This is, by far, the hardest Power Rankings column to write every year. We are a week removed from the Super Bowl, giving ourselves at least the smallest possible runway to try and ascertain what might happen this offseason before building that into our calculus. Four months from now, this list looks entirely different. Some teams are going to acquire starting quarterbacks. Some teams are going to starting quarterbacks. Davante Adams, Aaron Rodgers, Deebo Samuel, Derek Carr, Tyler Lockett and Matthew Stafford might switch allegiances. We’re a long way from late July when training camp kicks off.
That said, there’s something about taking what we’ve learned from the finale of the 2024–25 season and applying that to the near future. With that energy, let’s step into the minefield.
1. Philadelphia Eagles
I was struck in the Eagles’ celebratory locker room by the real reason Philadelphia was here: They are a meritocracy. Their seventh-round left tackle whooped up a first-round pick and got the job. Their spare edge rusher/backup linebacker balled out and got the job. Two of their wide receivers faltered and were replaced by A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. Say what you will about Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni, but neither of them came into this season feeling a modicum of security despite the 2022 Super Bowl berth. And … they did their jobs. Philadelphia has an almost Patriot-like approach to their atmosphere, free of politics impacting long-term decision making. Creating an environment that yields the best team being on the field—that’s what wins in the NFL.
2. Detroit Lions
I keep Detroit at No. 2 because, like Philadelphia, I believe this is a team in which the best players are in the starting lineup and will be out if they start to slip. We’ll see what that looks like this year now that Jared Goff no longer has Ben Johnson on the headset and Aaron Glenn is coaching in another conference. Like the Eagles when Jonathan Gannon and Shane Steichen left, a brain drain is inevitable to some degree. I also wonder if Dan Campbell alters his incredibly successful approach after seeing how banged up and worn down this team was by the time January hit.
3. Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs’ path feels obvious, with some caveats. While their late-in-round draft picks develop, the team is charged with finding enough mercenary talent to fill out the roster so as not to impede the development of a young core that to come around because there are a few very expensive and very important homegrown players on the roster that need most of the cap space. Every few years, the mercenary talent falters, injuries mount and, in the most important game of the season, the Chiefs are sent back to the proverbial drawing board.
This season feels a little different because of just how much work—in the draft, at the negotiating table and in free agency—needs to be done in the trenches. The Chiefs need help bolstering both sides of the line after the limits of their collective potential were displayed in a humbling Super Bowl loss.
4. Buffalo Bills
Rinse and repeat. The Bills need to fortify their secondary and edge this offseason. I’m putting them fourth because of how impressed I was with the offensive evolution throughout the season (and the assumption that Joe Brady will learn from his playoff mishaps on the headset). I think we have another season before New England is right on Buffalo’s heels and, after watching the Eagles remake their own secondary in one season, believe it is possible without the access to a high first-round draft pick. While every class is different, this is Sean McDermott’s moment to identify some quick fixes that will contribute heavily throughout the life of their rookie deals, so paying James Cook doesn’t feel like such a backbreaker.
5. Baltimore Ravens
Another thought that, like suggesting the Bills need cornerback help, feels redundant. Baltimore has to retool its offensive line again and while the team did a masterful job last year of building a gutting ground game despite needing a handful of new starters, each season provides its own unique challenges. Not having Todd Monken get a head coaching job may have been the biggest boost to Baltimore’s offseason, though evolving a third time within the confines of this offense could be his biggest challenge yet. I’m done wondering if Derrick Henry can still be great. It’s everything else that must fall into place.
6. Green Bay Packers
Despite both of its coordinators interviewing for head coaching jobs this offseason, Green Bay comes in largely status quo after starting one of the youngest teams in football a year ago. They are (too?) high on this list for a few reasons. One, I think I am perpetually hooked into this idea that a large portion of this team will ascend at once (and really, that doesn’t feel all that silly given that the team won 11 games last year and would have won three other divisions had they not been logjammed into the superhuman NFC North). I think nailing the cornerback position this offseason and finding some kind of solution at edge to improve one of the worst pass rush win rates in the NFL gets them to a possible division crown in 2025.
I predicted last week that the Commanders would miss the playoffs in 2025. This isn’t because I am a miserable person, it’s because I want to underline the ridiculousness of the football population placing an unfair burden on the backs of quarterbacks who immediately succeed. So, so much had to go right for the Commanders this past season. There were once in a season cosmic moments of divinity and plenty of other season-buoying missed kicks along the way. It was a great season, no doubt, but the team now needs to reshape its edge rush, re-fortify its offense and hit the ground running with an evolution on the Jayden Daniels offense from a year prior. That’s not easy!
8. Minnesota Vikings
It’s harder to replicate a generational defensive performance than an offensive one and while none of Brian Flores’s main defensive stalwarts are hitting the market, the Vikings still have to deal with the rigors of age and being After watching Daniels this season in Washington, I’m not going to assume the Vikings win double-digit games with J.J. McCarthy if that’s who ends up as QB1. But, like everyone rushing to cement the Commanders as a top-five offense next year, we need to be similarly cautious of anyone assuming the Vikings can deliver an all-world EPA against the run in 2025–26. Andrew Van Ginkel is only human, after all.
9. Los Angeles Chargers
This is a shot-in-the-dark top-10 ranking. I just have a strange feeling that Jim Harbaugh and Joe Hortiz are going to have a really, really smart offseason. We could see it in glimpses last year when this team was getting massive contributions from late-round picks and hangers on from a roster that many in the league thought was among the worst (outside of quarterback) in the NFL. I know, I know, you all have fatigue from me assuming that one day this franchise will be truly dangerous. But given the caliber of veteran free agents out there this offseason and the fifth-most cap space in the NFL, I’m intrigued.
10. San Francisco 49ers
I picked the 49ers to go to the Super Bowl in 2025–26, so that’s how I feel about the team. It’s going to take some miraculous health and a kind of head-on dive leaning into the finality of this coming season as a closing window. But what’s the flip side? Not trying? We also act like it’s impossible to rebuild an offensive line overnight when a handful of teams did it a year ago and remained relevant during the season.
11. Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals, like the 49ers, require some imagination to accept them this high. They have a massive offseason ahead on the contractual front, they need to upgrade at the non-receiver skill positions—let’s find some real dynamism at running back and tight end—and address the real reason they needed to change defensive coordinators: The roster wasn’t all that great. Still, the flickers of Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase coming alive are too enticing to ignore.
12. Denver Broncos
Depending on which metric you prefer, or whether the eye test is your ultimate method, the Broncos could have been considered the best defense in the NFL last year. Again, hard to replicate year in and year out but this team is absolutely solid up front and is built around a generational talent at cornerback. Offensively, I think this is one of the few teams that we could almost lock in a step forward, because Sean Payton has telegraphed his offseason to-do list, which includes a versatile tight end/receiving back to unlock his offense. Bo Nix does not strike me as a quarterback who gets figured out or regresses.
This list has to include some shake-ups, right? And beyond what we already know to be true, we have the sample size of quarterbacks who’ve absolutely exploded in their second season and elevated the team to another stratosphere. Of the quarterbacks who could possibly explode through that perceived ceiling and become someone else entirely, Caleb Williams has to be the leading candidate. There were breathtaking stretches of football in Chicago last year and perhaps Ben Johnson is the one who can draw it out more consistently. This was a competitive, possibly playoff-bound team before a demoralizing Hail Mary loss to the Commanders.
14. Houston Texans
Another team I can’t stand each week—nevermind year—in the power rankings. Perpetually underrated in 2023, perpetually overrated in ’24, the Texans now come back with a new offensive coordinator skilled in the Patriots’ ball control offense with a Rams twist. Nick Caley has been an ascending coach and probably should have been a play-caller by now. We’ll see what he can do with an offense that really needs help in the trenches and to sort out their future at the skill positions.
15. Seattle Seahawks
So, last year around this time I thought Ryan Nielsen would have the single biggest new coordinator impact of the season. Take that with a grain of salt when I say that Klint Kubiak is a pretty sizable upgrade over Ryan Grubb with this personnel specifically. Kubiak was the best coordinator of the first quarter of ’24 before the realities of the Saints’ roster took hold. He’ll have the Seahawks balanced and able to realize the full potential of this two-headed rushing attack.
16. New England Patriots
If I have the Bears rising, I have to consider the Patriots a candidate as well. Again, there’s some guesswork at play here but Mike Vrabel perfectly fits this moment in time. An offensive wunderkind coach is great, but those are in short supply and Vrabel has the vision to create something the AFC East doesn’t really have at the moment: a true heel; a team that will physically dominate and humiliate. Also, if I am betting high on Caleb Williams in Year 2, I also have to do the same for the impressive Drake Maye.
17. Pittsburgh Steelers
A team that cracked the top five of my power rankings last year at various points in time, the Steelers are always an enigma in that they outperform expectations. If the team can somehow come out of this offseason with a settled QB situation, new blood at wide receiver and more help at cornerback we might be looking at something. Then again, we might also be looking at a team that got its clocks cleaned by the best teams on its schedule in rapid succession down the stretch. Just like we saw the true distance between the Eagles and Commanders in the playoffs, did we see the true distance between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with that forever fourth-quarter drive in December?
18. Los Angeles Rams
The Rams enter an offseason with—at least on our end—real questions at both tackle spots and quarterback. And while the behind-the-scenes volleying between Stafford and the Rams could just be early February fodder, it’s hard to stamp down one’s foot with any degree of confidence in this team with so many unknowns. In fact, I think 18 is quite fair given those circumstances and reflects our admiration for a defense that, over the final few weeks of the season and into the playoffs, was a legit top-10 unit.
19. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Buccaneers have about $2 million in cap space, which I think should be considered a good thing. This team had to pay its own players who were good and have a quarterback on an outstanding deal—just not with the savings of a rookie deal. And so, they land at 20 on this list because I find them hard to slot. On one hand, you could say they’ll do what they always do and win the division. On the other hand, this could be one of those quick regrouping seasons before the young talent on this team takes a next step.
20. Jacksonville Jaguars
I think it would be hard for the Jaguars to have gotten more listless and uninterested as they appeared at various points last season. So, in that regard, Liam Coen has to be an upgrade. Jacksonville has tried surrounding Trevor Lawrence with various coaches who have been to their respective mountaintops instead of young play-callers who have played the position semi-recently. The combination of Coen and Grant Udinski could finally unlock the consistency we’ve been begging for out of Lawrence.
21. Arizona Cardinals
The Cardinals squandered what was some real momentum and excitement toward the end of last year but the lingering concern for me was it happened. In the two losses in three weeks post-bye against Seattle, Mike Macdonald’s defense made the Cardinals’ attack look futile. Then, another sub-10-point performance against another division rival followed. This team is loaded with cap space and has drafted well early in the Monti Ossenfort era, so we’ll see if they can enter July with a defense that Jonathan Gannon can weaponize and another reimagined offense for Kyler Murray.
22. Indianapolis Colts
I think Indianapolis could do some damage in 2025, though there has to be a departure from Chris Ballard’s offseasons of old. Awaiting his pet projects to mature has taken its toll on a roster that has some talent but needs microwaving. The Colts need sure hands, big interior pile pushers to pair off Quenton Nelson and someone who can take the ball from Anthony Richardson in a mid-range passing game that can cause problems. Let’s see that $30 million in cap space put to use.
I’ve said in multiple writings that the Dallas Cowboys could easily win 10 games next season if the team stays healthy but that would just be riding on the fumes of a roster that should have been stewarded in a far better manner. Again, it’s about riding a line of telling people how unexcited I am about Brian Schottenheimer (because of what the team could have had) versus understanding what this team could do with a healthy and happy Dak Prescott.
24. Atlanta Falcons
I loved Michael Penix’s end of the season and thought there was so much promise there. The Falcons scapegoated their defensive coordinator as the big offseason change but arrive at this kind of moment. The pass rush is still not good. The secondary is still not good. I said this at the time Penix took over, but maybe this is the point where we wonder what Terry Fontenot had in mind this whole time. I think 24 is a place where I can adequately express both my excitement for this offense and fear of what everything else looks like.
25. Miami Dolphins
The best of the Dolphins’ 2024 was pretty unimpressive upon looking back (and, yes, I know there were mitigating circumstances). The winning stretch at the end of the season that pulled them within earshot of playoff contention came against the Rams, Raiders, Patriots and Jets in overtime. Their other wins were against Jacksonville, New England, San Francisco and Cleveland. I think the best of this iteration of the Dolphins has come and gone, though with the general manager clearly feeling the heat, I wonder if this is an offseason where we see multiple restructures to generate some meaningful cap space.
26. New York Jets
Now officially quarterback-less, the Jets embark on another journey into the fog. While I think the ingredients are there to pull off a Chargers-like turnaround with the scraps on this roster (and the handful of top five-caliber players that made us so excited about this team in the first place), this was a team that had packed it in by the end of 2024. Aaron Glenn’s big challenge is going to be bringing back the Sauce Gardner we knew from his starlit rookie season.
27. Carolina Panthers
The Panthers have nine draft picks on the docket right now and, boy, I hope eight of them end up on the defensive side of the ball. I think the light will turn on for Xavier Legette and already has for Jalen Coker, which shows this regime’s aptitude for finding some usable players at all ends of the draft. If the defense comes around, you can almost imagine a spunky seven- or eight-win team that is actually powered by its passer instead of, in years prior to the Dave Canales era, trying to hide him.
28. New York Giants
The Giants’ schedule is wicked next season, in case you haven’t noticed. Obviously having the Eagles and Commanders twice is unfortunate, though Brian Daboll’s team played Dan Quinn tight twice in the fall. But the Chiefs, Broncos, Packers, Chargers, Lions, 49ers and Vikings being added to the fold against a team with a possible rookie quarterback feels daunting. As we mentioned at the top of this post, give me Matt Stafford and my mind changes slightly. Perhaps then we’re looking at a 20th-ranked team (for now).
29. Las Vegas Raiders
I’m truly amped for the Pete Carroll-Chip Kelly era and I expect the Raiders to hurl some of that $92 million in salary cap space at a quarterback. Bringing in someone who could effectively manage a game, in addition to a new coach, offensive coordinator and general manager will have the team feeling capable for the first time in a long while.
No one went into this believing the Saints’ job was a one in theory. This is going to be a slog but there is something exciting about the prospect of getting new foundational players at critical positions after this team got so old, so fast. Take your pick in this year’s draft: edge? Defensive tackle? Corner? One of the nice parts of the undertaking Kellen Moore is beginning is that progress isn’t (immediately) measured in wins and losses.
31. Tennessee Titans
I spared the Titans the last pick because I think hitting on the No. 1 pick in the draft and hopping into bed with a veteran quarterback this offseason actually makes this team feel not so terrible to me. Not as terrible as the Cleveland Browns, anyway. Mike Borgonzi came from the ultimate veteran bridge QB scenario in Kansas City and could be eager to replicate that pattern in Tennessee.
32. Cleveland Browns
It’s annoying to me that the Browns could have infuriated Myles Garrett so much while still being in position to possibly grab Abdul Carter with the No. 2 overall pick. Alas, they were kind of depending on it given the team’s operating standards toward the end of last season, no? Anyway, no capable quarterback currently on the roster and the rest of the core that spurned the aggressiveness to acquire Deshaun Watson in the first place aging out? Who could have seen this coming in 2022? At least the Browns have really good linebackers.
