NFL Power Rankings Week 1 – What We’ve All Been Waiting For

“It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year”, is a song performed by Andy Williams that has been around since 1963. It usually represents the Christmas holiday season and all the wonders surrounding it.

Nowadays this song is probably more suited for the start of the NFL season. For months we’ve occupied ourselves with baseball, golf, tennis and even the Summer Olympics. Now we get to our beloved football season and all the wonders surrounding it.

 

1. Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs have the best head coach in football, the best quarterback in football and they’re coming off back-to-back Super Bowl championships. The only difference this year is the competition has stiffened.

 

2. Baltimore Ravens
The loss of linebacker Patrick Queen and safety Geno Stone could hurt the number one scoring defense from a year ago. The addition of running back Derrick Henry should be a major help to one best offenses in the league.

 

3. San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers have been to two NFC championship games in a row and broke through for a Super Bowl appearance last season. Head coach Kyle Shanahan has to finally figure out a way to break through for a Super Bowl win.

 

4. Detroit Lions
Detroit seems like the sexy pick to dethrone the Chiefs as Super Bowl champions. They’ll have a tough slate of opponents and a much improved division to navigate through before they can pull it off.

 

5. Philadelphia Eagles
Head coach Nick Sirianni has a fractured relationship with starting quarterback Jalen Hurts, which might have been the reason for the Eagles’ downfall last season. If they can’t get on the same page it’s more than likely Sirianni will be out of a job by seasons end.

 

6. Houston Texans
The Texans went from a team with a rookie head coach and quarterback to a team that’s on the short list of championship contenders.

 

7. Cincinnati Bengals
Joe Burrow and company are the only team that has stopped Kansas City from reaching the Super Bowl in the last four seasons. With Burrow being healthy this season he aims to repeat that feat.

 

8. Buffalo Bills
It’s put up or shut up time for Josh Allen and he’ll have to do it without Stefon Diggs. The Bills have won four straight division titles, but have followed that up with very little playoff success.

 

9. Green Bay Packers
The Packers snuck into the playoffs last season and advanced to the divisional round, putting the league on notice. Jordan Love has gone from somewhat of an enigma to a MVP candidate in one year’s time.

 

10. Dallas Cowboys
Once again the Cowboys come into the season as championship contenders. Will they once again let their fanbase down ? It’s been almost 30 years since they hoisted the Lombard Trophy.

 

11. Miami Dolphins
Tua Tagovailoa and Jaylen Waddle got paid. Head coach Mike McDaniel got paid. It’s time for the Dolphins to pay back the fans with a long playoff run.

 

12. New York Jets
Aaron Rodgers is back behind center for the Jets. If he can stay on the field for more than the four plays he did last season, New York will be a dangerous team.

 

13. Cleveland Browns
The Browns added more talent on defense with Za’Darius Smith and Jordan Hicks. They also added depth at quarterback by acquiring Jameis Winston. The last time the Browns won a world championship was a year after Andy Williams made that aforementioned song.

 

14. Los Angeles Chargers
Will the change to Jim Harbaugh at head coach lead to postseason glory for the Chargers? The last time they made it as far as the conference championship game was the 2007 season.

 

15. Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons have a new coach in Raheem Morris and have added talent all over the field. Can they add some victories to the seven win total they’ve finished with the last three seasons?

 

16. Los Angeles Rams
Have you heard anything about the Rams in the preseason or off-season? They have young players all over the field that need to make an impact, including three rookie starters on defense.

 

17. Chicago Bears
Caleb Williams gave the Bears fans hope they’ve finally found a blue chip gunslinger. The front office has given him plenty of weapons to have a productive offense. There shouldn’t be any excuses for Chicago not to take a step forward.

 

18. Pittsburgh Steelers
Russell Wilson is an upgrade at quarterback and they’ve added depth there with Justin Fields. Patrick Queen is an upgrade on defense. Unfortunately for the Steelers, they probably needed to upgrade a couple of other positions.

 

19. Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jaguars went 3-9 after their bye week last season, including five losses in their last six games. Doug Pederson and company need to show some sense of consistency in a much improved division.

 

20. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
How different are the 2024 Tampa Bay Buccaneers from the 2023 version? It might seem that way, but losing Devin White his a big hole to fill on defense. Nine wins probably won’t be enough to win this division this season.

 

21. Indianapolis Colts
Anthony Richardson played in only four games last season and still managed to change people’s mind about how ready he was for the NFL. This year he could very well put the NFL on notice as one of the premier dual threat quarterbacks in the league.

 

22. Seattle Seahawks
Seattle has finished the last two seasons with a 9-8 record and they seem to come into another season as a middle of the pack team.

 

23. Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings lost Kirk Cousins to injury last season (and then free agency). Now this season, prized rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy is done for the season due to injury. The Vikings seemed to be cursed at the quarterback position, especially if Sam Darnold is the best they can come up with.

 

24. Arizona Cardinals
I don’t know about any of you reading this, but I can’t wait to see what the combination of Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr. will do this season.

 

25. Tennessee Titans
Will Levis turned some heads towards the end of last season. Now he has to turn some of those losses into victories, especially with the offensive upgrades the Titans made this offseason.

 

26. Washington Commanders
The preseason has given us some idea that rookie Jayden Daniels could be the real deal at quarterback. Unfortunately they’re in a division with the Cowboys and the Eagles, so wins will probably be at a minimum.

 

27. New Orleans Saints
It’s hard to find the upgrades on the Saints’ roster that will catapult them into a playoff spot. Derek Carr actually had a better showing last season than most pundits would have you believe. He’s going to have to be way better than that this season if they want to do some damage.

 

28. Denver Broncos
The Bo Nix era has started in Denver and Sean Payton believes he has found the right quarterback for his system. Is this a match made in heaven or is Sean Payton just not the right guy for the job?

 

29. Las Vegas Raiders
If you haven’t seen rookie tight end Brock Bowers in college let me be the first to tell you he’s an absolute monster. Adding him to Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers should give opposing secondaries fits.

 

30. New York Giants
Well, the Giants added speedy rookie Malik Nabers at wide receiver and Devin Singletary at running back to help bolster their offense. I’m almost positive the Giants fans would’ve liked them to bolster their quarterback position as well.

 

31. New England Patriots
The Patriots have done so much in the offseason. From trading one of their best defensive players, to drafting a quarterback in the first round that isn’t ready to be a starter, all the way up to not adding any skill position players to an already underwhelming unit. Well, they can’t blame Bill Belichick for all these great moves any more.

 

32. Carolina Panthers
The Panthers bright idea to move up to draft Bryce Young has severely backfired so far. They even missed an opportunity to have the first overall pick (again) this season to add weapons to Young’s arsenal. New head coach Dave Canales is in for a long season.