NFL Power Rankings Week 2: What Do The Experts Think?

Pro Football Talk ranks them No. 32, as does FOX Sports. CBS Sports also has the Chiefs ranked dead last in the NFL. Football Outsiders was a little kinder ranking the Chiefs only No. 31.

But are the Chiefs really the NFL’s worst team?

With a 4-12 record last year, the Bills were near the bottom in most preseason power rankings but, after beating up on the Chiefs, you’d think they’d move up a decent amount, right?

ESPN, for some odd reason, doesn’t see it that way. The Bills were ranked 30th in their preseason rankings and, after the Chiefs game, move up a measly three spots to 27th.

NFL power rankings are always an entertaining exercise for NFL reporters and bloggers because one outlet can have a team ranked dead last while another one can have them ranked in the middle of the pack. It’s stil early in the 2011 NFL season and the jury is still out on a few teams so at this time of year it’s understandable.

Perusing the various Week 2 NFL power rankings out there, I came across a couple of times that have a huge variance among the media in the rankings.

The only thing objective about most NFL Power Rankings is the fact that everybody loves them -- and loves to argue about them. Everyone has an opinion about their hometown team, and it almost certainly differs from some national writer who may or may not have actually watched the team play.

The guys at Football Outsiders, though, take a different approach. Their preseason rankings -- dubbed DVOA, for short, because who can remember Defense-adjusted Value Over Average? -- rely on a complex algorithm that analyzes every single play of every single game, comparing it to a baseline league average. Now that the season has started, they’re combining their preseason rankings with this year’s data, giving us DAVE, short for (big breath ...) DVOA Adjusted for Variation Early.

Last week, SB Nation’s initial 2011 NFL power rankings had the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers listed at No. 1 and we noted that they would stay there until they proved they didn’t belong. After an impressive debut against the New Orleans Saints last week, I think it’s safe to say that QB Aaron Rodgers and Co. can hang onto that top spot for another week.

The second edition of power rankings is usually when we see the most movement. Some teams I thought would be good (Chiefs) aren’t so good and some teams I thought wouldn’t be very good (Bears) look pretty sharp.