Tom Brady is back with his third season of NFL power rankings, and before he gets into the top 10, he wanted to make a few things perfectly clear. This isn’t a projection, it’s not a popularity contest, and it’s definitely not about what a team might become in December. If you didn’t win in Week 1, you didn’t make the cut. If you’re leaning on your reputation from last season, that doesn’t matter either. The rankings are all about what you’ve done lately, and lately means this past weekend. And if you don’t like where your favorite team landed, Brady has a simple answer: take it up with the new FOX Sports digital show “Gronk & Jules,” because he’s not trying to hear the complaints. With that out of the way, he kicked things off at No. 10 with the Cincinnati Bengals. They picked up a strong win against a very talented Tampa Bay team, and Brady admitted he thought the Buccaneers were going to go into Cincinnati and pull off an upset. He even apologized to Ja’Marr Chase and every fantasy football owner who was sweating that game, but he told them they had nothing to worry about. The Bengals found a way to get it done. Just above them, at No. 9, are the Detroit Lions. Brady said if you turned that game off early, you’d probably be confused about why they weren’t ranked higher, but the ending was something you wouldn’t want to watch. He also used the Lions’ spot to talk about the bravery of teams going for two to win the game, like the Saints did, noting that the success rate is basically just around 45 or 50 percent. Sometimes you make the other team beat you, but when you’re on the road against a good team, he doesn’t mind rolling the dice and going for broke.
Moving into the middle of the rankings, Brady had some serious praise for the Jacksonville Jaguars at No. 8. They ran it up on Cleveland, and Brady reminded everyone that Jacksonville won 13 games last season. People forgot about that, apparently, but he didn’t. He shouted out Liam Coen, the offensive mind behind the operation, and said he was really impressed with what he saw. The message was simple: keep an eye on this team because they’re not going anywhere. Then came the Kansas City Chiefs at No. 7. Brady was fired up about Patrick Mahomes and what he saw on Monday night. He thought Mahomes was back to being Mahomes in a lot of ways, showing leadership, discipline, and tenacity, and not avoiding contact either. Mahomes missed some football and missed a lot of the offseason, but Brady said never sleep on No. 15. He also made it clear that you should never count the Chiefs out because when you have a great coach, a great quarterback, and an organization that holds itself to championship standards, you better watch out. Even at No. 7, Brady made it sound like the Chiefs are exactly the kind of team that could be at the top of this list before too long.
At No. 6, Brady gave love to the Philadelphia Eagles. He was on the call in Philly with KB, and he said the Eagles are knocking on the door of the top five. They knocked a little rust off, but they took care of business and started 1-0 in the division, which matters. Brady likes this team because they always play great defense, and once they get the run game going a little better, they’re going to be dangerous. He still sees Saquon Barkley back there making explosive plays, and he mentioned Tank Bigsby too, saying that formula is what set them up a few years ago when they made their Super Bowl run. It’s a team that knows how to start fast, and Brady expects them to be in the mix all year. Then at No. 5, the Buffalo Bills showed up. Brady said you can shuffle a lot of these teams in the top five, but when in doubt, his rankings are always the correct ones. The Bills picked up a huge win in Houston against a Texans team that had one of the best defenses in the league last year. There was a real argument to put Buffalo at the top of the list, but Brady pointed out they were a dropped interception away from being off the list entirely. We know Josh Allen and James Cook are going to move the ball all year long, but Bills fans are already waiting for January. Honestly, who can blame them? They’ve been through enough.
At No. 4, the Baltimore Ravens landed, and Brady was excited about what he saw from them. They have a new head coach in Jesse Minter, and Lamar Jackson absolutely dominated in Indianapolis. Baltimore brought Minter in to fix the defense, but Brady said he’ll be watching offensive coordinator Declan Doyle and what he does with all the weapons on that offense. It looked really good the other night, and while they’ll need some depth at receiver to step up for a few weeks, Brady told Baltimore fans they should be excited. Then came the No. 3 team, the San Francisco 49ers. Brady joked that we now have the definitive guide on how to travel to Australia, because people talked more about that than the actual game. But he gave credit to Kyle Shanahan and the Niners for tuning out all the noise and doing what they do, which is dominating a great Rams team Down Under. Brock Purdy got a quick word of advice from Brady too: keep throwing it to Mike Evans, because he’s really good at catching the football, especially near the end zone. It was a weird flex, but Brady knows receivers, so you kind of have to trust him on that one. The 49ers looked like a team that wasn’t distracted by the trip, the stage, or the opponent, and Brady clearly respects that.
At No. 2, Brady put the Chicago Bears, and he was all in on the Caleb Williams MVP watch. The Bears put 59 points on Carolina in Week 1, and Ben Johnson wants the highest-scoring offense ever. Brady joked that maybe they should play a little defense when they get back to Chicago, but then he quickly changed his mind and said screw it, just keep scoring 59 points. He’s an offensive guy, so either way works. The Bears made it look easy, rushing for 300 yards, with Caleb doing his thing and taking off when nobody was open. Brady saw a lot of that last year, and he knows we’re going to see it a lot this year. When that offense gets rolling, it’s hard to stop. But the No. 1 spot belonged to the defending champs, the Seattle Seahawks. Brady said he doesn’t care what anyone thinks: to be the champ, you’ve got to beat the champ. When you win the Super Bowl and then win the Super Bowl rematch in the first game back, you get the top spot, no matter who’s playing quarterback. The defense hasn’t skipped a beat, and Brady had another secret QB hack for Drew Lock, who was filling in with Sam Darnold out. Just throw it anywhere near Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s side of the field, because he’s going to come down with it. That’s the kind of confidence a defending champ should have.
Brady wrapped up his first power rankings of the season with a reminder that the list is going to change, maybe every single week, and that’s the point. These rankings are about what you did when it mattered, not what you think you can do later. Week 1 can be overthought and overreacted to, but the ten teams on this list earned the right to be here, even if some of them got a little lucky along the way. The Lions almost blew it, the Bills almost fell off the list entirely, and the Chiefs are sitting lower than they’re used to, but every single one of them walked away with a win. That’s the only thing that matters in Brady’s book. If you’re upset about your team being too low or not being on there at all, he doesn’t want to hear it, and he already told you where to send the complaints. “Gronk & Jules” will handle all the beef, and Brady will keep doing what he does best: watching football, dropping knowledge, and telling you exactly how it is. The season is just getting started, the rankings will keep shifting, and the GOAT will be right there every week to break it all down.
