Testaverde Touchdown: NFL Power Poll, Week 17

This is the final power poll for the NFL's regular season. It merely looks at where each team is after week 17. A playoff power poll will be coming later which will focus on one thing only, ability to win the Super Bowl.

In the quarterly ranks column,

The first number is where the team was ranked in the preseason power poll.
The second number is where the team ranked in the week 4 power poll.
The third number is where the team ranked in the week 8 power poll.
The fourth number is where the team ranked in the week 13 power poll.

Rank (Last)	Team	Record	Quarterly Ranks	Notes
1 (1)		12-4	3rd 6th 7th 2nd	Yes, Denver has home field and "won" the AFC regular season, but New England's two blemishes during Denver's 11-game winning streak? A one-point loss on the road to the Seahawks and the wacky game at home against the 49ers. In other words, against better teams than anyone Denver faced during their streak.
2 (3)		13-3	5th 11th 8th 4th	If you believe in momentum, no one is entering the playoffs with more of it than the Broncos. If you don't believe in momentum, only one other team is in as prime position entering these playoffs as the Broncos (the Falcons).
3 (2)		11-5	1st 10th 6th 6th	That Vikings game was Green Bay's chance to a) get a first round bye, but also b) their chance to announce their claim to the mantle of "most dangerous team in the NFC". They're still a force to be reckoned with, but instead of their being a top dog and challengers, there are about 4 top dogs ready to fight it out.
4 (4)		11-5	9th 15th 10th 8th	The Rams did what the Rams do this season (make life miserable for their NFC West pals), but getting a shot to their system was probably good for the Seahawks going into the playoffs. The playoffs aren't ususally conducive to fiftyburgers…or even fortyburgers, so getting some serious adversity and overcoming it will prepare them better than another blowout would have.
5 (5)		11-4-1	6th 4th 4th 3rd	San Francisco's ability to strike fear into their playoff opponents will rely mostly on Justin Smith's health. If he can come back close to 100%, they look like the favorites. If he can't, their season probably tops out short of New Orleans.
6 (6)		13-3	8th 2nd 1st 5th	For all the flack Denver gets for its strength of schedule during its 11-game winning streak, Atlanta's season-long strength of schedule was worse than Denver's and they beat the same amount of playoff teams (2). The difference between the two teams? Denver lost to the 3 best teams it faced (ATL, HOU, NE) and Atlanta lost to 3 7-9 teams in its own division.
7 (8)		10-6	26th 19th 18th 12th	The story on the surface is how RG3 led this team to the playoffs. The story beneath the surface is how the defense has improved to the point where they can get stops when needed. The story a mile down from the surface is that Washington has played some pretty mediocre offenses during their defense's rebirth.
8 (9)		10-6	30th 13th 12th 16th	Right now the Vikings run to a playoff berth doesn't make a whole lot of sense. 60 years later when we learn that Adrian Peterson was the beta test for a real-life Wolverine program, it will make much more sense.
9 (7)		12-4	2nd 1st 2nd 1st	The anti-Denver. If you believe in momentum, you hate the Texans right now. If you're not a fantasy football player, you're worried about Arian Foster. His 17 touchdowns were nice, but he only cracked 4.0 yards per carry in 7/16 games, and had more than 20 receiving yards in just 3 games this season. Houston was built up as a contender because of their balance, but looking closer, they may be more reliant on Matt Schaub than we thought. And it's not like Schaub has inspired much confidence lately.
10 (11)		11-5	27th 26th 14th 10th	Indy faced the 3rd-easiest schedule this season, behind only Atlanta and Cincinnati. Yes, they have Andrew Luck and yes, they engineered a 9-game win improvement, but there are no Jacksonvilles or Tennessees in the postseason.
11 (10)		10-6	11th 3rd 9th 14th	At one point they were 9-2. And they get Ray Lewis back after finding out this is his last season. For a team that's so dependent on emotion, that will be worth a little bump. But what happens when the emotion wears off, and there's still 2 games left just to reach the Super Bowl?
12 (12)		10-6	14th 14th 25th 15th	It's hard to get a read on the Bengals. Their defense has become great against the pass, thanks to their pressure, but their offense hasn't been very good down the stretch. Since it's basically "throw it up to AJ Green", it doesn't seem like a model for sustained success.
13 (13)		10-6	4th 7th 5th 9th	Black Monday strikes. GM Phil Emery took the unusual step of explaining why the Bears didn't do more to address the offensive line last offseason. It's a very interesting read. That being said, if the Bears want to get back to the playoffs, they will do more to address the offensive line this offseason.
14 (15)		9-7	12th 9th 3rd 7th	When you run as hot and cold as the Giants do, you have to take the good (2 Super Bowls) with the bad (missing the playoffs in 2010, 2012). If you take steps to control the valleys, sometimes you end up sacrificing the peaks as well. Sure the Giants could spend more resources on their back 7, but then would their front four have been good enough to storm through the playoffs twice?
15 (17)		7-8-1	29th 17th 17th 19th	Given what Jeff Fisher did with the pu-pu platter of a roster he inherited, his coach compatriots in the NFC West (against whom he went 4-1-1 this season - that includes two playoff teams) can't be resting easy.
16 (14)		8-8	18th 16th 19th 20th	While it must be bitterly disappointing to play in the final game of the season with win and you're in implications and lose two years in a row, it's kind of a mircale that the Cowboys reached that point in both seasons. This is a shallow team, and usually shallow teams get exposed because most everyone has to deal with injuries in an NFL season.
17 (20)		7-9	23rd 25th 30th 29th	Okay Cam Newton and (head coach) Ron Rivera, it's time to show us your best from the start of the season. Two years in a row you have started slow, then turned it on when the playoffs were kaput and the pressure was off.
18 (16)		7-9	17th 30th 23rd 17th	Mercifully the season ends for the Saints. The biggest winner in New Orleans? Sean Payton. His 13-3 team fell to 7-9 and out of the playoffs with him away, netting him a cool $8 Million plus a season from a franchise desperate to keep him.
19 (18)		8-8	15th 18th 11th 11th	This team needs some youthful talent infusion on the offensive line and all over the defense. Add in the presumed loss of Mike Wallace, and this flagship franchise all of a sudden has a lot of needs.
20 (19)		7-9	31st 22nd 13th 18th	Hard to look at this year as anything but a success for the Dolphins. In order to make year 2 of the Philbin/Tannehill a success too, they need to upgrade their receiver core substantially.
21 (22)		7-9	22nd 24th 21st 13th	While the gains made in year 1 are heartening for Bucs fans, the late-season inconsistency of Josh Freeman has to be alarming.
22 (23)		7-9	16th 12th 22nd 27th	Black Monday strikes. In reality the next guy in for Norv Turner has one mandate: figure out what the heck is wrong with Philip Rivers. I suspect the first part of that solution is to upgrade the offensive line.
23 (25)		6-10	21st 32nd 27th 24th	Surprisingly the head coach gets a reprieve. But in reality this makes sense. Jake Locker needs as little volatility as possible as Tennesee tries to figure out if he's the answer at quarterback or not. They have to give him at least another season, and changing his whole coaching staff would not help him put his best foot forward by the start of next season.
24 (24)		6-10	20th 20th 24th 25th	Black Monday strikes…just not for Rex, which is a good move for the Jets. Rex can still coach, and the Jets' problem wasn't not playing up to their talent level, it was that this was their talent level. The Tebow debacle stains everyone in the franchise, but most of this team's problems are roster contruction, and hitching their wagon to Mark Sanchez. Those fall on the GM.
25 (29)		6-10	13th 21st 26th 21st	Black Monday strikes. A fitting end to this miserable disappointment of a season for the Bills.
26 (21)		5-11	32nd 31st 28th 22nd	Black Monday strikes. There was some hope for the coach and GM when this team was 5-8, but the three straight losses to end the season, combined with the new owner bringing in a new team president doomed them both.
27 (26)		4-12	7th 8th 16th 26th	Black Monday strikes. It was time for Andy Reid to go, sometimes the message gets tuned out after enough time if it keeps coming from the same speaker. Reid would be wise to remember to use his running back in his next coaching stop.
28 (27)		5-11	24th 5th 20th 28th	Black Monday strikes. There's plenty of good on this Arizona roster, but when you mismanage the most important position on the team for 3 years running, you don't have a leg to stand on when arguing to keep your job. That Whisenhunt is an offensive coach makes his quarterback failures all the more head-scratching.
29 (28)		4-12	19th 23rd 15th 23rd	Perhaps the sting of this 4-12 season will convince the Lions to invest in something remotely resembling an NFL secondary. Or a running back. Maybe.
30 (30)		4-12	25th 29th 29th 31st	The Raiders need to take the long term view of this franchise because it will be a couple of more years until they restock the roster to the point that they can compete again.
31 (31)		2-14	28th 27th 32nd 30th	The GM search will involve one question: "Will you sign off on bringing in Tim Tebow so we can finally sell out our games? What? Come back! Why are you running away?"
32 (32)		2-14	10th 28th 31st 32nd	Black Monday strikes. This team had 5 pro bowlers on it. Does that mean the pro bowl is a laughingstock or that this team simply underachieved at an alarming rate? The answer, of course, is yes.