NFL Power Rankings Poll: Chiefs Re-Take the Top Spot

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. Kansas City Chiefs (5 first-place votes), 222 points

Gary Gramling: The second half was dicey, of course, but the Chiefs offense put together three second-quarter touchdown drives that took less than three minutes each. There’s still work to be done, but with the expanded schedule and playoff field the NFL’s regular season is now more than ever a process, and it would be fairly stunning if this wasn’t the AFC’s best team come January.

Mike Renner: If the Chiefs add a top pass catcher or pass-rusher at the deadline, you can pretty much put them in the AFC title game tomorrow. This team is built to win in so many different ways.

Adam Ronis: The Chiefs haven’t even played their best yet and are 6-1. Just when people were questioning the offense, the Chiefs carved up the Chargers defense. 

Kaelen Jones: The Chiefs defense ranks: fifth in DVOA, sixth in EPA per play, and 10th in sack rate. I thought Steve Spagnuolo’s defenses weren’t supposed to be good until December?

2. Philadelphia Eagles (1 first-place vote), 213

Mike Tanier: Beating the Dolphins by two touchdowns feels a lot more impressive to me than beating the Chargers by two touchdowns like the Chiefs did on Sunday. But I have a feeling that I am going to be very angry when I see where you Herbertphiles ranked the Chargers. 

Gramling: I don’t know how quickly the chemistry will develop between Kevin Byard and the rest of the secondary, but I love the player and the safety spots were a glaring weakness on this roster. (And don’t worry Mike, the Chargers are ranked waaaaaayyyy too low this week.)

3. San Francisco 49ers (1 first-place vote), 212

Ronis: I guess the Brock Purdy MVP push is over.

Gramling: Poor Troy Aikman, who was stating his defiant support for Purdy just as Purdy launched one of the ugliest hospital balls of the season (be warned lip readers: George Kittle’s post-play commentary is PG-13).

Tanier: Better call roadside assistance for the Brock Purdy bandwagon. 

4. Baltimore Ravens, 201

Gramling: That’s the stuff.

Ronis: The Ravens finally opened the offense and didn’t let a team back in the game. Lamar Jackson played like an MVP candidate.

Daniela Perez: My prediction: The higher we rank the Ravens, the worse they’ll play the next week. 

Renner: Given the opponent and the fashion in which they won, the Ravens’ victory over the Lions Sunday was the most impressive anyone has had all season.

Jones: I can’t remember the last time the Ravens had a comfortable win where they didn’t find a way to let their opponent back into the game. Phenomenal game by the Baltimore offensive line.

5. Miami Dolphins, 192

Gramling: That was a weird Sunday night. Confusingly poor execution a couple of times, with two receivers in the same area. And considering how fast the ball typically comes out (which mitigates their injury issues up front), and how thin — and, frankly, slow — the Eagles were in the secondary, it’s surprising the Dolphins couldn’t capitalize through the air. (Not that I’d second-guess Mike McDaniel, who continues to be the most valuable human for any NFL franchise.)

Tanier: It was fun to watch everyone react with shock when the Dolphins actually lost yardage on several of their slow-developing double-fake reverse-handoff sweeps. Um, yeah, that stuff works a lot better when you are facing the Panthers. 

6. Buffalo Bills, 186

Ronis: With games remaining on the road at Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Kansas City and Miami, how can this team get a high seed? Do you trust them to win road games in the postseason?

Gramling: If this is just a lull — and I think it’s just a lull — better to trudge through it in October rather than January. It’s not a shocker to lose to a divisional opponent, particularly a divisional opponent coached by Bill Belichick.

Tanier: It’s not a lull. It’s three weeks of jet lag. The Bills have transportational narcolepsy. Symptoms include the urge to cram footballs into grenade launchers and send them into orbit.

Jones: The Bills are the inverse of the “just when I thought I was out” line from The Godfather. Just when I think I’m in, they remind me why to stay out. 

7. Dallas Cowboys, 185

Renner: Without Trevon Diggs, the Cowboys defense doesn’t feel nearly the same. They may be right behind the top tier of teams in this power ranking yet feel far off from them in terms of realistic Super Bowl aspirations

8. Detroit Lions, 174

Renner: This feels like the year before the year for the Lions. It’s why I was hoping for some bigger swings at the top of last April’s draft.

Gramling: Hey, nothing wrong with the second tier! The Lions are at least a year away from being more than “NFC North champions by default” — either they have to find a superhero at quarterback, or the defensive front four has to dominate on an every-week basis.

Jones: Who was the moron who picked this team as the NFL’s best team last week? [weeps uncontrollably] That was the first time this season the Lions looked like last year’s squad, one that had teething problems against well-coached teams. 

9. Jacksonville Jaguars, 168

Tanier: Playing the Saints on Thursday night is as close as an NFL team can come to dematerializing into an ethereal plane where even memory of their existence slips from the human mind. Back-to-back London morning games is a close second.

10. Cincinnati Bengals, 161

Renner: The Bengals will rebound like they always do. The problem is that this year they have claw back against the strongest division in the entire NFL.

11. Cleveland Browns, 151

Tanier: Watson has spent three years financially thriving in the ambiguous gray area between quiet-quitting and being soft-fired. 

Gramling: I don’t know what Kevin Stefanski was really thinking when he pulled Deshaun Watson despite Watson clearing concussion protocol on Sunday — the Dolphins took a lot of heat for playing Tua Tagovailoa after he was medically cleared last season, so there’s a fair bit of hypocrisy surrounding any criticism of Stefanski. However, small-sample-size-ecetera-ecetera, before the hit that knocked him out of the game Watson played what was easily the worst quarter of football we’ve seen from any quarterback this season, and I’d argue it was the worst we’ve seen from any quarterback since Nathan Peterman became the William Henry Harrison of Buffalo Bills quarterbacks in 2017. Considering the defense reverted to Myles Garrett plus 10 guys who don’t tackle on Sunday, this is as shaky as 4–2 gets.

12. Seattle Seahawks, 147

Jones: Just dropping in to say Devon Witherspoon is very, very, very special. John Schneider, you can’t keep getting away with this!

13. Los Angeles Chargers, 140

Gramling: So just… hear me out. The Chargers will likely be favored in six of their next eight games (which, I know, guarantees nothing). Three of their four losses so far were to teams that are in the top-seven in this poll. They would have beaten the Dolphins had they cut bait on J.C. Jackson before the season (like they should have), and an uncharacteristically poor night for Justin Herbert (not independent of a characteristically poor night from this offensive line) did them in against Dallas. (They are not as good as the Chiefs, and the loss in Nashville was bad.) All that said, the defense has been better and Brandon Staley has not backed down from making the correct decisions on fourth down in the face of intellectually bankrupt if very loud criticism. Sure, GM Tom Telesco has built a receiving corps straight out of 1993 in terms of the utter lack of speed, which isn’t good. But if Justin Herbert erases some of the head-scratching misses that, in the past couple weeks, have popped up for the first time in his career, this is absolutely a top-10 team.

Tanier: I am not reading all of that. The Chargers are terrible and you are just ranking them here to troll me. I bet there’s a secret Slack channel where the rest of you are like, “Heh the Chargers needed a late interception at their own goal line to beat Aidan O’Connell’s Raiders. Let’s rank them ahead of the Steelers.” When they need a 54-yard field goal on Sunday night to beat Tyler Baguette and the Bears 19–17, you’ll rank them seventh or something. Lucky for you, I am here to keep things real.

14. Los Angeles Rams, 121

Gramling: Cooper Kupp picked the wrong week for a case of the drops. And Brett Maher picked the wrong week for a recurrence of the yips. And Sean McVay picked the wrong week to use his timeouts for coaching and strategic clock-stoppage purposes rather than saving one so he can correct egregious officiating errors as the NFL’s obscenely ridiculous challenge rules demand of him. (Why don’t we have sky judge correcting a ball mis-spotted by two yards on the game’s most crucial play again?)

15. Pittsburgh Steelers, 119

Gramling: No team wins more games they shouldn’t win than Mike Tomlin’s group, which is probably a testament to Mike Tomlin.

Tanier: It’s hard to see on the NFL.com replay, but motioning tight end Connor Heyward bumps into Kenny Pickett between the snap and the handoff on Najae Harris’ go-ahead touchdown on Sunday. That’s what I love about the Steelers: even on their most important offensive highlights, you can find a mistake that would make a Pop Warner coach cringe.

Ronis: The Steelers have been outgained in every game and outscored by 24 points yet are 4-2. Nothing makes sense with this team as they get ready for three straight games at home.

16. Houston Texans, 116

Tanier: The takes will resume after the bye. 

17. New York Jets, 113

Perez: The Jets didn’t even play this week and they dropped one spot in our rankings for just being the Jets. 

Renner: The Jets are the weirdest average team in the NFL. They can beat any team in the NFL and also lose to any team in the NFL. A true win-loss randomizer.

18. New Orleans Saints, 103

Tanier: I’m wagering Alvin Kamara over 14.5 catches and under 15.5 yards on Sunday against the Saints. I’m only getting -120.

Ronis: I’m not sure what the line should be on Alvin Kamara’s receptions before you take the under. He has 14 targets in two of four games and has 13, three, seven and 14 receptions. 

Jones: The lone all-caps note I typed out for this one was “WHY IS CARR JUST NOW DECIDING TO RIP IT???” This is just how it goes with Derek Carr. It takes him at least a full season to acclimate to new systems, so he’s not going to be comfortable in New Orleans until next season. Especially considering how bad this offensive line is. But there needs to be more urgency in pressing opponents downfield and taking chances. Carr quietly was among the NFL’s most aggressive passers last season. NextGenStats had him attempting tight-window throws at an 18.9% clip (fifth-highest in the league). That’s down to 12.5% this year (11th). Unless a receiver is wide open, he’s not throwing it.

19. Indianapolis Colts, 97

Perez: Not sure why the Saints are ahead of the Colts. The good news: we’ll find out why they shouldn’t be this weekend! 

Tanier: They won Sunday’s game against the Browns three different times and lost it three different times. The refs cast the tiebreaking vote. 

Gramling: On Monday I spent more time than I’d like to admit Zapruder Film-ing the illegal contact call that erased the Colts’ game-sealing strip sack, and boy does it look like P.J. Walker had already fumbled before the contact occurred downfield. In the most generous reading, that was an all-time ticky-tack call. Related: CBS needed to dive into that aspect of the play, not deep dive the contact itself, which was objectively a foul if Walker indeed still had the ball, which he didn’t. (Also, like the disastrous spot at the end of the Rams-Steelers game, this is a call that sky judge could have corrected in 15 seconds.)

20. Minnesota Vikings, 94

Gramling: See. SEE! They are better than last year’s edition. Which means they should be thrilled with 9–8 if they get there.

Renner: Was Justin Jefferson holding this team back? Feel free to ask your coworker at the water cooler.

Ronis: Kirk Cousins in primetime this season: 834 yards, six touchdowns and one interception, against the Eagles and 49ers.

21. Atlanta Falcons, 93

Tanier: Shhhh… Bijan Robinson is listening to soothing music and doing a little acupressure to get ready for a four-touch workload against the Titans next week.

Renner: Fitting that the three teams vying for the NFC South crown are within five spots of each other on this list. Honestly, they all feel like the same team.

22. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 91

Tanier: Let’s just not comment on the Buccaneers for the rest of the year. No one will notice. 

23. Green Bay Packers, 74

Gramling: Improvement doesn’t come on an even trajectory, but it’s more than a little disconcerting that, as Jordan Love tries to find his footing, his receivers are consistently not executing the plays the way he (or anyone on the coaching staff) expects them to. Real “herding cats” feel for Matt LaFleur this season.

Tanier: So you are saying that the Packers should run routes three yards downfield instead of two? Just might work.

24. Washington Commanders, 56

Tanier: Jonathan Allen speaks for all of us when he says “[expletive][expletive] fed up [expletive][expletive] organization [expletive][expletive] soft tacos [expletive][expletive] Tyrod Taylor, for [expletive]’s sake.”

25. New England Patriots, 55

Tanier: They probably gave Mac Jones an ultra-double-secret contract extension after that game. We’ll find out about it when he throws four interceptions to drop the Patriots’ record to 5–12.

26. Tennessee Titans, 50

Renner: Two words: fire sale.

Gramling: Obligatory...

27. New York Giants, 49

Gramling: There will be a lot of “bench Daniel Jones” takes this week. You have Tyrod Taylor as your competent, ultra-risk-averse backup because you think you can squeeze out a low-scoring win or two if he’s forced into action. You don’t saddle your 26-year-old starter with a collection of unproven and/or aging weapons, watch him get wrecked by a few of the league’s top pass rushes behind your sieve offensive line, then bench him in favor of aforementioned ultra-risk-averse backup after a 14–7 victory at home over a division also-ran.

Tanier: But Tyrod led the Giants to 26 offensive points through two games! There’s no way Jones can match that explosive production.

28. Las Vegas Raiders, 31

Perez: Ah, how the carousel of the five worst teams in football turns in our power poll… 

Gramling: Brian Hoyer starting a game in 2023, eh? There’s nothing wrong here that a few Matt Cassel starts can’t fix.

(tie)29. Chicago Bears, 28

Gramling: Tyson Bagent isn’t the answer, but he is a reminder that Luke Getsy isn’t incompetent. There’s a path to getting Justin Fields up to speed and comfortable with what he’s seeing, and the Bears have a little less than three months to figure it out.

Tanier: Even an incompetent squirrel can find an acorn when Brian Hoyer keeps throwing them to him.

(tie)29. Denver Broncos, 28

Gramling: They’ve yet to do anything to convince me they’re not the NFL’s worst team, and a historically bad team at that. They barely escaped with victories despite the Bears shooting themselves in the butt in every conceivable way in one victory, and half the Packers roster constantly running the wrong plays in the other. If the Panthers and Broncos played on a neutral field on Sunday, and both played at their typical level of capability, science and math say the Panthers would win 26–17.

31. Arizona Cardinals, 18

Gramling: Oh, come on. I was on the Cardinals’ QB malpractice as much as anyone this summer, but this team is competitive. They are absolutely not worse than the Broncos.

Jones: …or worse than the Raiders, who just lost to… *googles for spelling* … Shepherd University superstar Tyson Bagent? I actually thought Arizona could have stolen a win in Seattle at one point Sunday.

32. Carolina Panthers, 8

Tanier: On a positive (?) note, the players on the Panthers injured reserve and injury report would probably rank around 29th.

Renner: Losing every game without a first round pick is about as demoralizing a position you can be in as a fan.