The power of best-laid plans.
As the 2025 NFL season began, the braintrust here at SB Nation started sketching out a weekly content plan. One of the cornerstones each week would be this piece, Power Rankings, to publish each Tuesday morning.
Well, in the frenetic pace of content production after the first full Sunday of games, it slipped through the cracks. As it did after Week 2 as well.
However, in every cloud there is a silver lining. By waiting until after Week 3 to get our first in-season rankings out the door, we gave the season some time to simmer. That prevented us from wildly overreacting to just one slate of games.
It also gave us the opportunity to look back at our preseason rankings, and identify the biggest movers.
Here are SB Nation’s Power Rankings after Week 3, with a dive into the two biggest risers, and the two biggest fallers.
Ranking |
Team |
Preseason Ranking |
Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Philadelphia Eagles | 1 | N/A |
| 2 | Buffalo Bills | 2 | +1 |
| 3 | Detroit Lions | 5 | +2 |
| 4 | Los Angeles Chargers | 8 | +4 |
| 5 | Washington Commanders | 6 | +1 |
| 6 | Baltimore Ravens | 2 | -5 |
| 7 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 9 | +2 |
| 8 | Green Bay Packers | 8 | -1 |
| 9 | Los Angeles Rams | 11 | +2 |
| 10 | Seattle Seahawks | 20 | +10 |
| 11 | Indianapolis Colts | 27 | +16 |
| 12 | Kansas City Chiefs | 4 | -8 |
| 13 | San Francisco 49ers | 18 | +5 |
| 14 | Arizona Cardinals | 14 | -1 |
| 15 | Minnesota Vikings | 10 | -4 |
| 16 | Chicago Bears | 23 | +7 |
| 17 | Denver Broncos | 13 | -4 |
| 18 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 16 | -2 |
| 19 | New England Patriots | 26 | +7 |
| 20 | Carolina Panthers | 22 | +2 |
| 21 | Cincinnati Bengals | 19 | -2 |
| 22 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 24 | +2 |
| 23 | Atlanta Falcons | 17 | -6 |
| 24 | Dallas Cowboys | 21 | -3 |
| 25 | Cleveland Browns | 31 | +6 |
| 26 | Las Vegas Raiders | 15 | -11 |
| 27 | Houston Texans | 12 | -15 |
| 28 | New York Jets | 29 | -1 |
| 29 | New York Giants | 28 | -‘1 |
| 30 | Miami Dolphins | 26 | -4 |
| 31 | Tennessee Titans | 30 | -1 |
| 32 | New Orleans Saints | 32 | N/A |
Now, let’s take a look at the two biggest risers since training camp (the Seattle Seahawks and the Indianapolis Colts) and the two biggest fallers since then (the Las Vegas Raiders and the Houston Texans).
Slowly but surely, the Indianapolis Colts are making believers of us all. Their Week 1 win over the Miami Dolphins, while a blowout, appeared at the time to reflect more on the chaos in Miami than any improvement in Indianapolis.
But since then the Colts have knocked off the Denver Broncos, and the Tennessee Titans. And if you start looking down the road, they have a somewhat favorable schedule in the weeks leading up to their bye. Perhaps the two toughest games they face in the upcoming stretch involve trips to Los Angeles, first to take on the Rams this week and then a date with Justin Herbert in a few weeks.
Maybe this ends up being a mirage, but through three weeks, the Colts are turning us all into believers. — MS
Sam Darnold has been far from perfect, but damn if he hasn’t been good enough to lead the ‘Hawks so far this season. Time will tell whether or not the perceived upgrade at QB from Geno Smith to Darnold was worth the big contract they gave the former Top 5 pick in free agency — but right now the experiment is working.
Prior to the season there was a perception that Darnold would be a shadow of his Minnesota self in Seattle. He’s neither been as good as he was for the Vikings, nor has he been as bad as we thought. Splitting the middle puts him a heck of a lot closer to Baker Mayfield in the QB revitalization index, and that’s good enough to elevate Seattle from Top 10 pick, to a bubble playoff team. — JD
Sometimes, you just have to stand up and take ownership of a bad call.
This is one such moment for me.
Ahead of the season I went everywhere I could to tout the new-look Las Vegas Raiders. I wrote about culture shifts, the pairing of Geno Smith and Pete Carroll, the “business decisions” that Ashton Jeanty would force opposing defenders to make in the open field, and promoted the Raiders as a team taht could surprise in the AFC West.
That prediction got off to a solid start, as the Raiders came east and knocked off the New England Patriots on the road in Week 1. But perhaps that win told us more about how far the Patriots have to go to contend in the AFC than it did about where the Raiders are as a team. Because since then, Las Vegas has a pair of double-digit losses, 20-9 against the Los Angeles Chargers and 41-24 against Marcus Mariota and the Washington Commanders.
It would see the Raiders have far to go as well. — MS
Everything is just off in Houston. This was a team we assumed would make a run at the playoffs this season, and very likely dominate the AFC South. Now they’re 0-3, the odds of them making the postseason are shattered, and nothing about the Texans looks particularly good or compelling.
Stroud has been sacked eight times in three games, a product of Houston’s inability to give him adequate protection. The lack of time in the pocket is hurting his passes, and the team isn’t running the football particularly well either. Right now the team feels directionless, which is a huge problem when you have the raw talent that the Texans do on both sides of the ball.
This team might be losing close, but they’re still losing.
