You have to love this respect...

[maddydaddy]

Making preseason NFL power rankings

It's obviously a challenge to have to create NFL power rankings in the early days of training camps and preseason games, so we'll have to take these initial rankings with a grain of salt. Still, our "power ranking formula" is based on a number of excellent in-season indicators and we will settle for being close for now with the understanding that shortly we will be honing in on true NFL team ability rankings.

Current

Top

Power Ranking

Team:

The Colts!

NFL Power Rankings (as of 8/17/2005) Rank Team '04 DC PBP RZ Comment Bodog

Odds

1 Indianapolis 12-4 2 1 4 Colts have the offense, now just need to get past the Pats 6/1

2 New England 14-2 1 3 1 No Achilles heel evident, but three straight is ultra tough 6/1

3 Carolina 7-9 12 11 6 Panthers stymied last season but could be toast of the NFC in 2005 17/1

4 Denver 10-6 6 2 12 Better in the red zone will mean better period. 35/1

5 Cincinnati 8-8 15 16 14 Mark our words: the Bengals will be very good 33/1

6 N.Y. Jets 10-6 7 6 7 Ignore the daily Pennington injury 'concerns' 22/1

7 Philadelphia 13-3 4 5 2 Egads, can Terrell drive this brilliant machine to ruin? 6/1

8 Arizona 6-10 19 24 26 Can Dennis Green turn it around this quickly? We say Yes! 35/1

9 Baltimore 9-7 10 19 5 A popular team with the linemakers and power ranking moving up 15/1

10 Pittsburgh 15-1 5 4 20 Poor red zone ranking and suddenly shaky Ben equals bounce 15/1

11 San Diego 12-4 3 7 3 Hard to repeat a magical season but rankings say they're legit. 28/1

12 Tampa Bay 5-11 13 12 10 A respectable offense combined with a solid defense? 48/1

13 Minnesota 8-8 11 10 17 Culpepper remarkable but Tice not a coach we trust 15/1

14 Kansas City 7-9 9 8 15 Holmes back and the time is now for Vermeil 20/1

15 Detroit 6-10 24 20 18 Motor City's back with a Garcia-Mooch reunion and stellar WR's 35/1

16 New Orleans 8-8 23 29 16 Power rankings respect this infuriating team...a mistake? 50/1

17 Dallas 6-10 31 21 31 Awful last year and Parcells won't stand for a repeat 30/1

18 Buffalo 9-7 8 9 13 Count us as Losman skeptics until proven otherwise 35/1

19 Green Bay 10-6 14 13 21 The Pack will find the NFC North a different ballgame in 2005 35/1

20 Houston 7-9 22 18 11 Texans' ranking may move up soon 60/1

21 Seattle 9-7 17 14 9 Could be the last year for Holmgren in the rain 28/1

22 St. Louis 8-8 26 17 25 Some are excited about the Steven Jackson era, not us 40/1

23 Atlanta 11-5 20 23 23 Smoke and mirrors -- look at the rankings! 16/1

24 Miami 4-12 21 28 28 Dicey QB situation but dee and power running may work out ok 75/1

25 Jacksonville 9-7 16 22 8 Won the close ones last year...not always a good sign 25/1

26 Oakland 5-11 29 30 30 Not much positive in '04 but Moss and Jordan should spark big O 26/1

27 Tennessee 5-11 27 26 24 Decimated by injuries, better luck in store? 65/1

28 N.Y. Giants 6-10 8 9 13 Don't expect a Manning vs Manning Super Bowl anytime soon 60/1

29 Washington 6-10 18 15 19 Gibbs may get it done but that owner can be a downer! 38/1

30 Cleveland 4-12 28 27 29 Proabably another fine mess 130/1

31 Chicago 5-11 30 31 22 Ouch, Grossman injury hits hard 55/1

32 San Francisco 2-14 32 32 27 Choice: play Rattay or suffer with the rookie Smith 200/1

Legend:

DC - Drive Chart stats ranking in 2004 regular season

PBP - Play-by-Play ratings in '04

RZ - Red Zone stats in '04

Bodog Odds - odds to win the Super Bowl according to Bodog.com as of the NFL power rankings date

From the start of preseason on, we will update these NFL power rankings on a weekly basis

Love the respepct for our Bengals..

WHOdey