NFL Week 17 Power Rankings Have Patriots, Ravens Heading Into Playoffs Armed With Top Two Spots

There’s only one week remaining in the regular season, and there are a bunch of meaningless games happening this weekend. And somehow, the season’s penultimate game will feature a fight for the NFC West championship, which has been the butt of oh so many jokes.

The Patriots remain on top of the power rankings, but something quirky developed in the next two spots. The second- and third-ranked teams will likely open the playoffs with a road game, but there can’t be many teams in the league that would be excited about hosting the Ravens or Saints.

NFL Power Rankings
1 Last week: No. 1 Record: 13-2	New England Patriots Regardless of what happens this weekend, the Patriots will head into the playoffs as the top-ranked team in the power rankings.
2 Last week: No. 3 Record: 11-4	Baltimore Ravens The Ravens have had fourth-quarter leads in all four of their losses this season.
3 Last week: No. 4 Record: 11-4	New Orleans Saints The Saints will likely still wind up with the wild card, but Monday’s win in Atlanta will at least give them the confidence that they can beat the Falcons in two or three weeks if they meet there again.
4 Last week: No. 2 Record: 12-3	Atlanta Falcons Give some credit to the Falcons improving defense, but they wouldn’t have even had a chance to beat the Saints if it weren’t for two rare boneheaded mistakes from Drew Brees.
5 Last week: No. 7 Record: 11-4	Pittsburgh Steelers If the Steelers beat the Browns on Sunday, they’d earn a first-round bye and have an interesting break in the schedule. Because their Week 16 game was on Thursday, they could go a stretch of 22 or 23 days while playing just one game.
6 Last week: No. 9 Record: 11-4	Chicago Bears Johnny Knox, the Bears’ leading receiver, only has 51 receptions.
7 Last week: No. 5 Record: 10-5	Philadelphia Eagles The Eagles played like the team that blew a 21-point, fourth-quarter lead last week, not the one that recovered from such a deficit. And they also played like the team that had its travel schedule messed up due to a snowstorm, not the one that got an extra couple of days at home. That was an odd performance Tuesday night.
8 Last week: No. 6 Record: 10-5	New York Jets The Jets have lost three of four, with two of those losses on the road. With a likely trip to Kansas City on the horizon, a once-sure wild-card victory is looking a little bleaker.
9 Last week: No. 11 Record: 9-6	Indianapolis Colts Without quarterback Peyton Manning, it’s hard to imagine this team winning more than two games with all of the injuries they’ve faced.
10 Last week: No. 12 Record: 10-5	Kansas City Chiefs The Chiefs will clinch the third seed if they beat the Raiders or the Colts lose to the Titans, but Kansas City will fall to the fourth seed if it loses and the Colts win.
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