Week one of the NFL season is officially in the books, and the first full slate of games provided plenty of surprises. Some teams immediately established themselves as contenders, while others have plenty to prove moving forward. Here are the updated NFL power rankings, ranking all 32 teams heading into Week two.
The San Francisco 49ers started their season off with a dominant performance that saw them defeat the Los Angeles Rams 27-7. The performance over an opponent of that caliber is enough to earn them the number one spot after week one.
The Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen had a statement win over the Houston Texans, finally conquering their elite defense. Allen threw for 334 yards en route to a 36-31 victory.
The Seattle Seahawks won an ugly game against the New England Patriots in a Super Bowl rematch. The game saw them lose starting QB Sam Darnold with an injury, but Drew Lock willed them to a 13-10 victory.
The Baltimore Ravens, led by Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry, put on an offensive show against the Indianapolis Colts. Henry found the endzone three times as they defeated the Colts 41-23.
The Chicago Bears and head coach Ben Johnson continuously mentioned how they wanted to be the highest scoring offense ever. They are on the right track after putting up 59 points on Sunday. They scored eight touchdowns, six of which came on the ground.
The preseason Super Bowl favorites Los Angeles Rams suffered a really bad loss in Week 1 to the 49ers, but that isn’t enough to drop them too far down. The Myles Garrett injury should be the only concern in LA right now.
The Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in week one, and the offense looked as good as usual. The concern would still come from the defensive side of the ball. They made improvements over the offseason, but they still gave up 27 points and made the offense work for this victory.
The Philadelphia Eagles had a great win over the division rival Washington Commanders. It came down to the wire, but a failed two-point conversion by Washington led to an Eagles victory.
The Texans can’t really be graded properly until they go up against a normal team and QB. I wouldn’t expect many teams to put up 36 points on that defense, but that’s just Josh Allen. They remain in the top ten despite the loss.
The Patriots could have fallen even further after that ugly loss to Lock and the Seahawks, but for now this is where they land. Drake Maye can’t have too many more of those types of performances of New England wants to make it back to the Super Bowl.
The Kansas City Chiefs went into MNF clearly as the second best team in the AFC West. They finish off the night ranked ahead of the Denver Broncos after a dominating performance. The run game looked amazing against a good defense. The Chiefs could be back to what we are used to once Patrick Mahomes gets comfortable.
The Broncos put together a really rough game of football on Monday night. The Chiefs dominated in nearly every aspect. Denver will need to show some improvement on offense under Davis Webb if they want to stay in the top half of the rankings.
The Detroit Lions picked up the victory over the New Orleans Saints, but it certainly wasn’t a pretty showing. Detroit would’ve liked a more emphatic performance to open their season.
The New York Giants had one of the best showings of week one, defeating the Dallas Cowboys 28-20 on Sunday Night Football. A huge performance that could be an indicator of what’s to come in New York under John Harbaugh.
The Cowboys were embarrassed on national television by the Giants. The “improved” defense still gave up 28 points to the division rival. Caleb Downs looked great, but they are going to need more from the entire defense.
The Minnesota Vikings picked up a huge win against their division rival, the Green Bay Packers. Despite the injury to Kyler Murray, Carson Wentz stepped in and led them to a 17-point victory.
The Packers had one of the more disappointing week one performances against the Vikings. They were winning with less than seven minutes left and ended up losing by 17. That’s an unacceptable performance down the stretch.
The Los Angeles Chargers suffered a really bad loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Justin Herbert just didn’t look right, and the offense was not efficient at all. They’ll need to show improvements quickly.
The Jacksonville Jaguars had a big win over the Cleveland Browns. They did what they were supposed to do at home in week one.
The Buccaneers are another team that’s in a really confusing spot that makes them difficult to rank. They should be higher, but it just doesn’t seem like they have enough to earn that. A couple wins in the next few weeks could prove that wrong and earn them a higher spot in the rankings.
The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Cooper Rush-led Falcons 20-13. It’s still hard to tell exactly what the Steelers can be, but a win is a win nonetheless. It would’ve been nice to see a little more offense; they could only manage one touchdown on that side of the ball.
The Commanders would’ve liked to see a little more from the offense against Philadelphia. They struggled to consistently move the ball in the first half and couldn’t capitalize on a tired Eagles defense in the fourth quarter.
The Saints put together a really gutsy performance against the Lions, nearly pulling out a win. A failed two-point conversion in overtime saw them come up just short.
The Cardinals jump up from the bottom tier into the mid-20s with their win over the Los Angeles Chargers. The offense looks like it can be pretty dynamic: it’s just unfortunate it may be limited by QB play in the long run.
The Las Vegas Raiders defeated the Miami Dolphins 27-13. This was a huge game from star RB Ashton Jeanty, tallying 147 yards from scrimmage and two receiving touchdowns.
The Panthers gave up 59 points to the Bears on Sunday, one of the worst defensive performances imaginable. Carolina came into the season looking to surprise some people, but they aren’t off to a good start.
The Colts got beat up pretty bad by the Ravens, and the defense got exposed by Baltimore. The offense doesn’t have the firepower to put up the points each week to compensate for the poor defensive effort.
The New York Jets won, but that may say more about the opponent than the victors. The offense did look decent with Geno Smith at the helm, so maybe things are trending in the right direction for New York.
The Titans were perhaps the most disappointing team this week. They showed no life at all against a pretty bad Jets team. Only scoring ten points, with their lone TD coming in garbage time, is not a good sign of things to come.
The Atlanta Falcons were nearly into their fourth QB for today’s game after Cooper Rush (QB3) was experiencing back spasms earlier in the weekend. Fortunately, they didn’t have to see Olamide Zaccheaus calling the plays, but maybe that would’ve been better. Hey, at least Bijan Robinson looked amazing as usual.
The Miami Dolphins don’t have much to look forward to this season, but the wide receiver room actually looked kind of fun. Caleb Douglas and Malik Washington could make some of their games at least watchable.
The Cleveland Browns were as horrible as anyone could have expected. The offense showed no life with Deshaun Watson, and the defense was atrocious. If it was possible to rank them any lower, I probably would.
AFC EAST
AFC NORTH
AFC SOUTH
AFC WEST
NFC EAST
NFC NORTH
NFC SOUTH
NFC WEST
If you love sports, download Stadium Rant from the Apple App Store and join one of the fastest-growing social sports communities. Be sure to follow us on socials too — you can find all our profiles on our Linktree.
