thought they would cover the spread vs the Chargers. It’s a division game they had been embarrassed two weeks in a row, they had to step up and play better, and they did, but they are still bad.

Someone tell me what was a worse move than firing Chan Gailey as offensive coordinator and then Charlie Weis leaving. Gailey is going to make Ryan Fitzpatrick about 65 million dollars from the Bills after this season if he keeps it up.

31.  The Miami Dolphins ( Previously Seattle Seahawks)

The Dolphins are not the 31st least talented team in the league, but this team can not win Sparano as their head coach. I’m 100 percent convinced that failing to jettison Sparano is going to cost this team. Another loss and this team could just go right into a tail spin. We’ve all seen it happen many times. The Dolphins players now the owners don’t want Sparano there for the long time, why would they give up their bodies for him. Chad Henne has looked better than I thought he would and is actually playing all right. But the Dolphins have a tough schedule (They still have 5 games vs the A.F.C. East and 4 games vs the N.F.C. East teams) and I just think by seasons end they are picking top 5.

30.  Colts (Previously the Indianapolis Colts)

They can’t stop the run except on Sunday night. Things are not going to improve if they decide to go with Curtis Painter. Painter is not very good. It’s a tough break, but this team is going to get a very good player and could have one excellent draft to give Peyton Manning one more shot at getting back to the Superbowl over the next few years. How good is Peyton Manning. He makes this team look excellent. They did look much improved on Sunday, but that was a prime time game vs the defending A.F.C. Superbowl representative, if they didn’t bring it on Sunday I’d really question the heart of the team. Good effort. Still expect them to lose a lot more than they win. They might be the 30th worst team in the league, but they are in a real bad position right now.

29. Minnesota Vikings (Previously the Minnesota Vikings)

They are very talented in a lot of positions, but eventually Mcnabb will be benched for Christian Ponder and the Vikings will be picking early next year. I’ve always appreciated Donovan Mcnabb and thought he was very disrespected in Philadelphia, and it saddens me to say he’s about done.

I’ve also been knocking the Raiders each week for being inconsistent so I can’t put the Vikings any higher than this. They are clearly talented, they just have a gaping hole at the most important in position in football.

28. Seattle Seahawks (previously Miami Dolphins)

Whoops. Meant to put them lower than this. But why not put them at the top of the worst five teams for only one week. They can’t possibly win many games this year. Tavaris Jackson does not look good. On the bright side Syndey Rice looked really good on Sunday.

27. Cincinnati Bengals (previously Cleveland Browns)

Andy Dalton struggled on Sunday after a couple of really solid weeks. He’s one of the players I’m most interested in watching as the season progresses. If Dalton can play well, the Bengals might feel secure at quarterback for the long haul. It’ll also be interesting to see if someone will step up in the absence of Cedric Benson over the next three weeks.

26.  Denver Broncos  (Previously Bengals)

Tebow time! Not quite yet, but soon. The Broncos have a good amount of young talent, but they are in transition. A lot of teams struggle when they get new coaches, especially teams that were bad the year before. The Broncos need to find out this year if Tebow is the answer or not. Kyle Orton is not the future even though he is solid and the Broncos will likely be picking high enough to take advantage of the talented quarterback class this year.

25.  St. Louis Rams (previously Denver Broncos)

The Rams look awful, but the problem is they have played an absolutely brutal schedule. They still have a chance at the N.F.C. West because the rest of the N.F.C. West will eventually start playing the tough schedule the Rams have had to play. They also are a much different team when Steven Jackson is playing. I like Spags and think he’s doing some good things with the Rams, but his career coaching record is pretty awful. He has 8 wins and 27 losses in his short coaching career. This is a serious question Rams fans. How much more leeway does he have?

24.  Jacksonville Jaguars  previously Carolina Panthers

The Jaguars are brutal. They aren’t talented enough to win pretty, but they might not even be talented enough to win much at all. They had a gift touchdown right before the end of the first half on pretty much a hail-mary type play, other than that their offense was not good at all.  Maurice Jones Drew is a S-T-U-D, the insertion of Blaine Gabbert into the starting lineup will be tough for the Jaguars for the foreseeable future, but it’s better to see what they have.

23.   St. Louis Rams (previously Tennessee Titans)

0-2 and a brutal schedule. The Giants secondary made Sam Bradford look like Dan Marino. And that’s without the Rams having any good offensive weapons tonight. Now Amendola, no Steven Jackson. Just bad, bad defensive secondary play by the New York Giants.

22. Arizona Cardinals  (Previously Jacksonville Jaguars)

The Seahawks? Seriously, the Seahawks. How do you lose to the Seahawks. They are terrible. Terrible, terrible game by the Cardinals. Kevin Kolb didn’t have a good game on Sunday. He threw two picks and his one touchdown was a throw and pray that Larry Fitzgerald came down with. It’s not like the Seahawks defense is ferocious or anything, they are just not that good. Their offensive line needs a major over-haul for them to be competive and they need more pass rushers.

21.  Carolina Panthers (Previously Arizona Cardinals)

I actually don’t expect them to win a lot of games, but do you know what they are? They’re scary. There is a lot, lot of young talent  on this team. They could use another young Wide receiver, a true pass rushing threat, and more players in the secondary (like every team could use). But they are definitely going in the right direction. On the day Newton had his worst game in his career, the Panthers won. The Panthers aren’t running the ball enough to win now, but that could actually help them in the future.

20. Chicago Bears (Previously Buffalo Bills) 

Are they more talented than this? Yes. Are they going to make the playoffs? No. They are not good enough to make the playoffs in my opinion. I think they are not as good as the Eagles, Lions, Cowboys. The Bears put up a valiant effort vs the unstoppable Packers today, but came up short. The Bears ran the ball only 9 times today. They had 14 yards rushing (and 11 of those came from Jay Cutler). Mike Martz might be an offensive genius, but sometimes he gets in his own way.

19.  Cleveland Browns  (Previously New York Giants)

I still don’t think they are very good. They have beaten the awful Dolphins and the not much better or maybe even worse Bengals. But give credit where credit is due. They are the worst 2-1 team in the league, but hey at least their 2-1. Colt McCoy looks more and more like he can be a Franchise QB though and that’s a huge plus for the Browns. They won today without Peyton Hillis. If they are picking high imagine how good Justin Blackmon would look in their short passing game.

18. Atlanta Falcons (previously Oakland Raiders)

Are they more talented than this ranking? Yes. But they are 1-2 and they play in a tough division so that hurts their chances. They can’t blow games like they did today. The Falcons now are  a game behind the Buccaneers and Saints. The team also has lost a lot of recent games. And Matt Ryan hasn’t looked like a young Peyton Manning as of late. I’m not telling Falcons fans to abandon ship quite yet, but this team which people thought could run a way with the division could be in a season long battle to make the playoffs as a wild card team.

17. Philadelphia Eagles(Previously San Fran 49ers) 

In a weird and bad break for the 49ers they actually go down two spots in my power ranking with a Win. Whoops. Well what happened was a lot of really good teams are getting pushed back into this area and a lot of the other teams that aren’t getting pushed back also have good 2-1 records.

Anyway onto the Eagles. The biggest question mark about Michael Vick and his huge contract he signed was could he stay healthy? So far the Eagles have played three games and Vick has only been able to finish one. He’s also throw an interception in 9 of his last 10 games. Teams have figured out that blitzing Vick and forcing him to the right can cause him problems. He looked like a Hall of Famer the first six games of last season, but has come back down to Earth to about his Atlanta Falcons days (not hall of famer, just Super-human). The Eagles defense on the other hand is a lot to worry about. The Giants were depleted at WR today and had four touchdown passes.

16.  Washington Redskins (Previously Tennessee Titans)

The Washington Redskins have played much, much better than everyone expected them to, even me, and I never put them at the bottom of my pre-season power rankings. They still need another big time offensive weapon and I’m not completely ready to buy all in on them yet, but they are leading the N.F.C. East and they don’t have a terrible schedule this year. In fact it’s easier than what most teams will have to face this year Are they for real? Not sure. Are they headed in the right direction? Definitely.

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