Unexpected Points

Unexpected Points

Week 3 NFL Power Rankings

A flip on top, despite both teams winning. Plus, the Lions recover a bit, and the Bengals tumble with the loss of Joe Burrow

Kevin Cole's avatar
Kevin Cole
Sep 16, 2025
∙ Paid

The Week 3 power rankings combine the initial, Week 1 power rankings I released and the evidence from two weeks of NFL football. The key in updating the rankings is knowing when to not overreact (Lions taking a shellacking in Green Bay) and when to be aggressively moving assumptions (maybe the Colts offense will be functional with a real NFL quarterback).

For more info you can find the archive of previous Power Rankings posts, including the Week 1 rankings that detail much of the methodology of coming up with .

In this post, I’m going to walk through how my team-strength model views every team offensively and defensively going into Week 3, plus comparisons of my numbers to those derived by looking out over the next two weeks on the betting markets.

TEAM OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE STRENGTH

*Downloadable power ratings/rankings available in the paid subscriber Google sheet.

User's avatar

Continue reading this post for free, courtesy of Kevin Cole.

Or purchase a paid subscription.
© 2026 Kevin · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture