The NFL preseason is almost over with teams preparing for their third and final matchups of exhibition season, which means we’re that much closer to the real thing.
The AFC is a powerhouse conference with some of the best teams in the NFL at the top, and some of the top up-and-coming teams sprinkled throughout. There might be cases to be made for 12 or 13 teams in the AFC staying in the thick of the playoff race throughout the 2025 season if things go as well as they expect, but where do these teams stack up against each other right now?
Our latest NFL Power Rankings will take a look at the loaded AFC and what we’re observing dating back to the beginning of the offseason. We’ll rank every team in the conference from worst to best.
NFL Power Rankings: Ranking loaded AFC as preseason rolls along
16. Cleveland Browns
It might be over before it even gets started for the Browns. If Cleveland can be anywhere near the 11-win team we saw a couple of seasons ago, put a Kevin Stefanski statue outside the building there. It’s going to require a herculean effort for a team with a rough-looking offensive line, four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, a season-ending injury to Martin Emerson, injury questions for Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah…should I keep going? The Browns are going to be very bad, and anything else would have me absolutely floored.
15. Tennessee Titans
The Tennessee Titans are a work in progress, and it just feels too disjointed at this point to really be anything that could even take us off guard. I think we can accurately expect the Titans to be bad this year unless Cam Ward has a Jayden Daniels-like rookie year. This is a team made up of older veteran free agents and not a lot of foundational pieces drafted by the team. Mike Borgonzi knows he has work to do in building this roster.
14. New York Jets
The Justin Fields experiment is only a few weeks from officially getting underway. The New York Jets have young pieces on the offensive line and while there’s talent on paper, it might take some time for things to truly mesh together. Defensively, this team definitely has some pieces, but how quickly can Aaron Glenn get the operation humming? The wild card here is obviously Fields, who was a worthwhile risk-reward option after the Aaron Rodgers debacle.
13. Las Vegas Raiders
I wrote recently that the Raiders are one of the three teams I think should be most aggressive in going after Trey Hendrickson in a trade. They already had the worst defense in the NFL on paper before Christian Wilkins was unceremoniously cut. Bringing in a player like Hendrickson to pair with Maxx Crosby would have them cooking with a little something, at least. But the Raiders should be improved dramatically offensively with Geno Smith and Ashton Jeanty in the fold.