NFL Power Rankings 2018 Week 3: New team at the top and bottom

Week 2 of the 2018 NFL season is complete, which means it is time to review the action from this past weekend and start looking forward to the upcoming weekend’s slate of games. It also means it is time to update our 2018 NFL Power Rankings for Week 3. This week’s power rankings have some oddities in it, with losing teams gaining positions and winning teams losing positions. This comes as the pre-season/Week 1 rankings starting to move into what we are actually seeing on the field.

This week’s rankings also see a new team move into the top spot, while a new teams slides into the 32nd position as well. How does it all shake out?

Changes at the top

The defending Super Bowl champions relinquish the top spot this week as the Philadelphia Eagles fall from number one to number five following a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We also see the Minnesota Vikings, who tied with the Green Bay Packers, fall one position and the New England Patriots move out of the top five, moving from three to six after a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

At the top now are the Los Angeles Rams, who dominated the Arizona Cardinals to move to 2-0 on the season and up three spots in the rankings. Just behind them, the Jacksonville Jaguars move from fifth up to the second position after beating the Patriots.

The top ten continues after the sixth-place Patriots with he New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs, who remain in the seventh- and eighth-positions this week. New Orleans beat the Cleveland Browns this week, while the Chiefs beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. It feels like the Chiefs should see a jump up the rankings with that win, but it also feels like the teams ahead of them all deserve to be there.

The Atlanta Falcons hold the ninth position, a one position move from last week’s tenth spot, after a win over the Carolina Panthers, while the Los Angeles Chargers are 12th. a two position climb, after a win over the Buffalo Bills.

Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins jump from 15th to 11th in the rankings, the biggest jump we have seen thus far in the rankings, but not the biggest move of the week. The Dolphins beat the New York Jets on Sunday, moving to 2-0 on the year and starting to make people re-look the South Florida franchise. A win over the Oakland Raiders in Week 3 could push the Dolphins into a top ten team in these rankings.

Biggest Gain of Week

The Cincinnati Bengals jump from 26th to 17th this week, a nine position move as the team climbs to 2-0 on the season. They are probably still a little low for an undefeated team, especially when there is actually a team with no wins (Pittsburgh Steelers at 0-1-1) ahead of them, but they were low in the Week 1 rankings so they are making leaps up the board and should be up where they belong next week if they win again.

Biggest Fall of Week

The Houston Texans match the Bengals’ climb with a nine-position fall for themselves, going from 14th to 23rd. They just nudge out the Baltimore Ravens, who move from 13th to 21st on an eight-position slide. Houston lost to the Tennessee Titans this past week and are now 0-2 on the year, the first of the seven teams to lose both of their first two games on the year.

The Cellar

The bottom of nour rankings includes five of the seven teams sitting at 0-2 on the year. The Texans and Seattle Seahawks are the only 0-2 teams not in the bottom five, with he Oakland Raiders 28th, the New York Giants 29th, the Detroit Lions 30th, the Buffalo Bills 31st, and the Arizona Cardinals 32nd. The Lions are the weird team that lost and moved up two position, climbing out of the last place position with a 30-27 loss to the San Francisco 49ers - a loss that made them look a little better than they did in their Week 1 loss. The Bills are still floating just above that position, while the Cardinals’ 34-0 loss to the Rams pushes them down two spots, meaning that game featured the top and bottom team in the rankings.

Florida

Random fun fact: There are seven 2-0 teams in the league. All three Florida teams are included in that group.

Undefeated teams

1 - Los Angeles Rams (2-0)
2 - Jacksonville Jaguars (2-0)
3 - Minnesota Vikings (1-0-1)
4 - Green Bay Packers (1-0-1)
8 - Kansas City Chiefs (2-0)
11 - Miami Dolphins (2-0)
13 - Denver Broncos (2-0)
14 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-0)
17 - Cincinnati Bengals (2-0)