Good Evening friends and welcome back to another edition of the NFL Power Rankings: Media Edition. To nobody's surprise the Chiefs were big movers this week in the rankings, but unfortunately the movement was in the wrong direction. As Joel pointed out this morning, one site ranked us dead last at 32nd in the league. The good news? There are most likely teams worse than us right now. The bad news? They are not the only ones who think we are 32nd. Follow on for more on the Chiefs and their AFC West brethren.
Week 1 is in the books and we obviously know what happened in our game. Meanwhile, the Chargers (in my estimation) did not look impressive. I felt like they looked like the Chargers who are susceptible to a loss at any given time. The "experts" though seem to disagree with me. Oakland seems primed to benefit from the Chiefs potential demise as they snuck out of Denver with a close win, but I see another undisciplined squad in Silver and Black and the penalty parade was evidence of that. Denver could have looked better but they could have looked worse. They are banged up a little and every loss will make John Fox's ears bleed more and more as the shouts for Tim Tebow get louder. Let's see what people who get paid to do this think:
ESPN: Ahh, perhaps we should send a bouquet of freshly cut roses to the fine folks at ESPN. The Chiefs come in at #21 this week, six spots ahead of the Buffalo Bills, which obviously means the Bills needed to score at least 60 to leapfrog the Chiefs. The Chargers are up one spot to #9 which seems appropriate, while the Raiders received a nice 4 spot bounce to 18th after their win. Bringing up the rear on ESPN were the Broncos who dropped one spot to 28th. Let's hope ESPN is right, because we are ranked ahead of 4 teams we play this year for a total of 5 games.
Pro Football Talk: As noted by Joel today, we are ranked 32nd in PFT's weekly rankings. Despite having what they call an "ugly win", the Chargers hold their spot at #3. The Raiders are up two spots to #18 while the Broncos actually moved up two spots with their loss to #28. (I guess someone had to make room for us to slide behind). Needless to say, not a good week for us according to PFT.
CBS Sports: Well well, guess who dropped eleven spots from 21 to 32? That's right, we did. And they added this little nugget as well, "They are the team on the slide -- the super-slide. Is Todd Haley on shaky ground or what?" Don't get me going on that one. The Chargers on the other hand move up two spots to 3rd despite being "shaky". Apparently shaky is rewarded, even when you cannot blow out a team whose QB threw for 39 yards. Want more info that makes sense? The Raiders dropped two spots to 19th, despite getting lavished with praise for their speed. And the Broncos slipped two spots to 29, just three spots ahead of our Chiefs.
Fox Sports: Would Fox be fair and balanced in their rankings this week? Well, with Brian Bilick ranking the teams we might see that. Hmm, where are the Chiefs on this darn list. Oh yeah, 32nd. "The Chiefs situation has a bad feel to it. I was willing to look beyond their preseason struggles, but one cannot ignore a 34-point loss at home. Losing safety Eric Berry for the year only makes it more difficult." Thanks, Bri. Can I call you Bri? America's darlings, the Chargers, moved up one spot to #2 on the list, while the Raiders jumped two spots to #20. Interestingly, Billick thinks they aren't using their speed enough. Bri, call up CBS and get the story straight. And dropping two spots to #30 were the Broncos. It's not fun when we can't even make fun of the Broncos for being 30th.
National Football Post: Hey NFP, thanks for the confidence boost! NFP has the Chiefs coming it at 26th! They have more reasonable expectations for the Chargers but still have them at 7th for the week. Don't look now, but the Raiders are at 15th this week. According to NFP, "Hue Jackson’s club physically beat up the Broncos on Monday Night Football." Really? Physically beat them up? Hmm, I am calling bull on this one. This was clearly an emotional/metaphysical beating (I heard namecalling). But that's just one man's opinion. And bringing up the rear, the Broncos are 30th. (Almost every site has the word Tebow in the description by the way. Shocking.)
SB Nation: Who writes this hogwash? Just kidding obviously, and another well thought out list by our very own Joel Thorman. Not because I like Joel, but I do like this number for the Chiefs. 25th is a very fair ranking in my opinion because we truly do not know if this was a one-week debacle or the sign of things to come. The Chargers move up one spot to #8, while the Raiders sit at 24th. Joel is a brave man, because judging by what I have seen online today, Oakland fans are really impressed with themselves over that classic win last night, and I am sure he has heard an earful from the Silver and Black. And taking over the throne for us, at least in SB Nation, are the Broncos who come in dead last at 32nd.
WalterFootball: We are welcoming WalterFootball to our weekly rankings, and the Chiefs slid eleven spots down to #29 for Walter. Says the clever Walter, "At least it's not the fourth week of the preseason; otherwise, Todd Haley might make Berry play despite that injury." I will not laugh at any Eric Berry jokes. Where I do like Walter is where we see the Chargers drop three spots to #11. Clearly WalterFootball watched the game I watched and I applaud this ranking. The site also has Oakland moving up nine spots to #17 and the Broncos dropping five spots to #27.
Last, but not least, a site that I encourage all football fans to frequent. If you are a stat geek like me, or love metric stats like you see now in baseball, these guys are for you. It's a close race between them and Pro Football Focus for the most diligent site.
Football Outsiders: Football Outsiders has us at 31st after out week 1 performance. As an aside, their metrics also have us as having a 15.9% chance of having the first pick in the draft next year, the highest in the league. And while the Andrew Luck Posse will be happy to hear that, let's recall it is based on one week. FO likes the Chargers overall and has them at 4th, but their ratings do not like their special teams at all. Surprise surprise. That will be tested by New England this week for sure. FO has Oakland at 24th, like Joel, and has them with the 2nd best defense after Week 1. Let's see them stop Scott Chandler this week! And at number 29, the Denver Broncos. The good news is that FO ranks their special teams at #8, so there is something for them to hang their hat on.
Well folks, there you have this week's rankings. The media has us anywhere from 21 to 32. The big question is, where do YOU have us and where will the AP group of experts have us??? Until next time... @deemo15