The first week of the 2015 NFL season is officially a wrap. The San Francisco 49ers are off to a 1-0 start after a strong 20-3 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. The team was dead and buried by some in the national media, but that might not be the case quite yet. The team needs to build on a great Week 1 performance, but things are looking good out of the gate.
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One week into the NFL season is not exactly the best time to break down how the league shakes out, but that is not going to stop me from doing 2015 NFL power rankings! The NFL already has a lot of interesting storylines, and it will shape power rankings throughout the season.
I ranked the 49ers No. 16 in the preseason, and I decided to cut that ranking in half. That win over the Vikings was pretty big, but this is still a team about which we will be learning quite a bit in the coming weeks. This game against the Steelers is a huge marker. They are coming off a late Monday win, and have to travel east to Pittsburgh for a Sunday Bay Area AM game. If they can go into Heinz Field and pull off a win, that would be pretty impressive. They have the talent to do it, but it is not going to be easy.
The Seattle Seahawks are in last place in the NFC West, for one week at least. They lost a tough one on the road to the St. Louis Rams. With the Arizona Cardinals beating the New Orleans Saints, the Seahawks are behind the eight ball for one week. I expect them to be strong this season, but it is amusing nonetheless. The Seahawks ended up as my top-ranked 0-1 team. The offensive line is a problem, but if they can get Kam Chancellor back, the defense should improve to some degree.
The New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers both notched big wins, and they top my rankings. The Packers lost Jordy Nelson in the preseason, but Aaron Rodgers took advantage of the weapons he had. The Patriots get Tom Brady for the season (barring something on his federal appeal), and he and Rob Gronkowski had a lot of fun against the Pittsburgh Steelers. I had the Patriots atop my power rankings to start the year, and I don't expect them to drop too far this year.
On the bottom of things, I would say there could end up being some separation between much of the bottom five and everybody else. I don't think the Raiders will be nearly as bad as they were in Week 1, but they clearly still have some issues. They could not get consistent pressure on Andy Dalton, and Derek Carr struggled with accuracy. The Cleveland Browns are the one team I could see climbing out of that group, but they did not impress in Week 1 against the New York Jets.
On to my Week 2 NFL power rankings. Agree or disagree to your heart's content!
| Rank | Team |
| 1 | New England Patriots (1-0) |
| 2 | Green Bay Packers (1-0) |
| 3 | Buffalo Bills (1-0) |
| 4 | Arizona Cardinals (1-0) |
| 5 | Cincinnati Bengals (1-0) |
| 6 | Denver Broncos (1-0) |
| 7 | San Diego Chargers (1-0) |
| 8 | San Francisco 49ers (1-0) |
| 9 | Dallas Cowboys (1-0) |
| 10 | Kansas City Chiefs (1-0) |
| 11 | Atlanta Falcons (1-0) |
| 12 | St. Louis Rams (1-0) |
| 13 | Seattle Seahawks (0-1) |
| 14 | Indianapolis Colts (0-1) |
| 15 | Carolina Panthers (1-0) |
| 16 | Philadelphia Eagles (0-1) |
| 17 | Tennessee Titans (1-0) |
| 18 | Baltimore Ravens (0-1) |
| 19 | Detroit Lions (0-1) |
| 20 | Pittsburgh Steelers (0-1) |
| 21 | New York Giants (0-1) |
| 22 | Miami Dolphins (1-0) |
| 23 | Chicago Bears (0-1) |
| 24 | New York Jets (1-0) |
| 25 | Minnesota Vikings (0-1) |
| 26 | New Orleans Saints (0-1) |
| 27 | Houston Texans (0-1) |
| 28 | Washington (0-1) |
| 29 | Jacksonville Jaguars (0-1) |
| 30 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-1) |
| 31 | Oakland Raiders (0-1) |
| 32 | Cleveland Browns (0-1) |