NFL Power Rankings Regular Season Final
1. Seattle Seahawks – 12-4 SU, 10-6 ATS: The Seahawks closed the deal with their 20-6 win over the Rams, netting home field advantage and becoming the clear Super Bowl favorite in the NFC. Seattle opened the week as a 5/2 bet to reach the big game. Last week: 2
2. Green Bay Packers – 12-4 SU, 9-6-1 ATS: The loss to the Bills two weeks ago cost the Packers home field and maybe their own Super Bowl appearance. Aaron Rodgers gets the week off to rest everything Ndamukong Suh stepped on last Sunday. Last week: 3
3. New England Patriots – 12-4 SU, 9-7 ATS: Dropping The Patriots two spots after their scrubs were beaten by the Bills hardly seems fair. Vegas thinks so too, with the Pats opening 5/2 favorites in the AFC. Everything equal, I don’t think this New England team can beat Green Bay or Seattle, so they’re No. 3. Last week: 1
4. Dallas Cowboys – 12-4 SU, 10-6 ATS: No team looks scarier entering the playoffs than the Cowboys. This team went into Seattle back in Week 6 and beat the Seahawks. They’re only playing better now. Tony Romo is having the best winter of his life and maybe no quarterback is playing better right now in the league. Last week: 5
5. Pittsburgh Steelers – 11-5 SU, 9-7 ATS: In all the talk about Tony Romo, the absolute insane numbers Ben Roethlisberger has put up this year has been lost. Big Ben has set new career marks in nearly every passing category. For only the third time in his career he’s been healthy and started all 16 games. Last week: 4
6. Denver Broncos – 12-4 SU, 8-8 ATS: Peyton Manning has not looked like himself since a Nov. 23 victory over the Dolphins. Manning has been off all season, posting four QB ratings below 54.3 and one 24.1 against the Bengals two weeks ago. Manning says he wants to return to the Broncos in 2015 and, if he doesn’t get whatever issues he has fixed during the bye, he’ll get an early offseason to prepare for it. Last week: 6
7. Detroit Lions – 11-5 SU, 7-9 ATS: The Lions return to the playoffs for the first time since 2011 and since they’re playing the Cowboys, they’re return will be short-lived. Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh is suspended for the Wild Card matchup. Last week: 8
8. Indianapolis Colts – 11-5 SU, 10-5-1 ATS: The Colts are the worst-looking 11-5 team in recent history. All five of their losses were to teams with winning records and four of those losses came from teams they could face in the playoffs. Last week: 11
9. Baltimore Ravens – 10-6 SU, 7-8-1 ATS: Look who made it to the playoffs through no actions of their own. Your reward is facing the best Steelers team in half a decade. Congratulations. Last week: 12
10. Arizona Cardinals – 11-5 SU, 11-5 ATS: The Cardinals limp into the playoffs after two straight losses with Ryan Lindley at quarterback. The good news is they draw Carolina in the Wild Card round. The bad news is it looks line Lindley is here to stay. Last week: 7
11. Cincinnati Bengals – 10-5-1 SU, 8-7-1 ATS: A week after looking like the best team in the universe against Denver, the Bengals looked an awful lot like the Bengals against Pittsburgh. Now they have a very winnable game against the Colts, despite getting crushed 27-0 in Indianapolis earlier this season. Last week: 10
12. Carolina Panthers – 7-8-1 SU, 8-8 ATS: The NFC South gets its best possible winner in the Panthers. Yes, they’re losers, but that 7-8-1 looks a lot better than 7-9. The only bad thing that happened for Carolina Sunday was getting Mike Smith fired in Atlanta. Now the Falcons might actually be decent. Last week: 13
13. Houston Texans – 9-7 SU, 9-6-1 ATS: Did J.J. Watt, in completing his second-straight 20-plus-sack season, actually take the MVP trophy away from Aaron Rodgers? There’s an argument to be made and, frankly, Watt has had a better December than anybody but Tony Romo. Last week: 12
14. Kansas City Chiefs – 9-7 SU, 10-6 ATS: The Chiefs ended strong, knocking the Chargers out of the playoffs in spite of a pedestrian QB performance from Chase Daniel. Every team out of the dance is looking to next year, but the Chiefs have more reasons to be excited than most. Last week: 15
15. Buffalo Bills – 9-7 SU, 9-7 ATS: Kyle Orton has retired again, putting the Bills in same position they were in before luring him out of retirement the last time. The Bills are without a first round pick, so they’re going to have to pray a guy like Brett Hundley drops to round 2. Last week: 17
16. Philadelphia Eagles – 10-6 SU, 9-7 ATS: Chip Kelly ended his second season with the Eagles like he did most of his seasons with Oregon; disappointed. Most of the blame will fall on Mark Sanchez, as turnovers ultimately doomed them in the back-breaking Week 16 loss to Washington. Last week: 20
17. San Francisco 49ers – 8-8 SU, 6-10 ATS: Welcome back to mediocrity, 49ers. Now that you’ve run Jim Harbaugh out of town you’re going to be here a while. The question now is what to do with quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who finished with a career worst 19-10 TD-INT ratio. Last week: 21
18. Minnesota Vikings – 7-9 SU, 10-6 ATS: The Vikings lost their best player after the first week, but discovered they’ve got the right coach (Mike Zimmer) and the right quarterback (Teddy Bridgewater). Vikings fans, your franchise is fine. Last week: 24
19. New Orleans Saints – 7-9 SU, 6-10 ATS: Rob Ryan will most likely join his brother in the unemployment line in a week, but unlike his thinner twin, Rob is in no danger of landing any head coaching jobs. Rob might not even be able to land a job with Rex after the pitiful season the Saints defense had. Last week: 23
20. San Diego Chargers – 9-7 SU, 7-9 ATS: Winning at Kansas City was going to be tough, but if the Chargers deserved to be in the playoffs they would have made it happen. Two months ago, San Diego looked like the AFC Super Bowl team. Now they can’t even get tickets. Last week: 9
21. Atlanta Falcons – 6-10 SU, 7-9 ATS: The Falcons did the right thing in firing Mike Smith. Now they need to do the right thing and hire Rex Ryan. They’ll also need to make some moves in free agency and the draft to fortify their two glaring weaknesses: the offensive and defensive lines. Last week: 16
22. Miami Dolphins – 8-8 SU, 7-9 ATS: The Dolphins ended their season with a whimper, losing handily to the Jets. Joe Philbin still has a job and heads into the offseason feuding with his best offensive weapon after benching wide receiver Mike Wallace Sunday. Last week: 18
23. New York Giants – 6-10 SU, 7-9 ATS: Odell Beckham Jr was named a Pro Bowl alternate last week. My bet is he’ll be one of the first players taken in the pool draft. The Giants also announced that coach Tom Coughlin will be back for 2015 in a last ditch effort to win a third Super Bowl. Last week: 19
24. St. Louis Rams – 6-10 SU, 7-9 ATS: Their 20-6 loss to the Seahawks ensured the Rams would finish with their worst record under head coach Jeff Fisher and land a Top 10 draft pick for the fourth consecutive season and seventh out of the last eight. It’s been rough. Last week: 22
25. New York Jets – 3-12 SU, 5-9-1 ATS: Rex Ryan isn’t to blame for the way his tenure in New York ended. Woody Johnson and former GM John Idzik are, and one of those guys is still around. When he drafts Jameis Winston on April 30, you’ll know nothing is going to change. Last week: 27
26. Washington Redskins – 4-12 SU, 5-11 ATS: I don’t think the end of the Robert Griffin III story has been written in Washington yet, but 2015 will probably be the epilogue. Kirk Cousins came out and said he will ask to be traded if RGIII is named the starter for next season. Last week: 25
27. Jacksonville Jaguars – 3-13 SU, 6-9-1 ATS: The Jaguars have not been completely terrible to end the season and there’s hope for the future. It all starts with not screwing up the draft and, in picking No. 3, they’ll have their choice of the best defensive lineman or wide receiver in the class. Last week: 26
28. Chicago Bears – 5-11 SU, 7-9 ATS: Bears, there will be an urge to toss Cutler in the dumpster and take a good, long look at Mike Smith as your next head coach. You should do neither. If the defense gets healthier, and younger, this could be a very different team. Last week: 28
29. Cleveland Browns – 7-9 SU, 9-5-2 ATS: Johnny Manziel and Josh Gordon both got in trouble with just one game to go. Gordon, unless the team is lying (and they could be), cost himself millions and his unrestricted free agent status next year. Manziel just put one more black mark on a year filled with them. Last week: 29
30. Oakland Raiders – 3-13 SU, 8-8 ATS: There’s going to be an urge here to go ahead and keep Tony Sparano since Jim Harbaugh has rejected you. That urge is the very reason you pick in the top five every year in the draft. Last week: 30
31. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 2-14 SU, 7-9 ATS: There is no controversy. Of course the Bucs tanked the game against New Orleans in the fourth quarter. Lovie Smith thought, with his team’s issues, he could call a regular game against Rob Ryan’s Saints defense and still comfortably lose. It was a mistake that nearly cost him his new franchise quarterback . Last week: 31
32. Tennessee Titans – 2-14 SU, 3-12-1 ATS: The Titans lost in the final game and still didn’t do enough to land that No. 1 pick. Tennessee has lots of holes and this is a deep draft with talent at every position. Even the one they need to upgrade the most: quarterback. Last week: 32
