NFL Power Rankings: Bears rise in rankings despite loss |
Here is BEARSHQ's 11th power rankings of the 2022 season.
*We decided to explain the top 16 and the Bears* 1. Philadelphia Eagles 8-0 (no change) Philadelphia ended last season on a hot streak and added AJ Brown to an offense that was missing a WR 1, and all of a sudden, the Eagles look like a championship team. 38 points in week one, a week two blowout on Monday Night Football over the Minnesota Vikings, and a dominating win over the Commanders, Jaguars, Cardinals, and division rival Cowboys — plus they recently dismantled their in state rival Steelers and the Texans in primetime. Philly looks legit, the best team in the NFL thus far. 2. Kansas City Chiefs 6-2 (up 1) Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs turned a rocky start into a dominating end of the season. Aside from two losses to the Bengals, the Chiefs have not lost since October. However, without Tyreek Hill, the offense will look much different, although the Chiefs did acquire Ju-Ju Smith Schuster, Marquez-Valdez Scantling, and rookie Skyy Moore to an offense that has Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. And that offense was clicking in weeks one and two, the Chiefs are one of the league’s best teams — despite dropping a late game to the Colts last week. The Chiefs got back on track in a big way with a dominating win over the Buccaneers and beat the Raiders in prime time Monday night. The Chiefs are easily a top-5 team in the sport, despite their recent loss to Buffalo at home — mostly because they responded by dominating the 49ers and beating the Titans on Sunday night. 3. Buffalo Bills 6-2 (down 1) The Bills are one of the league’s best teams and had a heartbreaking end to the postseason a year ago. Josh Allen and the Bills won the AFC East and dominated New England in the playoffs before falling to Kansas City in overtime in the playoffs. Either way, the Bills are primed to own the AFC East and contend in the AFC. They are motivated and showed it in their week one blowout of LA and week two domination of Tennessee, but they faltered a bit in week 3 against Miami. The Bills did get back on track against the Ravens in week four, their first win over their last 20 victories that was by less than 10 points. The Bills followed that up by throttling the Steelers on Sunday and getting past the big brother Chiefs in a thriller. Last week, the Bills beat down the Packers, but this week they faltered against the Jets. They look GOOD but are beatable. 4. Minnesota Vikings 7-1 (no change) With an offensive-minded head coach and the best wide receiver in football, the Minnesota Vikings look like legit contenders early on. A blowout win of the division rival Green Bay Packers certainly helps, but getting blown out against Philadelphia certainly does not. But keep an eye on Minnesota, as they got back on track with wins over the Lions, Saints, Bears, Dolphins, Cardinals, and Commanders. 5. Dallas Cowboys 6-2 (no change) BYE Dallas has one of the best defenses in the league, but week 1 was challenging as the Cowboys dropped the game to Tampa and lost Dak Prescott to injury. But since then, the Cowboys have rallied to beat the Bengals, Giants, Commanders, and Rams — they are definitely a team to look out for in the NFC. With Dak back, the Cowboys have beaten the Lions and Bears in a convincing fashion. 6. San Francisco 49ers 4-4 (no change) BYE San Francisco has one of the most talented rosters in the sport and rode their best players to an NFC Championship appearance. The 49ers made the change to Trey Lance, but with Kyle Shannahan and the defensive superstars the 49ers have, they are easily one of the NFC’s best teams on paper — and with Trey Lance injured, Jimmy G is back under center, so we know what they are, and that is a good team, as shown on Monday night when they handled the Rams and this week when they thumped Carolina. But, the 49ers faltered on Sunday against the Falcons. The 49ers acquired Christian McCaffrey at the trade deadline, and now look primed for a playoff push. 7. New York Giants 6-2 (no change) BYE The New York Giants have shocked the football world early on as they are now 5-1. Led by a resurgent Saquan Barkley and stout defense, the Giants have been able to beat the Titans, Panthers, Bears, Packers, and Ravens in the early going — all while proven no lead is safe against the G men — even though the Giants were unable to complete the comeback this week against Seattle. 8. Baltimore Ravens 6-3 (no change) Baltimore has one of the league’s strongest rosters but they spent most of 2021 as the most injured team in the sport. But this team has speed all over the field, on both sides of the ball, and they know their identity. Led by an MVP in Lamar Jackson, the Ravens have the recipe for success — they just need to stay healthy. The Ravens lost a shootout thriller in week two against Miami and a tough game to Buffalo in week four, but got back on track by beating the Bengals on Sunday night. This week, Baltimore took a step back, falling to the Giants. However, the Ravens have gotten it back on track beating the Browns, Tampa Bay, and the Saints on Monday night. 9. Cincinnati Bengals 5-4 (no change) The Bengals were the AFC’s representative in the Super Bowl, but it has been a rocky start to the season for Joe Burrow and the Bengals. The Bengals have struggled to keep Burrow upright, but still, have the makings of a contending team, and showed that Sunday against the Jets and last Thursday against the then-undefeated Dolphins — but faltered slightly on SNF against Baltimore. The Bengals got back on track with a win over New Orleans on Sunday — but faltered in a big way against the Browns on Monday Night Football. However, the Bengals got back to winning ways over Carolina this past week. 10. Miami Dolphins 6-3 (no change) The question surrounding the Miami Dolphins is how good can Tua be, because the offense that features Tyreek Hill, Jalen Waddle, and Raheem Mostert is loaded with speed. If Tua can tie it all together, Miami looks scary, and his six touchdown passes in an epic comeback against Baltimore certainly looks like it and hanging on over the Super Bowl favorite Buffalo Bills, among other victories, make the Dolphins a top-10 team — despite their losses to Cincinnati, New York, Minnesota and Tua’s scary head injury. 11. Los Angeles Chargers 5-3 (no change) LA might have had the best off-season in the league. The offense had no problems, but the Chargers struggled to get stops. This year, the Chargers add pass rusher Khalil Mack and shut down corner JC Jackson to a defense that will be getting a healthy Derwin James and Joey Bosa back in 2022. This team might be the most complete team in the NFL, and they looked like it handling the Raiders in week one. A step back in week two against KC, where Justin Herbert was injured, and a week three loss where he was not himself will not knock the Chargers too far back in our rankings, especially after their blowout of the Texans and wins over Cleveland and Broncos over the last three weeks. However, dropping to Seattle did not help the Chargers, but beating Atlanta did. 12. Seattle Seahawks 6-3 (no change) Seattle is now in our top 12, after a phenomenal start to the season. Who would have ever thought that after even weeks, the Seahawks would be leading a division that has represented the NFC in the last two Super Bowls? Geno Smith has led the offense admirably, and the run game has proven strong for the first-place Seahawks — who have beaten the Chargers, Broncos, Cardinals twice, Lions and Giants so far. 13. New York Jets 6-3 (up 3) The Jets have been the laughingstock of the NFL for a multitude of seasons, but have finally invested in draft capital and chosen wisely. Zach Wilson protects the football and rookie RB Breece Hall and rookie DB Sauce Gardner have been difference-makers — it's been fun to watch. But, with Hall injured, the Jets looked bad last week against the Patriots. They responded in a big way over the Bills this week, and the Jets look primed to make a push toward the playoffs. 14. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 4-5 (no change) So we know the Bucs have a wildly talented offense and a defense with young stars — plus Tom Brady, so this team really does not have any flaws — and that was on display Sunday night in Dallas. This week against New Orleans, Tom Brady had some struggles, but the defense came through at the end to make Tampa Bay 2-0. Weeks three and four were a step back, losing to Green Bay and Kansas City. Tom Brady has not lost three weeks in a row since 2002. That streak continued when the Bucs beat the Falcons in week 5. However, there is plenty of drama surrounding Brady, and some think that led to the Bucs dropping one to the Steelers or to the Ravens this week. We saw a bit of vintage Brady this past week over the Rams, though. 15. Los Angeles Rams 3-5 (no change) The LA Rams came into this season as defending champions. Throughout the season, they became improved even more with various acquisitions and have a Super Bowl trophy as a reward for it. They are the champions, so although a choppy week one performance did not prove much, we are not giving up on the Rams. The Rams got back on track over the Atlanta Falcons and beat Arizona, but a big loss to the 49ers in primetime and to the Dallas Cowboys without Dak Prescott drops the Rams out of our top 10, and beating up on Carolina won’t help them too much. The Rams followed up their BYE week with a loss to the division rival 49ers and Bucs time to panic in LA. 16. Tennessee Titans 5-3 (up 1) Mike Vrabel’s team had the No. 1 seed in the AFC last season, traded away AJ Brown — and the Titans are still leading the AFC South. A stout defense and the prowess of future Hall of Fame Derrick Henry are enough to make this team look scary come December and January. 17. Green Bay Packers 3-6 (down 4) 18. New England Patriots 5-4 (up 2) 19. Arizona Cardinals 3-6 (down 1) 20. Chicago Bears 3-6 (up one spot) The Bears go into the season with a new coach, a new general manager, a new staff and a quarterback who many expect to take the next step. Now it’s just time for the Bears to upgrade the offensive line and build around Justin Fields, and finally show some promise on the field. Which they did in their week 1 win over the 49ers. After a few weeks of choppy offense, the Bears delivered in a big way on Monday night over the New England Patriots, dominating in Foxboro. Justin Fields showed some real promise, and the Bears are winning games — plus, the acquisition of Chase Claypool should help the offense. The Bears have lost to the Cowboys and Dolphins in consecutive weeks, but the best player on the field in both games has been from Chicago. 21. New Orleans Saints 3-6 (down 1) 22. Atlanta Falcons 4-5 (up 7) 23. Denver Broncos 3-5 (down 1) BYE 24. Pittsburgh Steelers 2-6 (down 1) BYE 25. Cleveland Browns 3-5 (down 1) BYE 26. Washington Commanders 4-5 (down 1) 27. Jacksonville Jaguars 3-6 (no change) 28. Las Vegas Raiders 2-6 (no change) 29. Detroit Lions 2-6 (up 1) 30. Indianapolis Colts 3-5-1 (down 4) 31. Carolina Panthers 2-7 (no change) 32. Houston Texans 1–6-1 (no change) Stay tuned as we update these rankings every week.
