NFL power rankings? In the offseason? Yeah, we know. All of these things are meaningless, whether the season is in full swing or not, but everyone writes them and reads them anyway—or at least here we are.
Shortly after the Super Bowl is when we’re likely to get the last of any offseason NFL power rankings for quite some time—at least until the bulk of free agency is finished and perhaps not until the NFL Draft is completed. That means it’s a good time to survey various sites to see how the Kansas City Chiefs are holding up.
While we realize power rankings mean nothing in and of themselves, they do provide a glimpse at the way the Chiefs are viewed from various perspectives in relation to other teams. That part is always fascinating to know, as a fan base, how accurate our own sense of a team’s potential is related to that of someone outside of Chiefs Kingdom.
Of course, these lists are always meaningless, but it’s nice to see how outsiders are viewing the Chiefs among other teams.
The good news, if you want to put it that way, is that the Chiefs are pretty universally loved by voters in the latest round of offseason NFL power rankings.
Over at the NFL’s official site, Dan Hanzus has the Los Angeles Rams at No. 1 overall, which is the only rightful place for the team given their championship just three days ago. Whether or not you think Aaron Donald or Andrew Whitworth or Odell Beckham Jr. will be back for another year doesn’t matter. A Super Bowl-winning team deserves to be No. 1.
From there, however, Hanzus has the Chiefs at No. 2 overall and writes, “The meltdown of Patrick Mahomes and the offense in the AFC Championship Game will endure as an eternal headscratcher.” We could not agree more, but that doesn’t stop the team from coming in second knowing they have so much returning talent.
Bleacher Report’s panel of experts agrees with Hanzus with the Chiefs at No. 2 following the Rams. No one can make sense of the end of season result but all parties agree that “the future remains bright.”
ESPN takes things one step further and has the Chiefs at No. 1 overall heading into the offseason. It’s here that we see a true look ahead. The Rams are at No. 3 and the Cincinnati Bengals at No. 5, with both teams looking up at the Chiefs and Bills who played the real Super Bowl a few weeks ago.
However, not everyone is convinced that the Chiefs are all that headed into the offseason. Pete Prisco at CBS Sports gives ultimate respect to those who’ve truly earned it with a one-two punch of the Rams and Bengals up top followed by the Bills at No. 3. The Chiefs land in fourth place and Prisco writes, ‘The stink of the second-half loss to the Bengals in the AFC Championship Game will be hard to overcome.”