The NFL wrapped up the opening week with a fun Monday Night Football doubleheader. The New Orleans won on a 57-yard field goal as time expired, while the Oakland Raiders stunned the Denver Broncos 24-16. The Raiders seemed underrated coming into the season — until Antonio Brown created chaos. But, they jumped out to an early lead and held on for the win.
The close of the weekend of football means it’s time for weekly NFL power rankings. We’ll see a host of them, with almost all of them subjective to some degree. With the launch of DKNation, we’re putting together our own power rankings!
The plan is to use performance against the point spread to assess the state of the league each week. This is a work in progress as we want to figure out new options for ranking out the NFL. We’ll have our own share of subjectivity, but factoring in how teams are doing against the number offers a different angle on things.
The Baltimore Ravens walk away from Week 1 with the highest point differential and also the highest differential against the spread. We will take each team’s weekly point differential and subtract away the point spread to figure out how they’ve performed against the spread. The Ravens beat the Miami Dolphins by 49 points, but with a 6.5-point line in their game, their point differential against the spread is 42.5.
We’ll be tracking total point differential against the spread all season. As you can see, our rankings are not based exclusively on that. Baltimore is third behind the New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans. Those two have their own sizable differentials, but get a boost in my rankings because of the quality of their opponent. The Los Angeles Rams pushed against the Carolina Panthers, but given that they got a road win against what I think will be a solid Panthers squad, LA got a little boost in the rankings.
Eventually I’ll add a strength of schedule option, potentially opponent’s overall point differential against the spread, to offer a little more context. In the meantime, here’s our Week 2 NFL power rankings.
NFL Power Rankings, Week 2
Rk | Team | Record | +/- | Record ATS | ATS +/- |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rk | Team | Record | +/- | Record ATS | ATS +/- |
1 | New England Patriots | 1-0 | +30 | 1-0 | 24.5 |
2 | Tennessee Titans | 1-0 | +30 | 1-0 | 35.5 |
3 | Baltimore Ravens | 1-0 | +49 | 1-0 | 42.5 |
4 | Kansas City Chiefs | 1-0 | +14 | 1-0 | 10.5 |
5 | Green Bay Packers | 1-0 | +7 | 1-0 | 10 |
6 | Minnesota Vikings | 1-0 | +16 | 1-0 | 12.5 |
7 | Dallas Cowboys | 1-0 | +18 | 1-0 | 11 |
8 | Los Angeles Rams | 1-0 | +3 | 0-0-1 | 0 |
9 | New Orleans Saints | 1-0 | +2 | 0-1 | -5 |
10 | Los Angeles Chargers | 1-0 | +6 | 0-1 | -0.5 |
11 | Philadelphia Eagles | 1-0 | +5 | 0-1 | -4.5 |
12 | San Francisco 49ers | 1-0 | +14 | 1-0 | 15 |
13 | Houston Texans | 0-1 | -2 | 1-0 | 5 |
14 | Seattle Seahawks | 1-0 | +1 | 0-1 | -8 |
15 | Buffalo Bills | 1-0 | +1 | 1-0 | 4 |
16 | Oakland Raiders | 1-0 | +8 | 1-0 | 11 |
17 | Indianapolis Colts | 0-1 | -6 | 1-0 | 0.5 |
18 | Carolina Panthers | 0-1 | -3 | 0-0-1 | 0 |
19 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 0-1 | -30 | 0-1 | -24.5 |
20 | Arizona Cardinals | 0-0-1 | 0 | 1-0 | 2.5 |
21 | Chicago Bears | 0-1 | -7 | 0-1 | -10 |
22 | Cleveland Browns | 0-1 | -30 | 0-1 | -35.5 |
23 | Detroit Lions | 0-0-1 | 0 | 0-1 | -2.5 |
24 | Cincinnati Bengals | 0-1 | -1 | 1-0 | 8 |
25 | New York Jets | 0-1 | -1 | 0-1 | -4 |
26 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 0-1 | -14 | 0-1 | -10.5 |
27 | Washington | 0-1 | -5 | 1-0 | 4.5 |
28 | Denver Broncos | 0-1 | -8 | 0-1 | -11 |
29 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 0-1 | -14 | 0-1 | -15 |
30 | Atlanta Falcons | 0-1 | -16 | 0-1 | -12.5 |
31 | New York Giants | 0-1 | -18 | 0-1 | -11 |
32 | Miami Dolphins | 0-1 | -49 | 0-1 | -42.5 |
Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER
Odds and lines subject to change. See website for actual odds.
*21+. NJ/WV only. Eligibility restrictions apply. See website for details.