NFL Power Rankings Week 2: Predicting Post-Monday Night Football Standings

The first Sunday of the 2016 NFL season has come and gone. It's been an entertaining couple of days of football since the season kicked off on Thursday night, and once Monday night's games are complete, Week 1 will be in the books.

So far, Week 1 has confirmed a few things about the landscape of the league. The Denver Broncos defense is still nearly impenetrable, for example. Those plucky Cleveland Browns? They're still pretty bad.

We've also seen a few assumptions dispelled—a big one being that the New England Patriots haven't taken a massive step back without Tom Brady under center.

Competitive play has also been a theme of the season's opening week so far. Of the 14 games that have been played, six have been decided by two points or fewer. The Browns were the only team to lose by at least 10 points.

So what does all of this mean for our power rankings? Well that's what we're going to examine today. We'll be ranking all 32 teams, using our predictions for Monday night as a guide. We will be focusing primarily on playing performance, though injuries and other issues will be considered.

Monday night has the Washington Redskins hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers and the San Francisco 49ers hosting the Los Angeles Rams.

Rank	Team	Record
1	Denver Broncos	1-0
2	New England Patriots	1-0
3	Carolina Panthers	0-1
4	Green Bay Packers	1-0
5	Arizona Cardinals	0-1
6	Cincinnati Bengals	1-0
7	Pittsburgh Steelers	1-0*
8	Seattle Seahawks	1-0
9	Houston Texans	1-0
10	Minnesota Vikings	1-0
11	Kansas City Chiefs	1-0
12	Detroit Lions	1-0
13	Oakland Raiders	1-0
14	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	1-0
15	New York Giants	1-0
16	Indianapolis Colts	0-1
17	New York Jets	0-1
18	Washington Redskins	0-1*
19	Jacksonville Jaguars	0-1
20	Los Angeles Rams	1-0*
21	New Orleans Saints	0-1
22	Baltimore Ravens	1-0
23	Miami Dolphins	0-1
24	Atlanta Falcons	0-1
25	Philadelphia Eagles	1-0
26	Dallas Cowboys	0-1
27	Buffalo Bills	0-1
28	Chicago Bears	0-1
29	San Diego Chargers	0-1
30	Tennessee Titans	0-1
31	San Francisco 49ers	0-1*
32	Cleveland Browns	0-1

Notable Rankings

1. Denver Broncos and 2. New England Patriots

The Patriots and Broncos could almost be considered 1A and 1B in our rankings. Both teams faced strong NFC opponents in Week 1, and both are dealing with unproven quarterbacks under center.

Both teams also managed to win this past week, thanks to missed field goals.

The important takeaway for these teams, though, is that a bit of adversity isn't going to derail either season. The Broncos, who bested the Carolina Panthers 21-20 in the season opener, look like they can again be Super Bowl contenders. The fact that both Payton Manning and Brock Osweiler are gone doesn't change this.

Second-year man Trevor Siemian—who went 18-of-26 for 176 yards with a touchdown and two picks—wasn't perfect against the Panthers, but he was more than serviceable. The Broncos can win with him.

Jimmy Garoppolo, who will start during Tom Brady's four-game absence, was even better in his first pro start. Against the Arizona Cardinals, he went 24-of-33 for 264 yards and a touchdown. It appears that the Patriots will be in good hands with Garoppolo.

“He played well the entire game,” Patriots receiver Chris Hogan said of Garoppolo, per Lorenzo Reyes of USA Today. “He’s the starting quarterback of the New England Patriots. He stepped up well and he handled himself really well throughout the entire game. He was composed. He was confident. And I think everyone saw that in the huddle and responded.”

New England's victory was one of the most impressive of the weekend. Not only did the Patriots beat a playoff team on the road, but they also did it without a number of key contributors on the field.

Still, the Broncos are the defending Super Bowl champions, and they beat a team some considered the best in the league. For now, they'll sit at No. 1.

4. Green Bay Packers

The Packers are a much healthier team than they were a year ago, and running back Eddie Lacy—who averaged 4.4 yards per carry on Sunday—appears to be back to his old playmaking self. It appears the Packers still have a few wrinkles to shake out on the offensive side of the ball, but that unit should be better than it was last season.

If the offense can get back to the level of play we're used to seeing from Aaron Rodgers and Co., this could be one of the most formidable teams in the regular season and playoffs. It wasn't exactly a cakewalk, but the Packers traveled across the country and beat an emerging Jacksonville Jaguars team 27-23.

Since the Packers earned a road victory, we'll move them ahead of the Cardinals. However, we're going to leave them behind the Panthers, who lost a tight one against the Broncos at Mile High Stadium. If Green Bay can get back to scoring 40 points per game with regularity, we might consider moving it into one of the top three spots.

Of course, the Packers also run the risk of dropping in the rankings if the Jaguars keep losing. Jacksonville is supposed to be an improved team on defense and on the ground, and that appeared to be true on Sunday. However, there's always the possibility that the Jaguars simply looked improved because Green Bay isn't the team we suspect it could be.

10. Minnesota Vikings

Since we mentioned the Packers, we might as well take a moment to mention the Vikings as well. These two teams will face off next weekend in a game that could help determine the fate of the NFC North.

Minnesota managed to pull off a 25-16 victory over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday despite having journeyman Shaun Hill under center and virtually no production from Adrian Peterson.

The Titans made it clear that they weren't going to let Peterson beat them, and this is a tactic that teams are likely to use all season with Teddy Bridgewater sidelined with a torn ACL. It worked on Sunday—Peterson averaged just 1.6 yards per carry—but the Vikings won anyway.

Minnesota can thank its defense for the victory. The Vikings held Tennessee's own ground game in check and scored a pair of defensive touchdowns.

The Vikings are still a playoff team with this defense, but they might not be a legitimate title contender with Hill under center. At some point, the Vikings will probably turn to Sam Bradford at quarterback since the team traded away a first-round pick for him.

Bradford's level of play could significantly help the team's future rankings.

If Minnesota can beat the Packers next week, though, it'll have an opportunity to move even higher into the top 10.

13. Oakland Raiders

We'll briefly touch on the Raiders, who were a trendy preseason playoff pick for many folks. The team managed to win on the road, and it got some tremendous play from quarterback Derek Carr. Pro Football Focus rated him second overall among quarterbacks through Sunday.

We're leaving Oakland just outside the playoff field for now, though, because the defense still has a ton of issues—one of which is defending the pass.

The Raiders brought in guys such as Sean Smith and Reggie Nelson to help bolster the pass defense this past offseason. However, an improved pass defense was nowhere to be seen. In fact, Smith was benched for poor play.

The Raiders had no answer for New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who piled up 423 yards and four touchdowns. Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio even decided to go for two with less than a minute to play and the score at 33-34—presumably because he had no faith that his defense could stop Brees.

Oakland might evolve into a playoff contender by season's end, but it needs to get its pass defense straightened out in order to do so.