NFL Week Three Power Rankings

Controlled Chaos Supports NFL Plot Line

Week 3 was another seemingly wild week. 

No, not that kind of wild weekend. This kind, if you're one of the many who play survivor pools:

Week One it was New England doing the heavy lifting, followed by the Raiders in Week Two, and the hot mess outline above this week (I imagine DEN over TB caused most of the pain, though).

This steady stream of early, high-profile, pool-draining upsets has been flowing for the past several years. In addition to wreaking havoc on the aforementioned survivor pools, this trend also plays into the NFL "any given Sunday" ethos.

The reality is that the early season drama is probably an unforeseen yet welcomed byproduct of the league's decisions to expand the regular season, shorten training camp, and add games on additional nights of the week. Back when players made roughly an inflation-adjusted $100K or so for the season, the NFL was almost a part-time job. Players worked in the off season. Training camp started in July and lasted two months, so guys could get themselves into shape. There were six - six! - preseason games and 14 regular season games.

Instant Replay, a diary of the Green Bay Packers 1967 Super Bowl season by Jerry Kramer, will tell
you everything you need to know about preseason, and the NFL in general, back in the day. Kramer, an All Pro and future Hall of Fame guard, made an inflation-adjusted $283,000 for the season.

Gradually, and logically - nobody liked preseason games, then and now - the season went to 16 regular and 4 preseason games, then 16 and 3, and the current 17 and 3. More regular season games means more money. It also means the best teams begin the season with a decided advantage, as, barring injury, they will likely have the most continuity with regards to personnel and system, and need less time to prepare. 

Beneath those top five or six teams, there will be a weird churn as newly structured teams get sorted out. The churn results in the seemingly strange upsets to begin the season. Meanwhile, the NFL, the foremost purveyor of reality TV (93 of the top 100 live TV shows in 2023 were NFL football; six of the remaining seven were college games) benefits from a plethora of new plot lines. And yours truly had BAL in Week 2 and LV in Week 3...

Power Rankings

That early season churn did impact the rankings, and raise some questions: 

• Is MIN for real? 
• What's up with DAL? 
• Can Robert and Aaron patch things up in NYJ land?

Team	Change	Why	This Week
KC	0	Road grinder	at LAC (8)
BUF	0	Convincing win	at BAL (2.5)
PHI	6	Playing some D in NO	at TB (2.5)
DET	2	Righting the ship	SEA (3.5)
MIN	8	Could be for real	at GB (+2.5)
SEA	1	Beats JV squad	at DET (+3.5)
PIT	2	A lot with not much	at IND (2)
BAL	6	Holds on in DAL	BUF (+2.5)
NYJ	8	Aaron show in full swing	DEN (7.5)
GB	6	Pack can run	MIN (2.5)
NO	-7	Exposed; a big one slips away	at ATL (+1.5)
TB	-9	Exposed	PHI (+1)
HOU	-1	Preseason darling exposed	JAX (7)
LAC	-8	QB trouble	KC (+8)
LAR	10	Battling back	at CHI (2.5)
SF	-11	Losing 3 All Pros *is* bad	NE (10)
ATL	0	Tough loss	NO (1.5)
WAS	12	2-1 *is* 2-1	at AZ (+3.5)
DAL	-9	Trouble in Jersey?	at NYG (5.5)
AZ	1	Next week tells the tale	WAS (3.5)
IND	6	Top of the bottom of the barrel	PIT (+2)
DEN	7	Big win in TB	at NYJ (+7.5)
CAR	10	What a diff a QB makes	CIN (+4.5)
MIA	-6	Going down until QB shows up	TEN (1)
LV	-6	Mixed signals from Raiderland	CLE (1)
CHI	-2	No offense to speak of	LAR (+2.5)
NE	-8	Reverting to expected form	at SF (+10)
NYG	3	Improvement shown	DAL (+5.5)
CIN	-7	Hole may be too deep	at CAR (4.5)
CLE	-7	Home NYG loss: not good	at LV (+5)
JAX	-4	Bombarded in BUF	at HOU (+7)
TEN	-3	Mayo Clinic QB a problem	at MIA (+1)