Here’s something football needs to remember in the first few weeks of the 2015 NFL season: Just because something happens early doesn’t mean it will hold for the entire year.
If you want proof of that, just look back one season. The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks were a pedestrian 4-3 combined after Week 4. They went on to meet in the Super Bowl, of course, with the once 2-2 Patriots winning.
Conversely, the Cincinnati Bengals, Arizona Cardinals and San Diego Chargers went a combined 9-1 through the first four weeks. None of them won a playoff game, and San Diego didn’t even make the dance.
That’s a relatively long disclaimer to take what you’re about to read with a grain of salt. With that out of the way, here are the official NESN.com season-opening power rankings.
1. Seattle Seahawks: The best news for the Seahawks is that they’re relatively healthy entering the season, with safety Earl Thomas recovered from offseason shoulder surgery.
2. New England Patriots: The Patriots learned they’ll have some guy named Tom Brady on the field for the season opener. Don’t be surprised if they struggle early to find consistency after a short and tumultuous offseason, but they’ll figure it out.
3. Indianapolis Colts: I hate putting the Colts at No. 3 — it seems way too high, especially not knowing if they can stop the run — but then I look at the list of NFL teams, and it’s like, who else gets this spot? For now, it’s the Colts, but that’s certainly subject to change.
4. Green Bay Packers: The Jordy Nelson injury hurts, sure, but the offensive line also is banged up. Still, the NFC North is mediocre at best, and the Packers are relatively deep.
5. Dallas Cowboys: This is a sleeper NFC pick for me (and probably only me), but there are plenty of question marks on the defensive side of the ball, especially while Greg Hardy sits out the first four games.
6. Baltimore Ravens: It will be real interesting to see how Marc Trestman — after a disastrous tenure with the Bears — is able to shape this offense. The Ravens will have a big test in Week 1 versus Denver.
7. Denver Broncos: Speaking of the Broncos, there’s no reason to believe they won’t have another very strong regular season. If they can get after the quarterback, we’ll be able to look at them as legit contenders.
8. Philadelphia Eagles: Is this buying in on the Eagles too soon? It almost certainly is. However, Chip Kelly has guys in there now that he wants (hello, DeMarco Murray), which has them poised to score a lot of points this season.
9. Pittsburgh Steelers: Assuming everyone can stop getting injured and smoking weed long enough to play football, the Steelers should be a pretty good football team.
10. Miami Dolphins: Success in the NFL often hinges upon two things: quarterback play and generating a pass rush. Ryan Tannehill looks poised to become the NFL’s next great quarterback, and Ndamukong Suh should greatly improve the Dolphins’ rush.
11. Arizona Cardinals:Â Few teams’ success centers around the quarterback (Carson Palmer) as much as the Cardinals, who started Ryan Lindley (!) in a playoff game last season.
12. Kansas City Chiefs: The Chiefs are the Chiefs, roughly the 12th-best team in the NFL. That’s really all I’ve got.
13. Cincinnati Bengals: The Bengals should take a page out of the Cowboys’ playbook (topical football pun intended) and go run-heavy. With Jeremy Hill and Gio Bernard, they have the ability to lessen Andy Dalton’s decision-making responsibilities, which seems like a good thing.
14. Minnesota Vikings: A rested, motivated Adrian Peterson should complement a developing Teddy Bridgewater just fine.
15. San Diego Chargers: Philip Rivers had what feels like an under-the-radar season in 2014. I also like the Melvin Gordon draft pick, especially considering he has plenty of motivation from Mom.
16. Detroit Lions:Â The Lions are 3-32 against teams that finish with a winning record and 0-18 against those teams on the road with Matthew Stafford, so I’m not apologizing for filing them under “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
17. Buffalo Bills: Rex Ryan only will improve an already stingy defense that held opposing quarterbacks to a 74.5 passer rating last season. However, Tyrod Taylor is the quarterback, which elicits this sort of response.
18. Atlanta Falcons: This is the first NFC South team on the list because the NFC South, objectively, sucks. Anyway, I’m buying what Dan Quinn is selling, and the Falcons have no shortage of weapons.
19. New Orleans Saints: They could win the division or they could finish in last because, again, the NFC South sucks.
20: Houston Texans: The defense is spectacular, but it’s tough to get jazzed about a team whose quarterback battle pitted Brian Hoyer against Ryan Mallett.
21. Cleveland Browns: In any other division, the Browns might have reason for optimism. Unfortunately for them, the AFC North is the NFL’s top division.
22. Carolina Panthers: The Kelvin Benjamin injury hurts a lot, especially considering the lack of depth on the outside. The defense should be good, though, so there’s that.
23. St. Louis Rams: Meh.
24. New York Giants: The offense has the potential to be explosive and could provide plenty of fireworks if Victor Cruz is healthy.
25. New York Jets: Gang Green actually should benefit from its starting quarterback being punched in the mouth by a teammate this summer. The Jets!
26. Oakland Raiders: I guarantee you they’ll be higher to start the 2016 season than No. 26, but this still is a work in progress.
27. San Francisco 49ers: The 49ers had the most tumultuous offseason of any team outside of New England. That’s about where the comparisons end.
28. Chicago Bears: There’s not a whole lot of reason to believe they’re in a better place than they were last season when the train ran off the rails in a hurry.
29. Jacksonville Jaguars: The 2015 slogan might end up being, “Hey, we didn’t finish in last place!” although that’s still very much a possibility.
30. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Jameis Winston will single-handedly win them a game, maybe two this season. The problem, of course, is they have to play 16 games.
31. Tennessee Titans: Marcus Mariota might be the quarterback they’ve been looking for, but this rebuild is very much in its infancy.
32. Washington Redskins: They’re just a joke of a franchise.
Thumbnail photo via Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports Images
