The Incredibly Meaningful First Power Rankings of Season 2

by Jon_48469 | 2 years ago | 0 Comments

Yesterday, after days of nervousness & anticipation, we released our first power rankings of season 2. These rankings are incredibly important as they are perfectly accurate and never change throughout the season. This sets the tone for the rest of the season, establishes expectations & is arguably more anticipated/coveted than the Lombardi Trophy. Now that you know I'm completely full of shit when I say that, let's get into it.

Before we go over these new rankings, I thought I'd just provide some stats and facts about the rankings up until this point:

Numbers Game:
- 23 teams featured in the rankings at some point during the 2022 season
- The Super Bowl featured nobody that held a top 5 spot going into the playoffs (#7 Atlanta, #9 Los Angeles Chargers)
- 5 teams consistantly stayed in the top 8 for the entire season: Titans, Seahawks, Lions, Packers, Falcons
- The Cleveland Browns & Minnesota Vikings enter the rankings for the 1st time, putting us at 25 teams that have featured in the rankings this cycle
- Two divisions have had all four (4) members feature in the rankings at some point: AFC North & NFC West

Alright, now that I've given you that useless knowledge we can get into it.

The first thing that's noticeable is the fact that we have three new faces in the top 3. The Detroit Lions hold down the top spot, and have followed up their impressive 14-3 inaugural season with a perfect 5-0 start to set the pace here in season 2. Already with key victories over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers & rival Green Bay Packers, they are setting themselves up nicely for shot at the top seed in the playoffs or at least a home game in the first round at worst. We'll learn a lot about them this week though as they make the trip down to Atlanta to take on the defending Super Bowl Champion Falcons in a heavyweight bout to determine who will stand as the lone remaining unbeaten in the league (not to mention what may turn out to be the all-important head-2-head tiebreaker).

Speaking of the Falcons (talk about a convenient transition!), they slot in just behind the Lions and are hot on their heels in the NFC with a matching 5-0 start to the year. They too have beaten the Buccaneers this season, and have yet to have a game finish closer than 18pts this season! Russ is red hot, Pitts looks like a potential MVP & calling the defense "shutdown" is an understatement. There's no sense of a Super Bowl hangover with this group, and after getting their first Lombardi in 2022 it appears they are on track to challenge for it once again.

Probably the biggest surprise, and most impressive, team to feature in these initial rankings are the San Francisco 49ers who come in behind the unbeatens at #3 & 5-1 overall. We saw the 49ers in our initial power rankings at the beginning of season 1, but after that point it turned into a season of struggles for them. Whatever they did in the offseason seems to be working though, as they head into week 7 already with the season sweep of the Seattle Seahawks who we've seen in the top half of the rankings constantly & hold down the top spot in the challenging NFC West. They do have a fairly difficult schedule the rest of the way, but with a shutdown defense & excellent run game, they are certainly looking a lot more like a contender rather than a pretender.

As we previously mentioned, Minnesota (4-1) & Cleveland (4-2) have entered the rankings for the first time at #11 & #15 respectively. The Vikings utilize a dynamic passing attack that features Justin Jefferson (22-556-5) & OROY candidate Will Broyles (31-403-5), and a stingy defense that has really made opponents work for their yards. It's only a season or so of a sample size, but they do tend to struggle to pick up those key victories when it comes to facing opponents with above .500 records. They face the Bucs, Cardinals & Falcons over the next three weeks and will be utilizing the momentum from this strong start to hopefully buck the trend and continue to make their way up the rankings. The Browns had a first season that was tough to judge with essentially the first half of the season essentially being force losses. Under new leadership, they were able to play pretty close to .500 ball the rest of the way in 2022 and kept the core intact heading into 2023. With the fresh slate they have found themselves in a tie at the top of the AFC North, setting things up nicely to be in the playoff picture later in the season. Nick Chubb has punished opposing defenses and four pass catchers have eclipsed 230yds on the young season already, making Cleveland a tough offense to stop let alone slow down. A pair of matchups with the Steelers during the latter half of the season, and a couple tests in between against the 49ers & Titans, provide plenty of chances for Cleveland to figure out where they stand in the hiearchy moving forward.

Be sure to check out our Twitter @GZMLCFM (shameless plug as always) to see the complete top 16 rankings, and be sure to tune into the Ground Zero Sports Network on twitch Wednesday, November 16th @ 7:00pm est (another shameless plug) for the 1st league stream of season 2 that has all sorts of exciting matchups scheduled! As always, if you are interested in getting involved and writing a blog every now and then, please reach out and let us know.