The Sturg’s Week 2 NFL Power Rankings

The top spot is definitely not a surprise but there are definitely some surprises in the rankings

Photo by Muyuan Ma on Unsplash

After two full weeks of regular season NFL football, there have been some surprises and disappointments. The Buffalo Bills, of all teams, came in as the Super Bowl favorites this season and look unstoppable. Based on my rankings, here’s a look at the 32 NFL teams.

1. Buffalo Bills (2–0): They opened the season with an impressive win over the defending Super Bowl champion, Los Angeles Rams, and an even more impressive win over the Tennessee Titans (0–2).
2. Kansas City Chiefs (2–0): With Mahomes at quarterback, they’re always seemingly a lock near the top. Even with Tyreek Hill going to the Miami Dolphins, the offense still looks very formidable.
3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2–0): We definitely expected Tampa to be near the top of the rankings at 2–0 but I don’t think that most of us were thinking that it would be because of their defense so far. Two impressive wins over Dallas and New Orleans.
4. Philadelphia Eagles (2–0): Defeating the Detroit Lions in Week 1 in a shootout didn’t exactly give me the confidence to place this team any higher than the 4th spot. Week 2’s win over the Vikings erased any doubts.
5. Miami Dolphins (2–0): Tua is looking much improved this year and now he has Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle as legitimate targets in the passing game. Week 2’s high-scoring affair against the Ravens prevented me from moving them further up the list.
6. New York Giants (2–0): This team seems like the most pretending undefeated team out of the bunch. Daniel Jones at quarterback? Neither one of his starts has been that impressive and both of his wins are against teams that have started off the season (0–2) in Tennessee and Carolina. It’s great to see Saquon regain some form this year though.
7. San Francisco 49ers (1–1): This team is being forced to play Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback again after a Trey Lance injury, right after they downgraded Jimmy G’s contract to backup pay. Well, last week’s win against the Seahawks showed everyone that they are still a team to be reckoned with.
8. Jacksonville Jaguars (1–1): I can’t believe that I’m putting this team this high. It is still early but Trevor Lawrence is definitely on a trajectory to play better than he did in his rookie season and it doesn’t hurt to shut the Colts out. They are division leaders right now, even if we are only two weeks in.
9. Baltimore Ravens (1–1): After an impressive 24–9 opening win against the New York Jets, they followed that performance up with a nail-biter loss against the Dolphins and an improved Tua Tagovailoa. This team will definitely be competing for the division this year.
10. Detroit Lions (1–1): The Lions narrowly lost in Week 1 and then beat the Commanders the following week by 9 points. They currently have the largest point differential in the NFC North and stand out as the best offensive team so far in that division.
11. Denver Broncos (1–1): After a close Week 1 loss to Russell Wilson’s former team, the Seahawks, Denver bounced back in Week 2 against the Houston Texans. They could either be lower or higher because of the two equally unimpressive games but I’m going to say this is a good spot for them because Houston is better than we think.
12. Los Angeles Chargers (1–1): Going right back to the AFC West, the Chargers led by Justin Herbert are certainly going to be making noise this year. Their only blemish was a three-point loss to the Chiefs. The argument can be made that they should be higher but they can win their way up.
13. Pittsburgh Steelers (1–1): Let’s just collectively admit that Mitchell Trubisky is an obvious downgrade from the retired, late-career Ben Roethlisberger. The Steelers have still been involved in two very exciting three-point games. That says something about their defense.
14. Green Bay Packers (1–1): I was tempted to put the Green Bay Packers higher on this list. They’ll need to show more of their Week 2 performance against the Chicago Bears to convince me.
15. Minnesota Vikings (1–1): The team that beat Green Bay in Week 1 is the team that’ll be right next to them in the rankings this week after a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
16. Cleveland Browns (1–1): The Browns were one onside kick away from going 2–0 and would’ve been among the undefeated teams. The fact that the Jets came back from 13 down with less than 2 minutes left is why they are down here now. They still have a solid running game and Jacoby Brissett is filling in nicely.
17. Washington Commanders (1–1): The Washington Commanders, led by Carson Wentz, have looked decent. They beat Jacksonville by one score in Week 1 and stayed in the game against Detroit in Week 2. They shouldn’t be any higher than this though because their first two opponents were Jacksonville and Detroit. Call me when they play a team worth mentioning.
18. Chicago Bears (1–1): The Bears surprised everyone with a Week 1 win over the 49ers but then came back down to earth with a Week 2 loss to the Green Bay Packers. This feels like the trajectory of the team all season long. Up and down.
19. New Orleans Saints (1–1): The New Orleans Saints will be competing for second in the NFC South all year. The Week 1 win over Atlanta shows that. The Week 2 loss to the powerhouse Tampa Bay Buccaneers also shows that. I don’t expect this team to move much higher than this spot all season.
20. Los Angeles Rams (1–1): The only blemish on the record for the defending Super Bowl champions so far was the opening game against the mighty Buffalo Bills. They bounced back and beat the Falcons but Matthew Stafford has already turned the ball over five times in the first two games. He’ll need to limit those turnovers to climb the rankings.
21. Dallas Cowboys (1–1): Dak’s injury will definitely affect them all season long but Cooper Rush showed that he can win against NFL talent, beating the defending AFC champions, Cincinnati Bengals. Ezekiel Elliott will have to improve his play for them to be legitimate NFC East threats this year.
22. New York Jets (1–1): I wanted to put this team higher on the rankings. Joe Flacco’s impressive comeback against the Cleveland Browns showed us something about this team. This is the Jets though and I feel like sooner or later, they’ll show us who they really are.
23. New England Patriots (1–1): The New England Patriots won in Week 2 after losing to the Miami Dolphins in Week 1. They only eked out a 3-point win over the Pittsburgh Steelers and Mitchell Trubisky so I was hesitant to move them up any higher than the lower tier at this point. Also being at the bottom of the scoring offense tier at the beginning doesn’t instill much confidence either.
24. Arizona Cardinals (1–1): The Cardinals don’t fall any lower than this at this point because of their overtime thrilling win over the Las Vegas Raiders. They had to overcome a deficit and come back but I feel that Kyler Murray and the Cardinals can eventually rebound their season from this.
25. Seattle Seahawks (1–1): After the one-point victory over Russell Wilson’s new team in Week 1, the Seahawks gave a very disappointing follow-up performance against the 49ers in Week 2. They will be another one of those up-and-down teams this year. We’ll wait and see if there will be more ups than downs.
26. Houston Texans (0–1–1): I couldn’t possibly put a team with no wins ahead of any of the one-win teams but I think that the Texans are showing the league that they can still be competitive with Davis Mills at quarterback. This Texans team will be one to watch throughout the season, especially after surprising the league and tying Matt Ryan and the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1.
27. Indianapolis Colts (0–1–1): Speaking of that very team, this team is a bit disappointing, to say the least, but I could potentially see them stringing some wins together, especially with Matt Ryan at quarterback and salvaging their early season struggle.
28. Carolina Panthers (0–2): This team is two possessions away from 2–0. Baker Mayfield has shown himself competent enough to lead the offense. They just need to tighten up on defense. Their two losses were to the Giants and the Browns so far.
29. Atlanta Falcons (0–2): Atlanta is another team, much like Carolina, that has lost some nail-biters this year. I was tempted to dub them the best 0–2 team at this point but I don’t think that the Rams are as good as they were last year so I’ll hold off on that until both teams show us more. Marcus Mariota is doing a serviceable job for Atlanta at quarterback.
30. Cincinnati Bengals (0–2): In a cluster of teams that have lost their first two games by one score, this team has to be the most surprising. The projections for this team this year were that they could possibly return to the AFC championship game, at the very least. They’ve lost some close, heartbreaking games early. I expect them to turn it around, but until then, they will be in the 30th position.
31. Las Vegas Raiders (0–2): The Raiders are one of the more disappointing teams in the first couple of weeks of the season after two tight losses to the Chargers and Cardinals. This team is definitely better than their record suggests at this point but because they are winless, I can’t move them above any teams with wins.
32. Tennessee Titans (0–2): There seems to be a theme growing with the five 0–2 teams currently. None of the teams listed in the bottom should be here. Some have had some heartbreaking losses in nail-biters and then there’s the Titans. Returning Tannehill and Derrick Henry hasn’t been enough for the offense. Certainly, the team without AJ Brown has been lacking on offense. I think that they can rebound but they will have to earn their way up the rankings with some wins.