FMIA: 2022 NFL Power Rankings Has Bills, Chargers, Rams Leading Pack; Pats, Cards, Steelers Stepping Back

Before you starting perusing my 2022 NFL power rankings (my annual rating of the teams 1 to 32, after free agency and trades and the draft), a bit of a warning. I’m not great at this.

Now that’s a great sales tool to get people to read this column. But I want to be honest as we get into this. I was pretty good in 2019, picking the Niners coming off a 6-10 season as my seventh team in the rankings; they won the NFC. I was pretty good in 2020, picking the Bucs fifth coming off a 7-9 season—after importing 43-year-old Tom Brady; Tampa Bay won the Super Bowl.

Last year, not so good. The highlights: I had the Rams sixth and Bengals 27th, and you know where they landed … I had Green Bay eighth and Tennessee 18th, and they ended up the two top seeds in the league … Browns fourth, Colts ninth, Cowboys 21st, Eagles 28th. First two out of the playoffs, last two very much in them. You get it. Sinatra’s A Very Good Year it was not. About the only good thing I did: I had six of the eight teams in the divisional playoff round in my top eight last May—Kansas City (one), Tampa Bay (two), Buffalo (three), San Francisco (five), Rams (six), Green Bay (eight).

So I am out to avenge my C-minus from last year. The whole idea is to try to pick three or five risers and a couple of fallers, with the understanding that virtually every year there are three or four teams that surprise people. I only have one stunner this year, but a few things should raise ire.

Two notes before starting: I’ll do longer bits on the top 10, then shorter ones thereafter, because I didn’t sign a contract to ever write a 20,000-word column, and certainly not in late May.

Also, I’ll use a longer part of the column next week to air your reactions to my rankings. Send your