Somewhere between the end of the 2024 NFL season and the beginning of the 2025 season, I found myself with roughly 61 open browser tabs full of preseason clips. If I type the letter E into my Google search bar, EVAN NEAL GUARD comes up frequently enough—it takes me right to a premade clip of several reps he took there during the preseason that prevents me from having to log back into NFL Pro—that I get the little You visit this page often disclaimer. You might call that sad. I call it someone ready for meaningful professional football to start.
Winnowing from the 90-man rosters down to 53 represents the closing of our universe into one tidy narrative fit for exactly 272 games’ worth of entertainment before the playoffs. It’s wonderful, and I am happy to be here with you as we set sail on another season together. Last year was awesome, not just because I got to time the national anthem at the Super Bowl in person (with legendary writer and author Mitch Albom looking on, a bit confused and disappointed), but because I wrote a handful of stories I truly loved. One was a piece in several chapters about a one-yard quarterback sneak with roots in the Spygate scandal. Another was about the Italian roots of the Eagles’ coaching staff.
Today, we’re discussing power rankings, which are a great way to gauge the league’s temperature on a weekly basis and something that also brings me great joy. Thanks for being a part of this … all of it. Let’s dive in together.
1. Baltimore Ravens
If I had to evaluate an offense and a defense in totality, excluding any prior narratives the team has amassed, the Ravens would be the most sensible selection for the Super Bowl. Best defense over the final six weeks of the 2024 season. Second-best offense and second-best quarterback over the same stretch. In addition to that, you look at which team still has the most to grow in terms of potential ceiling and upside. The Ravens check all the boxes.
2. Buffalo Bills
The Bills would have been a far more formidable opponent for the Eagles in the Super Bowl last year. While the world would not have wanted to see two cold-weather teams from the Northeast slugging it out in the Superdome, I would have much rather seen Philadelphia try to box in the Josh Allen experience than a modified, clearly hobbled Patrick Mahomes offense. Still, Buffalo, like Baltimore, needs to exceed these preseason awards and begin to convincingly win big games that cannot be pulled back into competitiveness by questionable officiating.
3. Philadelphia Eagles
There’s no reason to think the Eagles can’t return to the Super Bowl and won’t be the best team in the NFC. As long as their offensive line is healthy, there is no sound argument for the Eagles falling below the 10-win threshold or falling behind another team in the NFC. This conference is still a year away from being as solidified as the AFC. At this point, the Eagles must maximize their window before turnarounds in black holes such as New Orleans, Carolina and the bottom half of the NFC East take shape.
4. Kansas City Chiefs
Patrick Mahomes improved over the course of the season in success rate after the Rashee Rice injury, but I imagine having a healthy Rice—after his six-game suspension—will make this offense better. I think this Chiefs team, if healthy, is probably a mid-evolution team, meaning not necessarily better than it was a year ago, but positioned to be better at some point down the road. Will the iteration of this team Andy Reid sees in the future arrive earlier? Time will tell.
5. Detroit Lions
I hate to rehash a tired preseason storyline, but we are about to see, in real time, just how singularly valuable a coordinator or coordinators can be to a team. And the preseason can’t sort that out for us. It’s only in real games, when Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn aren’t on the headset, that we’ll see how the Lions respond to a Dan Campbell team that was 3-13-1 the year before this staff really started to materialize together. This isn’t “hate” or “doubt,” it’s simply stating a reason why Detroit is not higher on this list.
6. San Francisco 49ers
Before the 49ers lost another wave of players this preseason and training camp, I projected them as a Super Bowl team in 2025. I walked that back a bit in May when I replaced the 49ers with the Eagles—but kept the Bills. Still, I don’t think San Francisco will wind up far from the postseason conversation. The Niners are too talented schematically and have such a hard floor with the capable and efficient Brock Purdy under center.
7. Los Angeles Chargers
I’m probably too high on the Chargers after Rashawn Slater’s injury. That said, I think the strength of offensive coordinator Greg Roman is finding different ways to maximize the run game and build the strength of a play around someone who is not a stalwart tackle. The Chargers’ offensive line is going to move, making it tough to get a bead on, and Omarion Hampton will roll, which will bring the rest of this offense along for the ride.
8. Denver Broncos
On a recent episode of The MMQB Podcast, I asked cohost Albert Breer if the Broncos were the most overhyped team of the offseason—and all that it entails. You can check out that conversation here and decide for yourself. As I’m putting the team at No. 8, I’m clearly having a hard time deciding myself.
9. Washington Commanders
We’ve picked up the Commanders’ 2024 season and tossed it around for a few months now. On one hand, it was a transcendent, incredible moment that launched the star rise of the next great NFL quarterback. On the other hand, it was marked with wins over quarterbacks such as Spencer Rattler, Andy Dalton, Michael Penix Jr., Daniel Jones and Will Levis. The playing field is leveled this year with a challenging schedule and heightened attention. The Commanders have an innovative staff built for the counterpunch offensively. On the other side of the ball, we’ll soon find out.
10. Los Angeles Rams
After going through this roster, after watching the team’s second- and third-stringers throughout the preseason, and after watching my own personal Sean McVay hype reel of his best play calls, I have decided that even if Jimmy Garoppolo is the quarterback of this team, the Rams winning 10 games would not be unfathomable. Garoppolo was Plan C in Los Angeles, but we’re basing a lot of our current Jimmy G discourse on how his time ended with a very poorly represented Josh McDaniels offense in Las Vegas. He can do damage with this roster if need be.
11. Green Bay Packers
The Packers surged up my rankings after securing Micah Parsons, a transformational pass rusher who answers some of the team’s questions on defense, albeit not the ones the team had with stopping the run. Still, he is a math changer, which was very much necessary for a team that finished 2024 with 11 wins but came into this season with more questions than the year prior.
12. Minnesota Vikings
With as far as Kevin O’Connell has taken the Vikings and as much power as he’s amassed in the facility, I cannot imagine he would go into this season with Carson Wentz as his primary backup without some pretty serious confidence in J.J. McCarthy. O’Connell knows a few things, I’m sure: that Justin Jefferson is not aging in reverse. That Brian Flores, his creative muse, will probably be a head coach again soon, and that Super Bowls LX and LXI are the target dates for making it all happen. That makes me feel good about McCarthy, too.
13. Cincinnati Bengals
After hearing that Kris Jenkins had the best camp of all Bengals defenders, I am at least open to the idea that this defense takes a step forward in 2025 and isn’t the wet, cardboard bottom that many are assuming it will be. The Bengals didn’t attack the interior defensive line in the draft, perhaps because they thought the work they did in 2023 was sufficient. It just needed some time. We almost made it through an entire power rankings paragraph on Cincinnati without mentioning Joe Burrow or the Trey Hendrickson holdout. ALMOST.
14. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Emeka Egbuka just takes off, man. There’s something about seeing real speed, real finesse and real releases translated to the NFL that can give you jitters, even when the games don’t matter and even if Egbuka only caught a small number of passes this summer in games. I don’t think it matters. I think it’s a very real reason why I picked the Buccaneers to win 12 games this year and possibly finish out 2025 as the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
15. Seattle Seahawks
I cannot stop moving the Seahawks up every list or tiered ranking that I’ve done this offseason. While this technically has the team on the lip of playoff contention, I have a feeling that Seattle will be our true “surprise” of 2025, if you can count a team as such after winning 10 games in 2024. We liked Sam Darnold with Justin Jefferson. We might like him just as much with a run game, unlike what Seattle has seen in years.
16. Houston Texans
My excitement level at being absolutely proved wrong and humiliated by C.J. Stroud is high. Very high. For the better part of six months, I have been downplaying the Texans as much as one can without supplanting the team in my predictions with the Colts. Nothing in GM Nick Caserio’s recent past has suggested poor drafting ability. Yet, here I am wondering if a new offense run by the great Nick Caley and two receivers taken in the first three rounds of the draft won’t be impactful? Clown stuff, bro.
17. Pittsburgh Steelers
I will begin the season with the same thought I had on Aaron Rodgers the moment he signed: If he is ready to run an Art Smith offense, this is going to be a very good Steelers team. If he is committed to going down running the offense that he wants to run, this Steelers team will be 9–8 by virtue that they always seem to be. I think Smith has been a heavily underrated power-run-game-forward coordinator who could make life easier for one of the all-time greats—if he would only do so himself.
18. Arizona Cardinals
If we followed a model of linear progress, this would be the season the Cardinals make the playoffs. Arizona has transitioned from a bad defense and feisty offense, to a middle-of-the-pack defense and fringe top-10 offense. With no significant departures and the growth of certain young offensive players, this should be a team that firmly plants its flag among the rest of the very competitive NFC West.
19. Chicago Bears
For the first time since 2013, when Marc Trestman powered the Bears to a top-five passing offense, this team has legitimate, well-founded hopes of finishing the season as a top-eight offense. Gone are the cavalcade of defensive coaches and the capable offensive coaches without quarterbacks. Ben Johnson, the best play-caller of 2024, now matches up with Caleb Williams, the most promising collegiate quarterback of 2023. It may not mean 10 wins, but it will mean less of this.
20. Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders enter the 2025 season hoping to erase those moments of bumbling incompetence from a year ago. While Pete Carroll’s Seahawks teams were always weird, they were not the specific kind of weird that was the 2024 Raiders. No identity. Frazzled decision making. The one bright spot is that most teams didn’t double their rookie tight end. While my personal jury is out on Ashton Jeanty over taking one of the anchor tackles in the first round and one of the big-time backs in the second, I have faith that Chip Kelly can make it look right.
21. New England Patriots
A pivotal season starts with Mike Vrabel instilling more confidence in the Patriots than at any point during the waning Belichick era or the short-lived Jerod Mayo era. Vrabel’s ultimate challenge will be keeping it that way. After taking the gap year à la Sean Payton and building a groundswell for his return, the pressure is on him to rack up at least seven or eight wins with an ascending star quarterback in Drake Maye.
22. Atlanta Falcons
Injuries to the offensive line have sent this team into a free fall. I understand the basic case for optimism: Michael Penix Jr. was great in limited time last year despite not being treated as a starter until Kirk Cousins was benched—and all that it entails in terms of reps. I also think the addition of coaches such as defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich and the carryover staff from his tenure with the Jets will lead to immediate improvement on the defense. But, it’s hard to supplement a banged-up offensive line at the tackle spot unless they’re either planning to take Kyle Pitts off the field more regularly or force him to block to remain as a possible starter.
23. Indianapolis Colts
Daniel Jones takes the wheel for a Colts season that, I feel, won’t be as bleak as many are projecting. This team has managed to hang around despite substandard quarterback play each of the past two years. League average play could bring the Colts to a point where they score enough points—along with a rise in defensive performance thanks to the arrival of DC Lou Anarumo—that the margin between the Texans and the Colts is slimmer than many expect.
24. Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jaguars are either going to be a breath of fresh air with youth dotting every corner of this facility in major decision-making positions, or a textbook example of how to bungle a frenzied hiring process, first by sticking with embattled GM Trent Baalke, costing the team interviews with top candidates, and then making a hard right turn at the last moment. I hope for the latter, because this team has so many exciting players that haven’t gotten the opportunity to break out … yet.
25. Dallas Cowboys
The prevailing narrative now that saves Jerry Jones from a lack of embarrassment over refusing to pay Micah Parsons is that, if the Cowboys couldn’t win when their star was on his rookie deal, certainly they couldn’t have done it with him on the contract he got from Green Bay. Well, if they couldn’t win with Parsons, CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott, are they going to fare any better with the two late-first-round picks they got in return for a generational pass rusher? I don’t think so. This team will start the year with the same energy Jones has put into constructing it.
26. New York Jets
The Jets and the Giants are like two halves of a puzzle. If the Giants had the Jets’ offensive line, I might have projected them to win nine games. If the Jets had the Giants’ upside at quarterback, I might be a little more poetic about the meaning of this rebuilding season. Justin Fields, though, will win the Jets games that Aaron Rodgers could not. As long he remains healthy, I think this will be a ground-based team that surprisingly holds its own against the top explosive offenses in the NFL.
27. New York Giants
The ingredients for this team to be interesting while also not making the playoffs are there. And, ultimately, I think that’s the goal. The offensive line is not there, nor has it been for years, despite several iterations of GMs trying to beef it up. However, Jaxson Dart is fun. The Dart offense is fun. Russell Wilson is healthy for the first time in a few years. This defensive line is talented. My prescription for Giants fans: Enjoy a year where the Chiefs game is actually close at halftime and you don’t get swept in the division by all the good teams. Get another tackle in next year’s draft and roll in 2026 feeling better.
28. Miami Dolphins
The Dolphins are a team I don’t have a grip on, admittedly. With injuries to Tyreek Hill and De’Von Achane, in addition to Tua Tagovailoa’s history, a lot is going to be on the shoulders of defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver to continue his end-of-season stretch last year, which saw the Dolphins as one of the top-10 defenses in the NFL. While it’s wild to be saying this about a team with Hill, Jaylen Waddle and Mike McDaniel, such is life in the NFL.
29. Carolina Panthers
The Panthers were a team built to collapse last year. The offense couldn’t run as designed because the defense was so undermanned. The defense remained undermanned, unable to get into its own rhythm by exploring different schematic options. This year should be another step toward sanity and normalcy. The Panthers’ rebuild reminds me of that undertaken by Jonathan Gannon and the Cardinals. With patience and time, we’ll be looking at 2026 as the true pivot point.
30. New Orleans Saints
Spencer Rattler won the preseason quarterback competition after giving us some fun moments a year ago during the tail end of the Darren Rizzi era. This Saints team is all about offloading responsibilities onto younger players and developing this offensive line into the powerhouse it can be. At the same time, it doesn’t seem like it now, but the Saints could define the NFC South as a rough and tumble division for years to come with the right coaching.
31. Tennessee Titans
I will mark success with the Titans in 2025 by how well Cam Ward plays on schedule. This is not an offense that is built for him to play the way he did at Miami right away. The exploratory tendencies in the backfield can come with confidence gained after he can at least manufacture a few scoring drives per game. Let’s start there and add in the Ward flourishes down the line.
32. Cleveland Browns
The Browns will likely be hanging their medium-term hopes on Dillon Gabriel, with a Shedeur Sanders buy-a-ticket start at the end of the year not out of the realm of possibility. This is a wild place to be for a team that had elite talent at the corner, pass-rusher and tackle positions not long ago.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFL Preseason Power Rankings: Defending Champs Are Not No. 1.