Week 1 is around the corner and our first NFL Power Rankings of the regular season has the Bills ready to make a run this year
At long last, real football is here — as is our Week 1 edition of the 2022 NFL Power Rankings. After a long offseason and three games that serve as an appetizer (albeit a dry and incredibly tasteless appetizer), the games that count are right around the corner. Here, we dive in and look at all 32 teams, and decide how they stack up against the rest of the league.
2022 NFL Power Rankings Week 1
32. Houston Texans
The Texans are a hard team to believe in this year. They fired David Culley only to replace him with Lovie Smith, who was a part of his underwhelming staff. Not only that, but Smith was in charge of the defense, which was suspect at best.
Throw in the fact that they continue to roll with Davis Mills and have very few weapons around him and this feels like a team in contention for the No. 1 overall pick in 2023.
31. Atlanta Falcons
Houston’s main competition for the No. 1 pick appears to be the Atlanta Falcons. They tried to bring in Deshaun Watson and when that failed, they sent Matt Ryan to the Colts and signed Marcus Mariota.
If it wasn’t bad enough to bring in Mariota as the main option, they also did very little to improve their receiving corps. They selected Drake London, who was hurt in the preseason, and when he went down, it showed how thin they were at the position.
30. New York Jets
The New York Jets have made some impressive moves, including landing three good picks in Round 1 of the 2021 draft. However, Zach Wilson suffered a knee injury in the preseason and while he might suit up for the Jets early in the year, he’s unlikely to be at 100 percent.
They seem to be trending in the right direction but until they start to put some wins together, it’s going to be hard to believe in them.
29. New York Giants
This should be the final shot for Daniel Jones to prove he’s the future under center for the Giants. They might also be ready to move on from Saquon Barkley should he have another subpar season.
We’ll have to wait to see how things go, but Brian Daboll might be spending this season trying to figure out who should stay and who needs to go as he builds for the future.