Def Pen’s 2017 Week 17 NFL Power Rankings

NFL Power Rankings
The Patriots are poised to make another historic run. Can any AFC East team step up to the challenge? (ROBERT DEUTSCH/USA TODAY SPORTS)

Well, the final week of the 2017 season is upon us. In this final edition of the 2017 NFL Power Rankings, we’re really going to put the focus on teams that either will be in the playoffs or still have a chance to be. (Let’s be honest: There’s only so many different ways you can say “The Browns are terrible.”) So, for the teams that are out of it, we’ll let their record sort of speak for itself. As for teams still in the running, we’ll look at the chances they have of taking home the Lombardi Trophy in February.

Def Pen’s 2017 Week 17 NFL Power Rankings, Tier One: The Favorites

  • New England Patriots (12-3)
  • Minnesota Vikings (12-3)
  • Pittsburgh Steelers (12-3)

This was kind of a weird season, right? We’re accustomed to the NFL season giving us weird results on a weekly basis, but with all the surprising teams (for good or bad) and all the major injuries heading into the playoffs, pegging a true “favorite” seems to be a fool’s errand. All of which is to say: It might not be the soundest logic to put the Patriots in the top spot based on reputation, but there is a benefit to having been there (the Super Bowl) before. Is there a quarterback in the league – or in NFL history – you’d trust more in a big game than Tom Brady?

There is certainly an argument against making the Vikings the top-rated NFC team. But at least on paper, they appear to be the least-flawed team in the conference. Especially given that they’re entering the postseason relatively healthy. Minnesota has had a bit of an up-and-down season, but the ship has been righted when it needed to. The quarterback situation was solved, at least in theory, but Playoff Case Keenum might not end up the same as the Case Keenum that’s put up career-best numbers over the past few weeks. Still, the Vikings could get by on their defense alone.

The Steelers standing could end up totally dependent on the health status of Antonio Brown. Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell, and the rest of the receiving corps still pack a lot of punch, but if their premier big-play threat isn’t right it could have drastic consequences for Pittsburgh. If the AFC Championship game ends up the Steelers against the Patriots, not only is that a great thing for the league, fans, and the rivalry between the two organizations, but the James Harrison situation adds one of the more interesting and unique subplots of any potential conference championship game in recent memory.

Tier Two: Still Missing Something

  • Philadelphia Eagles (13-2)
  • Los Angles Rams (11-4)
  • New Orleans Saints (11-4)
  • Carolina Panthers (11-4)
  • Jacksonville Jaguars (10-5)

If Carson Wentz were healthy, Philadelphia would have to be in Tier One of the NFL Power Rankings. Maybe even in the number one/top spot. The Eagles aren’t that lucky though, and even the biggest fan of this team has to be nervous going into the playoffs with Nick Foles under center. To be fair, Foles has looked good, but the postseason can tend to play differently than regular season games. Philly will have to rely on their great defense, but if the offense can’t consistently convert third downs, it might not matter how good the defense plays. Look for field position to be of paramount importance during the upcoming Eagles game(s).

Teams that surprise during the regular season rarely go all the way. Professional sports – like most life experiences – requires one to get their up-and-com’ins before they truly make the big leap to championship contender. The Rams have pieces to certainly be intrigued by (their league-best +170 point differential, running game, and pass rush, specifically) and entertain the idea they could end up the exception to the rule. But we’re going to side with history and say the NFL’s best team-wide story of the 2017 season needs to taste the playoffs before they get the chance to play for the Lombardi Trophy.

The Saints might have experienced the highest of highs of any NFL team this season. It kind of seems like they’re a team playing with fire though (not in a good way). They started the season losing their first two, then went on an eight-game winning streak, but then have gone a pedestrian 3-2 since. Every year it seems like there’s a team that just peaked a little too early to keep up the pace all the way through the Super Bowl. We’re betting on the Saints being that team this season.

Carolina is the team that forces opponents to prepare in a totally different way than any other team. That’s mostly due to how Cam Newton plays quarterback and is utilized in the Panthers’ offense. Plus they’ve slowly been figuring out how to use Swiss Army Knife Christian McCaffrey. There is an inherent value to making teams prepare differently, but Carolina is far too dependent on a small number of players for our liking. One mediocre game from or injury to Newton or even defensive leader Luke Kuechly and Carolina’s season is over.

Unless you’re of the opinion Blake Bortles can play at a career-best level over the course of the playoffs, Jacksonville just doesn’t have enough offense to beat the rest of the AFC competition. Especially since Leonard Fournette has hit a bit of a rookie wall. The Jaguars have the defense to put together a 2000-’01 Baltimore Ravens-type run where it really doesn’t matter what the offense does, but the rest of the AFC is just better than the Jags. Jacksonville was a great story this season, and 2017 marked a huge step forward for the organization as a whole, but don’t expect much from them in the playoffs. They’re still a few pieces short.

Tier Three: The Longshots

  • Atlanta Falcons (9-6)
  • Kansas City Chiefs (9-6)

The Falcons have been a bit bipolar this season. For a while, it looked like they were the classic case of a Super Bowl hangover team – especially considering the manner in which they lost last year’s big game. They’ve shown some of their vintage fire-power as of late, but question marks on defense, Matt Ryan’s unsteady play, and some health concerns offer just enough reasons to stay away from making Atlanta a true contender and putting them any higher in the NFL Power Rankings.

Kansas City spent more than a few weeks as the top overall team in the NFL Power Rankings this season. However, their offense proved to be produced from unsustainable sources, at least as of right now. Whether they regressed to the mean, benefitted from a relatively easy schedule, finally had some big injuries come back to bite them, had some young players run out of steam late, or a combination of all those reasons, the Chiefs just don’t look like a serious contender. Which is disappointing, since they looked like the runaway favorite at one point in time this season.

Tier Four: In Need of a Miracle

  • Baltimore Ravens (9-6)
  • Tennessee Titans (8-7)
  • Seattle Seahawks (9-6)
  • Detroit Lions (8-7)
  • Dallas Cowboys (8-7)
  • Los Angeles Chargers (8-7)
  • Buffalo Bills (8-7)

The Ravens haven’t gotten a ton of respect in these NFL Power Rankings this season. But here they are, on the verge of a playoff berth. Despite winning a ring earlier in his career, we don’t think Joe Flacco can do it again without the aid of an elite-level defense. Which Baltimore does not have. The Ravens came out on the right side of a few bounces, which made all the difference in determining whether they were a playoff team or already looking forward to the NFL Draft. It just doesn’t look like Baltimore has the weapons to score enough or keep opponents from scoring to sustain much more success this season.

Perhaps no team benefitted more from playing in a weak division this season than Tennessee did. In any other division, the competition may have proved tough enough to keep the Titans from reaching the playoffs. Their work is still not done – they need to win on Sunday to clinch – but we just don’t see anything happening on a playoff noise-making front from this team. It’s a nice step forward for the franchise, but a playoff trip this season could set unnecessarily high expectations going forward, and that could ultimately set the team back in the long run.

It would be tempting to pick the Seahawks to win a few games in the playoffs, based on reputations. But that line of thinking would neglect to adjust for the rash of injuries this team has had to deal with, and the problems they have this season that they have not had to deal with in the past (mainly a suspect running game and pass defense). In order to succeed in the postseason, Seattle will need an otherworldly performance from Russell Wilson. And even that may not be enough. It looks like all the cards are stacked against this squad. It’s hard to justify putting them any higher in the NFL Power Rankings, especially since they still need help getting in.

These next four teams really should be put in a sub-tier of their own in these NFL Power Rankings, since in all likelihood they won’t see the postseason. But they technically are still alive, so they deserve some level of respect here. As for Detroit, go back and look at their schedule, it’s really unforgivable that this squad couldn’t manage ten wins at minimum.

Dallas might win the Hindsight Is 20/20 award for the 2017 season. From The Ezekiel Elliott suspension to Jerry Jones injecting himself into the national anthem conversation and questioning Roger Goodell, there might be a lot Cowboys fans wished went differently in 2017. It just wasn’t meant to be for this team this year. There was bad karma all over Dallas the past year.

There are more than a couple close games this season the Chargers wished they could have back. While most of the time winning or losing close games is more luck than skill, it’s hard to call L.A.’s propensity to lose one-score games something of a trend, if not something worse. A playoff appearance may have helped solidify the long-term well-being of franchise. Even still though, at this point, it looks like the move to Los Angeles was a miscalculation at best, an organizational devastating mistake at worst.

The Bills could’ve used that Nathan Peterman game – or decision – back. It’s not like things were all that great in Buffalo before that, but the quarterback switch kind of sabotaged the Bills’ playoffs hopes. It sort of feels like this team is almost always on the verge of a franchise-wide breakdown, from coaching and front office turnover to constant rumors of a change in ownership, to mind-boggling personnel moves. The only constant feeling this team gives off is nothing is for certain.

Tier Five: The Best of the Worst

  • Green Bay Packers (7-8)
  • Washington Football Team (7-8)
  • San Francisco 49ers [Jimmy Garoppolo Edition] (5-10)
  • Arizona Cardinals (7-8)

Tier Six: More Weaknesses Than Strengths

  • Miami Dolphins (6-9)
  • Cincinnati Bengals (6-9)
  • Oakland Raiders (6-9)
  • Denver Broncos (5-10)
  • Houston Texans (4-11)
  • New York Jets (5-10)
  • Chicago Bears (5-10)
  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-11)

Tier Seven: All Sorts of Bad

  • New York Giants (2-13)
  • Indianapolis Colts (3-12)
  • Cleveland Browns (0-15)
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Ryan lives in Wisconsin. He was raised on a steady diet of whole milk, cheese, sports, WWF/WWE wrestling, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

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