NFL Power Rankings Poll: 49ers on Top, Lions Keep Climbing

The Messenger’s NFL Power Poll will be published weekly during the NFL season. Each voter will rank teams 1 through 32, with first-place votes worth 32 points, second-place votes worth 31 points, etcetera, down to 32nd-place votes worth 1 point. The participants will then weigh in with commentary on the results…

1. San Francisco 49ers (6 first-place votes), 223 points

Kaelen Jones: I have my “I’m sorry for not respecting your game” apology note for Brock Purdy all filled out. I’ll wait to mail it until after December 4th when they play Philly, though.

Daniela Perez: This was the game — and personally, this was the play. 

There is not much more to say than that. Welcome to Brock Purdy and the 49ers’ NFL, everyone. 

2. Kansas City Chiefs, 213

3. Philadelphia Eagles (1 first-place vote), 210

Jones: Jalen Hurts still hasn’t had a wire-to-wire outstanding game. The Eagles still haven’t lost. Not bad!

4. Buffalo Bills, 204

Gary Gramling: Injuries pile up for a lot of teams, and it’s preferential to have them happen early in the year so your depth can get reps (as opposed to having to throw your sixth cornerback out there for the first time in a playoff game). However, Matt Milano was as close to irreplaceable as the Bills get on the defensive side of the ball — it feels like the Buffalo is going to need some superhuman performances from Josh Allen when January comes around. Which he's capable of providing, but the margin for error is all but gone.

Neil Paine: If Milano and DaQuan Jones go to IR (joining Tre White), only the Steelers will have more cap dollars tied up in injured-reserve players — and Buffalo will have the most of any team specifically on defense — per Spotrac.

5. Miami Dolphins, 192

Mike Tanier: They played with the Giants the way a toddler plays with a bowl of string beans. 

6. Detroit Lions, 187

Adam Ronis: In a potential letdown spot against an inferior opponent and missing several key players, the Lions won easily.

Paine: It’s still early, but the Lions have been mostly awesome so far — no sign of the usual letdown that comes when this franchise is hyped going into a season. Maybe the best sign is how improved this defense is: They’ve gone from 31st in EPA last year to 12th this year.

7. Dallas Cowboys, 185

Ronis: A pathetic performance by the Cowboys showing they aren’t contenders.

Perez: Fourth-best team in the NFC feels like the Dallas way. 

Paine: Dallas is to San Francisco what the Giants, Jets and Patriots were to Dallas. Or something.

Gramling: I dunno, sometimes you just shrug your shoulders and accept that you don’t match up well with an opponent. Unfortunately for Dallas, they probably need to overtake the Eagles in the NFC East and hope the Eagles knock off the 49ers before the NFC title game.

Tanier: The winner of the Cowboys-Bills game in Week 15 gets the coveted Best Team on Paper award: a blurry photocopy of the Lombardi trophy.

8. Los Angeles Chargers, 168

Tanier: Chargers win a close game against a so-so opponent by the skin of their teeth: They are secretly awesome! Let’s move them up the polls. Other teams win close games against so-so opponents by the skin of their teeth with the Chargers on bye: Those teams stink! Let’s move the Chargers up in the polls!

Paine: Mike’s Charger comments continue to be worth the price of admission for this column.

9. Jacksonville Jaguars, 166

Gramling: I still worry a little bit about the fact that Trevor Lawrence doesn’t seem to trust what he sees in the tight red zone, but I’m officially awarding a congratulatory back-pat to Mike Caldwell, who had Josh Allen questioning everything on Sunday. That defensive backfield is coming together nicely.

Jones: Imagine a die-hard, European Jaguars fan. Two London wins in two weeks, I hope they’re on cloud nine. If they bring that form back to the States, they’ll be worth the hype.

10. Baltimore Ravens, 164

Perez: The Ravens are mediocre and have no business being tied for ninth. How on earth are they in our top 10? Do I have to put together a reel of their receiving lowlights from Sunday? (Don’t worry someone already did) 

Explain yourselves. And no, “Lamar” and “beating the Browns” can’t be the answer to everything. 

Paine: As someone who ranked Baltimore at No. 7, I’ll take the bait, Daniela. Yes, the offense looked terrible on Sunday; yes, Lamar still has little time to throw and no receiving depth to throw to; 70% of this team’s receiving yards have gone to a rookie WR, a security blanket TE and a guy whose most notable moment came when someone said he would drop a baby falling from a burning building. However! Baltimore’s defense is still great — they’re allowing just 15 PPG, second-best in the league, and they’ve been a top-two EPA defense versus the pass specifically. Plus they have a 3-2 record against the seventh-hardest schedule in the league according to SRS. We had this team at No. 8 going into the season and I don’t think we’ve seen much that’s unexpected from them — for good or for bad — to really change that.

Tanier: The Ravens would be a top-5 team if they didn’t drop passes and screw up fourth-and-short plays. (Reprinted from 2020, 2021, 2022, Sunday at 4:02 PM)

Ronis: The Ravens gave that game away. The drops were awful. It’s just the way it goes in this rivalry. The underdog covers.

11. Seattle Seahawks, 152

Gramling: Watching Sean Payton humiliate himself on a near-daily basis and Bill Belichick struggle to bring his offense into this decade makes you appreciate Pete Carroll all the more.

12. Cleveland Browns, 150

13. Cincinnati Bengals, 140

Ronis: From the precipice to the season is over to a win over the Cardinals puts them one game out of the division lead. A good sign the offense is getting it together, but need to see consistency. 

Jones: Joe Burrow could not step into this throw a week ago.

If Burrow is gonna look like this throughout the rest of the year, then we I wrote them off too soon. I was personally shocked watching that game. Burrow looked like a new player.

Gramling: Seriously, I don’t know what happened with his calf between the Titans game and the Cardinals game but surely it involved some kind of Faustian bargain.

14. Los Angeles Rams, 124

Paine: With some admirable performances against a tough schedule, I thought the Rams might give the Eagles a little bit of trouble at home. Nah. Though that game superficially appeared close in the second half, Philly outgained L.A. 454-249 and the Rams consistently were unable to mount a late comeback when they needed it. That’s why the Eagles are Super Bowl contenders and the Rams are several tiers below that, at best.

Gramling: I will say, L.A. was two narrow Stafford-to-Kupp missed connections downfield from things getting pretty interesting on Sunday. I don’t think this is a Super Bowl team, but I’ll continue to insist they are a playoff team.

15. New Orleans Saints, 117

Tanier: There is no greater testament to how far the Patriots have fallen than the fact that the team that just beat them by 34 points can barely crack the top half of our rankings. 

16. Green Bay Packers, 116

Jones: Since smacking the Bears up in Week 1, the Packers offense has been the most inconsistent unit in the NFL. Sometimes the light flickers on for them, but when it doesn’t, I feel bad for Matt LaFleur.

Paine: I did a little thing for fun looking at receiving experience for each team, and the Packers easily have the most inexperienced WR corps of any team in the league: Their average yard this season has been picked up by a WR with only 193.5 previous career receiving yards, dead last in the league by a mile. (KC is 2nd-to-last at 719.2.) I’m not sure that’s a sufficient excuse for Jordan Love’s mediocrity, but it can’t be helping.

Gramling: I’m not going to put Monday night’s loss on a single coaching decision, but I’m curious to know what rookie tight end Luke Musgrave did to get benched early in Vegas. The Packers gave most of his snaps to fellow rookie Tucker Kraft, who I liked as a prospect but who is so far from being prepared to play meaningful snaps in the NFL. The Musgrave-to-Kraft downgrade was significant, perhaps significant enough to have cost them a close game at the margins.

17. Tampa Bay Bucs, 107

18. Pittsburgh Steelers, 101

Jones: The Steelers are 3–0 when they score 10 points or more this season. #NextGenStats

Gramling: I’ve done a lot of soul-searching when it comes to this team, and I can’t accept the apparent reality that they’re just going to win game after game in the weirdest ways imaginable. On Sunday the Rams are going to outgain them 812–155 but Matthew Stafford will mishandle snaps on the goal line six times; the Steelers will run two of them back for touchdowns and win 14–13.

(tie)19. Houston Texans, 91

Tanier: Don’t lie: some of you would have the Texans ranked 10th or so if Younghoe Kim missed that field goal to end the game. Frankly, I was more impressed with the Texans this week than the last two weeks.

Gramling: Yup. Though in defense of our collective groupthink, watching the Texans be functional on and off the field after the previous three years is incredibly disorienting!

(tie)19. Indianapolis Colts, 91

Jones: Dear Football Gods, please do not rob us of cool Anthony Richardson plays. (Very impressed by Shane Steichen and Co., though. Very good coaching to be able to switch between QBs and still get results without the offense skipping much of a beat.)

21. New York Jets, 89

Jones: Build the entire plane out of Breece Hall.

Tanier: Tired: Winning games to defend your offensive coordinator’s honor. Wired: Winning games because your offensive coordinator is competent. 

Gramling: [whispers] The coach who built serviceable offenses around Blake Bortles and Kyle Orton, coaxed two MVP seasons out of Aaron Rodgers sandwiched between the worst stretches of Rodgers’ career, is now getting a solid-enough level of play out of a draft bust forced into action, and is genuinely beloved by those who play for him is actually a very good offensive coordinator, regardless of what Broncos-front-office-approved takes you saw on Elon Musk’s app last fall.

22. Atlanta Falcons, 85

Tanier: Has anyone else noticed that all of Bijan Robinson’s rushing plays are slow-developing toss sweeps? I feel like I am watching Tony Dorsett out of the Power-I formation for the 1975 Pitt Panthers. 

Jones: It was fun (despite being gimmicky) when it was Cordarrelle Patterson. It’s patronizing when it’s Robinson.

23. Minnesota Vikings, 82

Tanier: This ranking is an embarrassment to The Messenger. If Justin Jefferson misses any time with his hamstring injury the Vikings will be relegated to the B1G. And please don’t hit me with “If Trent McDuffie had been called for ticky-tack interference on a Kirk Cousins 4th-and-12 emergency ejection ball, the Vikings would have lost in overtime instead of at the end of regulation.”

Perez: I just don’t know if I’m ready to accept that an offense led by Nathaniel Hackett and Zach Wilson are better than Minnesota (But it’s my job, so I must). 

24. Tennessee Titans, 73

25. Washington Commanders, 57

26. New England Patriots, 45

Paine: This team is averaging 11 PPG?? The 2007 Patriots averaged that in a quarter.

Tanier: Welcome aboard the “End of the Dynasty” bandwagon everyone. I’ve been keeping your seats warm since the middle of last year. 

27. Las Vegas Raiders, 35

Jones: Well, well, well. Look who figured out what fourth-down conversions are. [8:01 PM PT]

*doink*

Well, well, well. Look who didn’t figure out what fourth-down conversions — while up by FOUR WITH 2:00 LEFT – are. If they hadn’t played the Pre-K Packers, they’d be 1-4. [8:04 PM PT]

Gramling: He’s doing a bit, right? Josh McDaniels is just showing every mathematically-challenged analyst what it would look like if Brandon Staley made decisions the way they want him to. Aside from that, the lack of chemistry between Jimmy Garoppolo and Davante Adams is stunning.

28. New York Giants, 34

Paine: I had the Giants ranked last this week because the medley of metrics I look at has them last. Do I actually think they are the worst team in a league that also has the Broncos and Panthers? Unsure. But this offense continues to be an empty shell of what it was last season, with Daniel Jones taking another six sacks against Miami.

Gramling: We all knew regression was coming, but this is just gross. Darren Waller training-camp reports appear to have been greatly exaggerated. Daniel Jones is a serviceable starting quarterback, not a superhero; they need to rethink this weaponry. And, yes, while it’s too early to start shouting “busts!”, the young offensive line is injured and, well, awful right now.

29. Arizona Cardinals, 33

30. Chicago Bears, 27

Jones: Whoever was spotlighting as the Bears’ OC against Washington needs to be hired full-time.

31. Denver Broncos, 19

Tanier: Maybe it will send a message to the locker room  if they trade Randy Gregory a few more times.

Paine: The Broncos’ SRS rating is -20.3 right now, which is unfathomably bad. For some context, the infamous 0–14 Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1976 “only” had an SRS of -19.7.

Gramling: If we expanded these rankings to all professional football teams, I think Sean Payton’s group would be sandwiched between the CFL’s Roughriders and the XFL’s Roughnecks. Rather than focusing on his crappy biopic (Netflix can’t give us another season of 1899, but they give us this???!!!) Payton probably should have done a little research on this Broncos team before he agreed to coach it. And instead of piling on the former coaching staff because of what he read on social media, perhaps a call to the former head coach to ask, “Hey, how come Russell Wilson takes 38 seconds to spit out a playcall?” Or, “Why did Russell Wilson insist on almost literally not moving for the first six weeks of last season?” would have been a better use of a potential resource.

32. Carolina Panthers, 16

Gramling: I know they’re winless, but just so we’re clear: The Panthers are a touchdown better than the Broncos on a neutral field. (Injustice, I say!)