Week Two NFL Power Rating Updates

Tua sucks, Purdy's hurt, the Lions Window is CLOSED (let's overreact)

Author

Andy Molitor
September 09, 2025

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Monday, we went over the early openers and updated injuries from the weekend in a tidy 20 minutes.

Today, we touched on more news and injury updates, big moves in the market, and went over our power rating changes. Not 100% sure what Thursday and Friday look like, but we’ll get there. (still doing the big weekly preview on Wednesdays).

I’m sorry that I have Baltimore slightly higher than the Bills still. I think they are incredibly close, and I wish they played each other every week. Also, sorry to Giants fans; at least you have Dart-day to look forward to (eventually).

My Top Five

  1. Baltimore (6.70)

  2. Buffalo (6.52)

  3. Philly (6.15)

  4. Green Bay (4.61)

  5. Kansas City (3.90)

The Basement

  1. Cleveland (-3.85)

  2. Carolina (-3.91)

  3. Tenny (-4.33)

  4. New Orleans (-4.45)

  5. NY Giants (-5.01)

Week 2 NFL Power Ratings: Time to Overreact - Bleacher Nation

Updated Week Two Power Ratings! Which teams are moving up, which teams are dead already?

My Biggest Adjustments

Dallas 📈

The defense isn’t going to be great, but it was surprising (to the good) at times, and even with the massive grain of salt of Jalen Carter not being out there, I was more impressed than I thought I would be with the offensive game plan against a very tough opponent.

The Cowboys are still very borderline to be a wildcard team for me; I just started out a bit too low across the board for them. I really didn’t expect much out of the run game, and overall, the game plan (attacking the weak spot on the Eagle defense with CeeDee over and over) was effective.

Other upgrades: Pittsburgh, New Orleans, New York Jets, Las Vegas

  • The Steelers’ defense actually got a downgrade for me, but having more competent QB play than expected this early overcame that and moved them up a fair bit.

  • New Orleans is still a bottom-five team, but signs of life from the offense (just need to get better in the RZ) and a bit of a pass rush (five sacks) have them moving up among the cellar-dwellers.

  • The Jets are essentially in the same situation as the Steelers. I guess Tanner Engstrand can cook a little.

  • Despite betting on them (more of a Patriots fade), I had the Raiders’ number a touch too low and gave them some upgrades for Geno and the coverage unit.

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Miami 📉

I put myself through it and actually rewatched this game (the condensed NFL+ version) yesterday. Tua finished dead last this week in EPA/play against a bottom-10 defense from last year. The play calling was ugly, and the execution uglier. The game state getting out of hand didn’t help, but even during garbage time, the team looked listless.

Mike McDonald is now around a -200 favorite to be the first coach fired.

Other downgrades: San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago, Carolina

  • The 49ers are just injured, so this one isn’t just a big knock on them. If Purdy doesn’t play, I’m fine making my total downgrade for them around 4-5 points (factoring in the Kittle and Jennings injuries as well).

  • Detroit fans’ fears were realized when the Ben Johnsonless offense sputtered. It’s a good Packers defense, but overall, the scheme and execution sucked enough that I had to come down off my number a bit.

  • Chicago was looking like more of a possible upgrade after the first quarter, but failing to adjust to Flores’ adjustments has me downgrading the offense a bit and I likely wasn’t quite low enough on the coverage unit considering the injuries.

  • The Panthers were floating on last year’s priors a bit and looked rough against a defense that I have rated fairly low. Perhaps they need to bench Bryce every year?

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