1st Official Power Rankings per SI

[ChronicKerr]

Peter King just put together his first official power rankings for this upcoming season. He is not so kind to the bears putting us 25th (8th worst) behind the Detroit Lions.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/w ... index.html

25. Chicago. The Mike Martz-Jay Cutler marriage could work, or it could explode. The defense will be solid, assuming Julius Peppers comes to play, but he can't solve everything on a unit that allowed 375 points last year.

Oh yea, he has Green bay as the #1 overall team

[Chewie]

Was just going to post this.

I'm closer to a pessimist than an optimist and even I think this is too low. I'm scratching my head at some of the teams he has ahead of us.

[WEFFPIM]

I wouldn't put them any higher than 20th, honestly.

[The_Magician]

I stink at this. In fact, my recommendation if you really want to find out what's going to happen in the NFL this year is to take a bye on this column. Last year, I really distinguished myself]. Picked the Bears to make the Super Bowl. Picked the Saints 24th in the league, which was a point of some contention all season, right up to the moment 30 minutes after the Saints won the Super Bowl and Sean Payton walked up to his podium to meet the press after the game, saw me, and said: "Not bad for number 24.'

Hard to this guy serious. He picked the Bears to win the super bowl last year, & had the Saints ranked 24th. Does he even watch football at all. Nobody in their right mind would have had the Bears picked for SB run last year. Playoffs....maybe. And the Saints were one of the top 7 favorites to win it all.

[Cliff Levingston]

I stink at this. In fact, my recommendation if you really want to find out what's going to happen in the NFL this year is to take a bye on this column. Last year, I really distinguished myself]. Picked the Bears to make the Super Bowl. Picked the Saints 24th in the league, which was a point of some contention all season, right up to the moment 30 minutes after the Saints won the Super Bowl and Sean Payton walked up to his podium to meet the press after the game, saw me, and said: "Not bad for number 24.'

Hard to this guy serious. He picked the Bears to win the super bowl last year, & had the Saints ranked 24th. Does he even watch football at all. Nobody in their right mind would have had the Bears picked for SB run last year. Playoffs....maybe. And the Saints were one of the top 7 favorites to win it all.

Meh. The Bears to win the superbowl was a stupid pick, but the Saints weren't anything too special coming into the year last year. The reason they won the big game was because their defense stepped up last year big time, not because their offense did anything out of the ordinary. Cliff Levingston wouldn't have had them 24th, but not expecting them to do much other than make the playoffs and maybe lose in the 1st round was a reasonable expectation. Just goes to show how much parody there is in the NFL.

No doubt that most everyone's current power rankings will be shot to sh*t by week 6, as usual. Cliff Levingston expects the Bears to be around the middle of the pack.

[The_Magician]

Meh. The Bears to win the superbowl was a stupid pick, but the Saints weren't anything too special coming into the year last year. The reason they won the big game was because their defense stepped up last year big time, not because their offense did anything out of the ordinary. Cliff Levingston wouldn't have had them 24th, but not expecting them to do much other than make the playoffs and maybe lose in the 1st round was a reasonable expectation. Just goes to show how much parody there is in the NFL.

No doubt that most everyone's current power rankings will be shot to sh*t by week 6, as usual. Cliff Levingston expects the Bears to be around the middle of the pack.

The Saints IMO going into last year were a top 10 team without question. Afterall, since the Goodell era started, it's a QB league now for the most part, & Brees is one of the best. I personally had faith in the secondary to FINALLY step up just as long as the front 7 stayed healthy, which made their job easier. Although I thought that Sharper was a bad idea(EXTREMELY OVERRATED), I was pretty high on Jenkins going into the draft so that even things out for me.

But I guess none of that matters now. As you said "No doubt that most everyone's current power rankings will be shot to sh*t by week 6, as usual". Parody reigns in the NFL for sure. And yeah I agree, I have the Bears finishing around 15-16 this season.

Here is roughly, without alot of thought, my top 10 right now in order:

Colts
Baltimore
Packers
Saints
Panthers
Vikings
New England
Dallas
Falcons
Jets

Bears between 14-17 - Just out of playoff contention untiI I see the following:
-Wright progress at safety like we expect.
-Bowman play to his potential & not get injured.
-Something done about the O-line.
-I see Tommie, Urlacher & Peanut return to form.
-Olsen utilized properly
-Peppers dominate like we expect - And should
-The NFC North get weaker! It is TOUGH right now, & only getting tougher.

[Icness]

That is why I don't do power rankings until after Week 4. I have some strong ideas about certain teams but it's way too early to slot teams with any sort of validity. It's hard enough for me to forecast season records when I do the team previews.

Having said that, I think the Bears are a lot closer to the bottom than the top. But like my favorite Chicago poster Cliff Levingston said, the opportunity is there for a very good season if the defense steps up like the Saints' did last year. Honestly the Chris Harris move probably earned the Bears the nod above the Lions for 3rd place in the NFC North. IMO he'll have much more of a positive impact than Peppers.

[SportsWorld]

The Bears are pretty much a toss-up going into next year. I could see them winning 10 or 11 games and making the playoffs and I can easily see them fizzling out and winning 6 or 7.