NFL Power Rankings: Bears fall down five spots |
Here is BearsHQ.com's seventh power rankings of the 2022 season:
*We decided to explain the top 16 and the Bears* Philadelphia Eagles 6-0 (no change) Philadelphia ended last season on a hot streak and added AJ Brown to an offense that was missing a WR 1 and all of a sudden the Eagles look like a championship team. 38 points in week one, a week two blowout on Monday Night Football over the Minnesota Vikings, and a dominating win over the Commanders, Jaguars, Cardinals, and division-rival Cowboys. Philly looks legit, the best team in the NFL thus far. Buffalo Bills 5-1 (up 1) The Bills are one of the league’s best teams and had a heartbreaking end to the postseason a year ago. Josh Allen and the Bills won the AFC East and dominated New England in the playoffs before falling to Kansas City in overtime in the playoffs. Either way, the Bills are primed to own the AFC East and contend in the AFC. They are motivated, and showed it in their week one blowout of LA and week two domination of Tennessee, but faltered a bit in week 3 against Miami. The Bills did get back on track against the Ravens in week four, their first win over their last 20 victories that was by less than 10 points. The Bills followed that up by throttling the Steelers on Sunday and getting past the big brother Chiefs in a thriller. Kansas City Chiefs 4-2 (down 1) Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs turned a rocky start into a dominating end of the season. Aside from two losses to the Bengals, the Chiefs have not lost since October. However, without Tyreek Hill the offense will look much different, although the Chiefs did acquire Ju-Ju Smith Schuster, Marquez-Valdez Scantling and rookie Skyy Moore to an offense that has Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. And that offense was clicking in weeks one and two, the Chiefs are one of the league’s best teams — despite dropping a late game to the Colts last week. The Chiefs got back on track in a big way with a dominating win over the Buccaneers and beat the Raiders in prime time Monday night. The Chiefs are easily a top-5 team in the sport, despite their recent loss to Buffalo at home. Los Angeles Chargers 4-2 (up 2) LA might have had the best off-season in the league. The offense had no problems, but the Chargers struggled to get stops. This year, the Chargers add pass rusher Khalil Mack and shut down corner JC Jackson to a defense that will be getting a healthy Derwin James and Joey Bosa back in 2022. This team might be the most complete team in the NFL, and they looked like it handling the Raiders in week one. A step back in week two against KC where Justin Herbert was injured and a week three loss where he was not himself will not knock the Chargers too far back in our rankings, especially after their blowout of the Texans and wins over Cleveland and Broncos over the last three weeks. New York Giants 5-1 (up 11) The New York Giants have shocked the football world early on as they are now 5-1. Led by a resurgent Saquan Barkley and stout defense, the Giants have been able to beat the Titans, Panthers, Bears, Packers, and Ravens in the early going — all while proven no lead is safe against the G men. Minnesota Vikings 5-1 (up 5) With an offensive-minded head coach and the best wide receiver in football, the Minnesota Vikings look like legit contenders early on. A blowout win of the division rival Green Bay Packers certainly helps, but getting blown out against Philadelphia certainly does not. But keep an eye on Minnesota, as they got back on track with wins over the Lions, Saints, Bears, and Dolphins. Baltimore Ravens 3-3 (down 2) Baltimore has one of the league’s strongest rosters but they spent most of 2021 as the most injured team in the sport. But this team has speed all over the field, on both sides of the ball, and they know their identity. Led by an MVP in Lamar Jackson, the Ravens have the recipe for success — they just need to stay healthy. The Ravens lost a shootout thriller in week two against Miami and a tough game to Buffalo in week four but got back on track by beating the Bengals on Sunday night. This week, Baltimore took a step back falling to the Giants. Baltimore is a really good team, with Lamar Jackson leading the way, but they keep losing very tight contests. New York Jets 4-2 (up 11) The Jets have been the laughingstock of the NFL for a multitude of seasons, but have finally invested in draft capital and chosen wisely. Zach Wilson protects the football and rookie RB Breece Hall and rookie DB Sauce Gardner have been difference-makers — it is been fun to watch. Cincinnati Bengals 3-3 (up 1) The Bengals were the AFC’s representative in the Super Bowl, but it has been a rocky start to the season for Joe Burrow and the Bengals. The Bengals have struggled to keep Burrow upright, but still, have the makings of a contending team, and showed that Sunday against the Jets and last Thursday against the then-undefeated Dolphins — but faltered slightly on SNF against Baltimore. The Bengals got back on track with a win over New Orleans on Sunday. Dallas Cowboys 4-2 (down 1) Dallas has one of the best defenses in the league, but week 1 was challenging as the Cowboys dropped the game to Tampa and lost Dak Prescott to injury. But since then, the Cowboys have rallied to beat the Bengals, Giants, Commanders and Rams — they are definitely a team to look out for in the NFC. San Francisco 49ers 3-3 (down 7) San Francisco has one of the most talented rosters in the sport, and rode their best players to an NFC Championship appearance. The 49ers made the change to Trey Lance, but with Kyle Shannahan and the defensive superstars the 49ers have, they are easily one of the NFC’s best teams on paper — and with Trey Lance injured Jimmy G is back under center, so we know what they are, and that is a good team, as shown on Monday night when they handled the Rams and this week when they thumped Carolina. But, the 49ers faltered on Sunday against the Falcons. Green Bay Packers 3-3 (down 5) For most of the last offseason, the Packers were one of the most questionable teams — and it all depended on reigning NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers. Well, he led the Packers to the No. 1 seed in the NFC before getting upset by the 49ers. Despite Devante Adams switching teams, Aaron Rodgers makes Green Bay solid team despite their week one loss, and showed why during weeks 2, 3, and 4 — dominating the Bears in primetime and beating both the Buccaneers and Patriots narrowly. However, losing to the Giants in London and following that up with a loss to the Jets does not help the cause. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 3-3 (down 5) So we know the Bucs have a wildly talented offense and a defense with young stars — plus Tom Brady, so this team really does not have any flaws — and that was on display Sunday night in Dallas. This week against New Orleans Tom Brady had some struggles, but the defense came through at the end to make Tampa Bay 2-0. Weeks three and four were a step back, losing to Green Bay and Kansas City. Tom Brady has not lost three weeks in a row since 2002, that streak continued when the Bucs beat the Falcons in week 5. However, there is plenty of drama surrounding Brady, and some think that led to the Bucs dropping one to the Steelers on Sunday. Miami Dolphins 3-3 (down 2) The question surrounding the Miami Dolphins is how good can Tua be, because the offense that features Tyreek Hill, Jalen Waddle, Chase Edmonds, and Raheem Mostert is loaded with speed. If Tua can tie it all together, Miami looks scary, and his six touchdown passes on Sunday in an epic comeback against Baltimore certainly looks like it and hanging on over the Super Bowl favorite Buffalo Bills makes the Dolphins a top-14 team — despite their losses to Cincinnati, New York, Minnesota and Tua’s scary head injury. Los Angeles Rams 3-3 (down 2) The LA Rams came into this season as defending champions. Throughout the season, they became improved even more with various acquisitions and have a Super Bowl trophy as a reward for it. They are the champions, so although a choppy week one performance did not prove much we are not giving up on the Rams. The Rams got back on track over the Atlanta Falcons and beat Arizona, but a big loss to the 49ers in primetime and to the Dallas Cowboys without Dak Prescott drops the Rams out of our top 10 and beating up on Carolina won’t help them too much. Indianapolis Colts 3-2-1 (up 5) The Colts have had a topsy-turvy season so far. A week one tie and a blowout loss to the Jaguars made you think the Matt Ryan experiment was going to by ugly in Indy. But somehow, Jonathan Taylor got hurt and the Colts have grinded out wins over Kansas City, Denver, and Jacksonville. Arizona Cardinals 2-4 (down 2) Denver Broncos 2-4 (down 2) Jacksonville Jaguars 2-4 (down 2) New Orleans Saints 2-4 (down 2) Las Vegas Raiders 1-4 (down 1) Tennessee Titans 3-2 (down 1) Pittsburgh Steelers 2-4 (up 1) New England Patriots 3-3 (up 3) Atlanta Falcons 3-3 (up 3) Seattle Seahawks 3-3 (up 3) Chicago Bears 2-4 (down 5) The Bears go into the season with a new coach, a new general manager, a new staff, and a quarterback who many expect to take the next step. Now it’s just time for the Bears to upgrade the offensive line and build around Justin Fields, and finally show some promise on the field. Which they did in their week 1 win over the 49ers. Since then the offense has been very choppy, with Fields under heavy pressure — that needs to change. The Bears looked better offensively in week 5 against Minnesota, but have to build on that department — and going inside the five-yard line three times against the commanders and not scoring does not help. Detroit Lions 1-4 (down 3) Cleveland Browns 2-4 (down 3) Washington Commanders 2-4 (up 1) Houston Texans 1–3-1 (up 1) Carolina Panthers 1-5 (down 2) Stay tuned as we update these rankings every week.
