Sports Illustrated Week 1 Power Rankings

Just to those saying the Colts are too high, consider this real quick.

Their top 4 are all the teams who were in the Championship games last year, all deservedly so. The Patriots are number one more than likely because they did just win the Super Bowl, Seattle number two since they lost. Colts at three (which seems to be a pretty big complaint so far in the thread) is not unreasonable. The three things people said the Colts sucked at (Run Defense, Running the ball, and the Offensive Line) all have been shored up or overhauled.

Our D-Line is completely overhauled with rookies or young players who were outplaying their veteran teammates that made up the line last year. Although Trent Cole and Robert Mathis are definitely past their prime, they should still give us an edge. Throw in the newly added Sio Moore, Kendall Langford, and second year pass rusher (which led the team in sacks last year at 6.5) Jonathan Newsome and our pass rush (a pretty big issue on defense) looks better than last year considering we were starting virtual bust Bjorn Werner as one of our Pass Rushers on one side, and Newsome was a rookie on the other side.

Anyone in the world knows Trent Richardson sucks. He couldn't even make the Raiders roster this past offseason after getting cut by us. Boom Herron was idolized because he saved us for a brief moment from TRich, but clearly he did not impress our coaches this offseason as he was put behind Frank Gore (A legend who, while old, hasn't dropped off the cliff yet), rookie Josh Robinson, Vick Ballard who (when he isn't injured) has shown promise, and rookie Tyler Varga. So the top 2 RBs from last season after Bradshaw went down are both off the team because they can't compare to the 4 RBs we have on our depth chart now.

The one spot that doesn't show huge improvement from last year that we were weak at is the offensive line, but that was a wreck because we were constantly switching players in and out all over the place last year. The goal laid out so far is to keep the line as consistent as we can this year which should help improve the issue from last year.

So putting the Colts, who made it to he AFC Championship last year and have made it one step further every year since 2012 and are consistently 11-5 for the past 3 seasons, at 3 isn't too unreasonable.

TL;DR don't get mad at the Colts at 3, all of our weak spots seemed to have improved or been overhauled in hopes of change for the better. Plus they're just power rankings from what one group thinks, not playoff positions or anything so calm down.

/r/nfl Thread Link - si.com