The New England Patriots are staring at a preseason ranking that feels far too low for a team that was one win away from the Vince Lombardi trophy last season. After taking a major step forward and adding blue-chip help in the offseason, they still landed at No. 12 in NFL.com’s power rankings, and that number is turning heads.
The argument against New England keeps coming back to last year’s favorable schedule, as if that alone explains everything and ignores the presence of Mike Vrabel on the sideline and Drake Maye coming off an MVP-caliber season. Whatever the critics are seeing, it clearly hasn’t translated into much preseason respect.
What really jumps off the page is the group of teams placed ahead of them. The Los Angeles Rams are understandable at No. 1, but the Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks, Philadelphia Eagles, and Buffalo Bills all sit in the top five as well. Even if you buy the idea that each of those clubs belongs there, it gets harder to justify the Patriots being ranked behind the Baltimore Ravens, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cincinnati Bengals, Houston Texans, Chicago Bears, and Dallas Cowboys.
That’s where the list starts to feel shaky. The Bengals haven’t been to the playoffs since 2022.
The Cowboys are coming off a season in which their defense was historically bad. The Ravens, meanwhile, fired their head coach and still can’t seem to get out of their own way in the playoffs.
The Jaguars, Texans, and Bears are respectable teams after strong seasons, but even that doesn’t fully explain why New England is sitting where it is.
There’s also the longer-running resentment that comes with a team that once had the AFC in a chokehold. That, more than anything, feels like the backdrop here - a Patriots team that still looks talented and just played in the Super Bowl, yet keeps getting treated like a group that’s already peaked.
The hangover talk is easy to understand. Teams do regress after big seasons, and an easy schedule can inflate perceptions.
But putting the Patriots outside the top 10 after reaching the Super Bowl and improving their roster doesn’t land as a neutral take. It feels pointed.
If New England doesn’t come out blazing in the preseason, the chatter will only get louder. The talk will shift to distractions, and Vrabel will suddenly be the name people are willing to drag before the regular season even begins.
For now, the Patriots have every reason to keep the rankings close. If nothing else, they’ve got fresh bulletin-board material. And by the end of 2026, it’ll be worth checking whether everyone who’s counting them out now keeps that same energy when the season is over.
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Patriots Rookie Caleb Lomu Is Feeling The Pressure At Tackle
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Mike Vrabel Is Still Dealing With Offseason Fallout At Patriots Camp
Mike Vrabel is still having to answer for the offseason storm that followed him into Patriots camp, where the questions are no longer about the photo that set everything off but about how he has handled the fallout since. The public scandal involving Vrabel and ESPN's Dianna Russini, which both denied was romantic, has already led to Russini's resignation and left the New England coach managing a far more personal kind of scrutiny than the usual training camp chatter.
During a recent media session, Vrabel was pressed on the counseling he disclosed after the controversy and framed it as part of a broader effort to keep improving himself in both his personal and professional life. He also pointed to the Patriots' larger push around mental fitness, saying it is a priority for coaches, staff and players as the team works through camp with the attention still lingering around its head coach. [Read more 🡒]