Raiders, Rams among teams climbing in Week 3 power rankings

The NFL wrapped up Week 2 late Monday evening with XXX, and things continue chugging along for the league. Two weeks down, finding success in preventing Covid-19 outbreaks, and we’re getting some high quality football.

The NFL successfully made it through Week 1. After a lengthy offseason of questions and concerns, we have a full week of action under our belts. And with no preseason games to give us even a modest handle on how teams might look, this first week was especially important.

It’s still way too early to make too many conclusions, but we can start to put together some educated guesses as to where this season might be headed. Plenty of the conclusions will prove wrong, but that’s life!

And so, we’re back with our latest set of NFL power rankings. We took a look at the league coming out of Week 1, and today we’re back with a look at the league coming out of Week 2. Three weeks ago we opened with power rankings that used Super Bowl odds and strength of schedule. We moved into a more subjective look a week later, and are back once again with some gut feelings.

Best performers, Week 2

The Ravens continue rolling along while the Chiefs faced an unexpected battle against the Chargers. Baltimore is looking like a pretty complete team, but next Monday brings a huge matchup between the two in Baltimore. Plenty can change between now and the playoffs, but this will give one of the two teams a key tiebreaker.

The Seahawks got a big win on Sunday Night Football and it offered up two big things for Seattle. They stopped Cam Newton on the ground when it mattered most at the end of the game, and they’re “letting Russ cook” as people have been demanding of Pete Carroll for years. The Seahawks offense is looking elite right now.

Sleeper teams, Week 2

How about the Raiders? I thought the Saints were going to run Jon Gruden’s squad out of their brand new stadium, jumping out to a 17-7 lead. Instead, the Raiders scored 24 unanswered points and improved to 2-0. I’m still not fully sold on the Raiders given that I have some questions about the Saints, but Las Vegas is a fun team to watch.

More questions than answers, Week 2

Let’s start with the fun side of this. The Chargers had to insert rookie QB Justin Herbert in the starting lineup after Tyrod Taylor had chest issues before the game started. Herbert impressed in his debut, and almost pulled off a stunning upset of the Chiefs. Head coach Anthony Lynn would not commit to Herbert moving forward, but it’s gotta be his job to lose at this point. He was drafted to be the future, and maybe the future is coming sooner than expected.

On the other side of things, are the Eagles and Vikings as bad as they’ve looked? They both dropped to 0-2, and really didn’t show much of anything for most of Sunday. They are both 0-2 and in the cellar of their division, but more importantly, their high profile quarterbacks are having some issues. QB play is not the only problem, but there are serious red flags for both teams.

And with that, here’s a look at my power rankings as we head into Week 3.